FYI

[+Dave 2,322]

Man those would of been great Flyby. If any of you guys know anyone here though, that has stuff like that, let me know. I love doing these interviews.

[Bullethead 12]

That's a tough one to debate... with the advent of video conferencing, you could eliminate business travel all together. It really is not a neccessity anymore... unless you like to be personal.

 

But... in today's day and age, we should be going faster than MACH for pleasure travel. Think of the time saved... 2 hours to NYC over 7. Big difference You take off and arrive ealier than you left.

 

I think we've had this conversation before .

 

Don't get me wrong--I think the Concorde was a very cool machine and I'm sorry it's no longer flying. However, I can't escape the conclusion that if SSTs were commercially viable, the sky today would be full of them. After all, everybody would like to fly faster, so they wouldn't have to spend so much time wedged in an uncomfortable seat next to some fat, flatulent, and unignorable jerk. They might even be willing to pay a little more, but not significantly more, for such relief. But we don't have SSTs, so the numbers must not be there. IIRC, the only reason Concorde lasted as long as it did was because it was flying on tax money and thus largely immune from market realities.

 

I flew across the Pond several times while Concorde was operating, and each time I wanted to go on it. But when I checked the prices, I had to say NO THANK YOU! That would have blown my budget for the entire 2-week trip I had planned.

 

Think about this.... There are a number of places in the country where you can dogfight in real planes, or fly a P-51 or some other old, cool warbird. We all know it, we're all flight fanatics, we all want to do this. And all we have to do is pick up the phone and make reservations. But how many of us have actually done these things? Few if any, I bet. What's stopping you? I have a feeling it's the ungodly amount of money they want for just a few minutes of fun. Same with Concorde.

 

So, I don't think it's a lack of a desire for cool things or a willingness to sit in a rut. It's just that SSTs are hideously expensive to operate, which puts their tickets out of reach of everybody except those with more money than sense, even with government subsidies. If that ever changes, then SSTs will become common, but I don't see it happening until the UFO aliens give us their technology.

 

Richard Branson is the only pioneer left in aviation, but his ideas will simply never be mainstream as the average Joe can't afford them... and they are not particularly practical anyway.

 

Wouldn't you call Rutan a pioneer?

[OvS 8]

OVS

 

Do you have any pictures, of when you were there? I really want to put something together about your Concord experiences.

 

I have to look, but much of what I have is regarding the plane. I don't have anything with me working on it... sucks... I used to have one of me at the nose wheel, and also in the cockpit, but that was the days of film... I'll have to search through a few boxes.

 

OvS