Originally Posted by Jig Peter
. . . Concorde was an immense technical success . . .
Yes, an immense technical success. But not, I think, a commercial one.
Sales figures
Concorde: 0
747: 1400+
Hardly surprising if you look at weights. The per passenger cost of flying an airplane can be represented as the weight per seat at takeoff. This is indicative of fuel consumption regardless of speed because:
Energy required is (distance x drag)
Drag is (weight divided by L/D)
747 1500lb/seat
VC-10 2200lb/seat
Brabazon 2900lb/seat
Concorde 4000lb/seat
Which would you buy?