A countdown usually precedes a liftoff.
But these days, the most closely observed countdown in aviation is
leading to a grounding. On Oct. 24, after 27 years as the fastest
and highest-flying civilian aircraft, the Concorde Supersonic
Transport series will be retired.
And it's entirely possible that no commercial craft that can fly
as fast or as high will be available to the traveling public in our
lifetimes.
In theory, anyone could fly on the Concorde, but until recently,
only rich anyones did. Priced at $6,336 for a three-hour, 15-minute
flight -- that's $325 every 10 minutes -- it was not a product for
the common man.
It was a marvel of engineering and design, but ultimately a
financial failure, with transatlantic loads ranging in the 40% to
50% range prior to the retirement announcement.
In the end, the Concorde failed to break the price barrier. Air
France retired its fleet of Concordes May 31. Only five of the
aircraft still are flying, all operated by British Airways.
Even so, when the "last call" for tickets was sounded April 10,
the common man began digging deep into his pockets and increasingly
was seen aboard the sleek, supersonic 100-seater.
Two weeks ago, only a few hundred seats remained, and British
Airways put them on sale. They lasted only a few days. (Another way
of looking at the sale was that the return trip was discounted --
round-trip fares still ranged from $6,499 to $8,999, depending
which class of service on subsonic British Airways aircraft was
booked for the return.)
Who's aboard these last Concorde flights? On one late-September
eastbound crossing, I encountered a recently retired police
officer, a mechanical engineer, the winners of "Pop Idol" (the U.K.
version of TV's "American Idol") and a 4-year-old and his parents
on their way to a European vacation.
According to a 16-year Concorde flight attendant, the clientele
and the ambience have changed dramatically since the impending
retirement was announced. At 60,000 feet, the atmosphere used to be
both rarefied and reserved: Passengers -- mostly male, mostly
wearing suits, mostly reading newspapers -- seldom left their seats
or acknowledged their fellow passengers with more than a grunt and
a nod.
Today's passengers are all over the plane, taking photos next to
the machmeter (an electronic display of the plane's speed and
altitude) and jawing with fellow travelers about the experience of
moving at twice the speed of sound, 11-plus miles above the
earth.
In an era when air passengers' attitudes towards flying usually
range from annoyed to indifferent, it's a throwback to the time
when flying was a novelty, and passengers felt they were boarding a
plane as much for the experience as for transportation.
The esprit de corps aboard the plane led to some notable acts of
courtesy. Midway through the flight, I observed a window-seat
passenger offer to switch places with the man next to him for the
rest of the flight to give him an equal chance to see the curvature
of the earth and the cobalt-blue sky above.
And, predictably, there were attempts at not-so-courteous acts.
Sharp-eyed flight attendants made sure passengers didn't make off
with napkin rings, salt-and-pepper mills or safety-instruction
cards. However, they did compensate some passengers by handing out
coat-check tags with the Concorde logo printed on them.
"You wouldn't believe how much I've been offered for my Concorde
name tag," the flight attendant said. "None of us would ever sell
them, of course, even if there weren't security concerns. But I
understand anything with the word 'Concorde' on it is going for a
small fortune on eBay."
Commemorative in-flight magazines and memories of the gourmet
meals and machmeter displays may be what passengers linger over the
longest.
The fact of the matter is that, physically, the experience is
not profoundly different from that of most jetliners.
It achieves higher velocity at takeoff, but the feeling of that
thrust -- 220 knots, compared with 165 of a conventional jet --
isn't particularly noteworthy. For much of the first and last
quarters of the flight, the view of out the windows -- small
windows, at that -- aren't any different than what is seen on any
other jet flight.
There's no physical sensation or audible boom when the plane
achieves Mach 1 (the speed of sound), and no noticeable
acceleration on the way to Mach 2. Throughout much of the flight,
eyes are glued to the machmeter, watching the electronic
display.
Still, for many travelers, having ridden the Concorde is a
trophy travel experience, made all the more valuable because it
soon will be unavailable.
Two people I met described the flight as "a retirement present
to myself." The couple with the 4-year-old were taking the flight
because the boy's elder siblings already had experienced it, and
they didn't want him to feel left out.
In every conversation was the musing that retiring the Concorde
was like taking a giant step back in time. Up until its debut,
planes only seemed to go faster and higher, and it struck some
passengers as odd that the trend stopped only three-quarters of the
way through the first century of manned flight.
Dec. 17 will mark the 100th anniversary since the Wright
Brothers flew. When air and space historians look back over the
first 100 years, they may well conclude the Concorde was the
literal and figurative apex of commercial air service.
Flight Facts
• The Concorde carries its own weight in fuel (105 tons).
• The Concorde stretches 6 to 10 inches in flight due to the
heating of the airframe. The skin temperature reaches 260 degrees
Fahrenheit at Mach 2.
• BA's Concordes have carried 2.5 million passengers.
• Traveling westward, the Concorde lands at a local time earlier
than the local time where it took off.
• British Airways predecessor BOAC accepted its first supersonic
passenger reservation in 1960; service was inaugurated in 1976 (to
Bahrain).
• If, at Mach 2, you putted a golf ball from the back of the cabin
to the front, it would be a very long putt indeed -- the plane
would have traveled five miles as the ball rolled.