Friday, October 24, 2003
Flypassed
The future of flight arrived in 1969. In July the Americans landed an Apollo rocket on the Moon, and in early Spring the French and English launched a Concorde into the sky. It wasn't until the following year that Concorde finally broke the sound barrier, and another six until it entered commercial service, but the technology was sixties through and through. Over the past three decades nothing has come close to Concorde for speed and glamour, and it still looks like the world's only 21st century passenger plane. But the era of supersonic travel draws to an end today with Concorde's very last commercial flight. Too expensive, too exclusive and, since that crash in 2000, too risky. Concorde, like Apollo, has no successors. At this rate, never again will man (or woman) stand on the Moon, and never again will transatlantic passengers be able to arrive in New York before they leave London. When Concorde lands for the very last time at Heathrow this afternoon, nearly one hundred years after the Wright Brothers' first flight, the future will be over. Anybody out there got any new dreams?
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