Concorde: Final touchdown

News24 ^ | 30 May 2003

[RightOnTheLeftCoast]

I haven't heard a Concorde's boom, but we heard booms aplenty back when I was growing up in coastal Southern California in the Sixties.

The boom is startling, and it rattles windows and stresses birds, but it's basically harmless.

[IFly4Him]

Just heard Christopher Hitchens mention that EVIAN is NAIVE spelled backwards... HAHAHA.....

[Hank Rearden]

I hope you enjoy your visit to the lovely Commonwealth of Virginia when you come out to see it!

Any place that calls itself a "Commonwealth" just creeps me out. All the wealth's in common, huh? Sounds like some kind of Communist revivalism.

Thank God that sort of nonsense is confined to the Government Coast.

[ellhow]

Yep, I saw Richard Branson on TV talking about this -- he semed pretty determined to own the concorde. That would be the jewel in his crown. I think the Concorde might have a rebirth with Virgin Atlantic.

[capitan_refugio]

As I recall, it went "up" in flames first, then came down!

[ContentiousObjector]

I wish them luck, the end of the Concorde would be hard for the British because the end of the Concorde really represents the end of British civil aviation.

All their civil aerospace projects following the concorde have been at best a disaster, and their last one was canceled earlier this year.

A British fleet made up entirely of American and French airplanes will be hard to swallow in alot of corners.

For the French it is a different situation, since Concorde their aerospace industry has been flourishing and in recent years kicking Boeings ass, so while no doubt many French will be sad to see it go it doesn't have the same trauma for them that it does for the British, they have the airbus A380 and potentially absolute dominance to look forward to. The British only have once great planes in museums to look back on

[Truth29]

Why is BA resisting Branson's proposal? Is it a case that if BA can't succeed, Virgin Atlantic can't be allowed to try?

[Archangelsk]

It has nothing to do with eco-hysteria, it has everything to do with NIMBY-nonsense. Noise abatement regulations - caused when buffoons build their tract housing next to airports - have severely limited the correct use of airports and runways.

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

caused when buffoons build their tract housing next to airports

Hmmm... My father grew up in Howard Beach in the 1920's. I guess my grandfather should have known better than to live right next to where they were going try and land French Supersonic Jets fifty years later.

[Forgiven_Sinner]

Yes, I recall sonic booms growing up in the '60's next to Cleveland Hopkins Airport.

I also recall the design contest for an SST, between US, English/French, and USSR designs. The US design seated 300 and went the fastest of the three. When they were forbidden to fly over the US, it was abandoned. Kind of makes you want to remove that restriction and build it. Would you pay twice as much to halve your time from NY to LA?

My preference is still the HST, the sub-orbital transport. Any where in the world in 1 hour.

[Forgiven_Sinner]

Yes, I recall sonic booms growing up in the '60's next to Cleveland Hopkins Airport.

I also recall the design contest for an SST, between US, English/French, and USSR designs. The US design seated 300 and went the fastest of the three. When they were forbidden to fly over the US, it was abandoned. Kind of makes you want to remove that restriction and build it. Would you pay twice as much to halve your time from NY to LA?

My preference is still the HST, the sub-orbital transport. Any where in the world in 1 hour.

[Khurkris]

I had 2 flights on the Concorde (someone else paid the bill) back in the late 70's. They were/are loud, fast and expensive. Technology could replace them now, but airlines see a bigger profit in medium length haulers. Easier to maintain, cheaper and more passengers. If ya want to see a futuristic a/c designer, check out Ol' Bert Rutan @ Scaled Composites.

[SuziQ]

I have never heard the sonic boom of an SST

I never heaard the sonic boom either, but I once saw a Concorde on approach for landing in NY. I was sitting in the parking lot, waiting for SSQ to get out of work in Long Branch NJ, when I saw it fly over in the distance along the Jersey Shore headed north toward NYC. I had one of those huh? moments because I had never seen one in real life and I wasn't used to that outline in the sky. It was so cool to see it fly!

[ContentiousObjector]

I think it is more a matter of the fact that it would be pretty embarrasing if Sir.Crazy was able to make Concorde sucessful after they failed some miserably

[Brian Allen]

The way-back-when anti-Concorde junk was Boeing-manipulated sour grapes and malicious envy.

Pure politics!

But its sonic boom -- like that of any other airplane -- is real. Once heard an Air France Concorde as [En-route Sydney-Port Headland] he went supersonic on a charter flight across Australia. He got our attention.

[ArrogantBustard]

Many of the east coast states, the original 13 colonies, use the term "commonwealth", and have done so since the beginning. If folks like Thomas Jefferson, George Washington, Richard Henry Lee, et al. creep you out that's your problem. And your definition is faulty:

Get the Top 10 Most Popular Sites for "commonwealth"

5 entries found for commonwealth.

com·mon·wealth    ( P )  Pronunciation Key  (kmn-wlth)
n.

1. The people of a nation or state; the body politic.
2. A nation or state governed by the people; a republic.
3. Commonwealth
   1. Used to refer to some U.S. states, namely, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and Virginia.
   2. Used to refer to a self-governing, autonomous political unit voluntarily associated with the United States, namely, Puerto Rico and the Northern Mariana Islands.
4. often Commonwealth The Commonwealth of Nations.
5. The English state and government from the death of Charles I in 1649 to the restoration of the monarchy in 1660, including the Protectorate of 1653 to 1659.
6. Archaic. The public good; commonweal.

Source: The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
[Buy it]

commonwealth

( P )  commonwealth: log in for this definition of commonwealth and other entries in Merriam-Webster Dictionary of Law, available only to Dictionary.com Premium members.

Source: Merriam-Webster Dictionary of Law, © 1996 Merriam-Webster, Inc.

commonwealth

\Com"mon*wealth`\ (?; 277), n. [Common + wealth well-being.] 1. A state; a body politic consisting of a certain number of men, united, by compact or tacit agreement, under one form of government and system of laws.

The trappings of a monarchy would set up an ordinary commonwealth. --Milton.

Note: This term is applied to governments which are considered as free or popular, but rarely, or improperly, to an absolute government. The word signifies, strictly, the common well-being or happiness; and hence, a form of government in which the general welfare is regarded rather than the welfare of any class.

2. The whole body of people in a state; the public.

3. (Eng. Hist.) Specifically, the form of government established on the death of Charles I., in 1649, which existed under Oliver Cromwell and his son Richard, ending with the abdication of the latter in 1659.

Syn: State; realm; republic.

Source: Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, © 1996, 1998 MICRA, Inc.

commonwealth

n 1: the official name of some states in the United States (Massachusetts and Pennsylvania and Virginia and Kentucky) and associated territories (Puerto Rico) 2: a politically organized body of people under a single government; "the state has elected a new president" [syn: state, nation, country, land, res publica, body politic] 3: a political system governed by the people or their representatives [syn: democracy, republic] [ant: autocracy]

Source: WordNet ® 1.6, © 1997 Princeton University

commonwealth, VA (CDP, FIPS 18792)
  Location: 38.07462 N, 78.48746 W
  Population (1990): 5538 (2584 housing units)
  Area: 3.1 sq km (land), 0.0 sq km (water)

Source: U.S. Gazetteer, U.S. Census Bureau

[Hank Rearden]

I'm very aware of all that - it still creeps me out. Wealth is not "common".

[xp38]

From what I understand the concorde flights out of New York would go supersonic somewhere south of Nova Scotia and people living there on the southern coast could hear the booms when it did so.