Concorde: a Reality for the Future

Commercial aviation has its decision criteria changed since the Concorde was retired from service. Fuel economies, aerospace designing, avionics technologies and mean air travel distances have advanced far ahead than expected. With airlines being the most stable and established business, massive and large scale investments are not much of a problem, allowing the feasibility of larger and bigger projects and developments. Furthermore, major airline operators sprouting from each and every region of the globe have been earning massive profits, ready to procure the latest advancements whenever available. In the light of all these factors, whatever safety and structural concerns any critics of Concorde have can be dealt with effectively.

The supersonic factor is one of the strongest strengths the Concorde may have over the rest of the existing airliner fleet. Travelling between the largest intercontinental hubs in less than half the average flight duration would what is really valued by business segment of passengers. Multinational corporate executives, foreign government officials and overseas businessmen have to regularly rely on such routes and would encourage saving their time. High-speed flights would also accommodate greater flight frequencies between the same major airports, making amends with the capacity issue being faced by every airport of London for the time being.

Safety factors had already been made in line with the extraordinary specifications of the Concorde. The aircraft would fly at a far greater height than the rest of commercial flights. In fact, it would fly at such a height that passengers could observe the curvature over the horizons of sight. With mostly long-distance flights, these aircraft would actually pace in with the movement of time zones over the earth; a speed of mach 2 would just suffice to move in pace of the sun if traveling in the exact direction.

Apart from the last tragic incident which ultimately led to the Concorde project being phased out, the supersonic jet had a completely clean record. Investigations have also pointed out that one of the causes of the incident was debris from another aircraft within the vicinity. With an intercontinental outreach over North America, Europe and the Far East, the aircraft had been shouldering a lot for both Air France and British Airways.

Its unmistakable design, specially its drop nose concept and planar air intakes, will remain a signature in the aviation industry. The aircraft manufacturers still exist today as a subsidiary to Airbus, who built it as a collaborative effort between UK and France. Today, with the involvement of entire European aviation industry behind their back, its completely possible to come up with an improved version of series compatible with the modern demand of commercial aviation.