Why didn’t it succeed?

Concorde flights came to a screeching halt after only 27 years of operation on October 24, 2003. The reason? Excessive cost, high fares, and loud noise. On a regular flight, Concordes consumed 6,771 gallons of fuel, which quickly exceeded the profit made from the flight. In addition to that, only a total of 20 Concordes were built and no airline ordered them except for Air France and British Airways, who had to as they were state-run airlines at the time.

Oh, and a 2000 crash that killed everyone on board (109 people) and four people on the ground.

  • Whats_your_reasoning@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    10
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    4 days ago

    the entire fleet was mothballed

    For anyone who was as confused as I was -

    To mothball: to stop using a piece of equipment but keep it in good condition so that it can easily be used again

    I’ve spent over 35 years speaking (and studying) this bizarre language we call English. Yet until seeing your comment, I had no idea “mothball” could be a verb. TIL!

    • 667@lemmy.radio
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      10
      ·
      edit-2
      4 days ago

      Wait until you hear about pickling. A number of military aircraft at the “boneyard” At Davis-Monthan AFB are still suitable for service; their engines having been removed and pickled within a special crate beside the aircraft.

      Marine desalination systems are pickled between extended periods of non-use.

      And there’s also the traditional use for pickled.

      • Buddahriffic@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        4
        ·
        4 days ago

        At first I read “engineers” instead of “engines” and wondered if there was revival process or if they just didn’t want the engineers working on anything else.

    • JackbyDev@programming.dev
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      2
      ·
      4 days ago

      Honestly I haven’t seen it often. I think the first time I saw it was actually in a Crusader Kings 2 or Europa Universalis 4 tutorial video because it was an option you could do to your forts or something to reduce upkeep.