Supersonic Passenger Aircraft (1997-2003)
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| Audience/Grade: | College Freshman - Continuing Education |
| Discipline(s): |
Aerospace Engineering Engineering Mechanics Mechanical Engineering |
| Special Topic(s): |
History of Technology |
| Learning Resource Type: | Teaching - Case Study |
| Media Type: | WWW |
| Author(s): | Design Museum, British Council |
| Description: | "One of the best-loved engineering design projects of the 20th century, CONCORDE (1976-2003) is a rare example of successful international collaboration. Its Anglo-French designers produced the world’s first supersonic commercial passenger aircraft which at its fastest flew from New York to London in less than three hours." Alas, it was less successful commercially. "After an overhaul British Airways resumed flights on 11 September 2001. On the same day, the World Trade Center in New York was destroyed by terrorists. International travel declined steeply and the relaunched Concorde struggled financially. Another problem was that, as no supersonic competitors had emerged, there had been no pressure to upgrade Concorde or to invest in new suppliers and sub-contractors. As a result, maintenance costs had risen steadily and keeping Concorde in flight was increasingly expensive. On 10 April 2003, British Airways and Air France announced that they were withdrawing Concorde from service by the end of the year. On 24 October 2003 Concorde completed its final supersonic flight as the world’s fastest passenger aircraft." |
| Rating: |
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| Related Resources | |
| Keywords: | Concorde plane, Concorde aircraft, supersonic flight |
| Usage Tip | |
| Use of Resource: | Case study in fluids, aerospace engineering and engineering management. |
| Difficulty: | Easy |
| Interactivity Level: | Low |
| Version Info | |
| Publication Date: | October 2007 |
| Platform/Format: | WWW |
| Cost: | Free |
| Download URL: | http://www.designmuseum.org/design/concorde |
| Metadata: | IEEE LOM Record |
| Collection: |
NEEDS
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