The final three commercial Concorde flights this Friday (24 October) are scheduled to land one after another in London. Three, two, one 鈥� a countdown to the end of faster-than-sound travel for fare-paying passengers.
Though more than a quarter of a century has passed since Concorde鈥檚 debut in 1976, there is no replacement supersonic plane waiting in the wings. 鈥淲e had shrunk the world by half with Concorde,鈥� says Bill Gunston, editor of Jane鈥檚 Aero Engines. 鈥淣ow it鈥檚 gone back to being full-size.鈥�
And unless supersonic flight can be made quieter, it is unlikely to make a comeback, Gunston says. Tests on a modified fighter jet by US aerospace company Northrop Grumman have shown that it is possible to dramatically reduce the sonic boom (New 女生小视频, 27 September, p 7). But that is unlikely to be enough 鈥� even at subsonic speeds, Concorde鈥檚 loud engine rumble was enough to annoy people living beneath its flight path.
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