705. Concorde

Paper

Abstract

In presenting this paper on the Concorde – an aircraft which is such an advance on existing subsonic civil aircraft and which is also in an advanced state of construction – certain difficulties are encountered. The major one being that many articles have already produced on the aircraft and the problems is to judge what to include again.
The purpose of the is paper is to provide an overall picture of the project and it will include such things as the control exercised by the British and French Governments, where the airplanes fit into the picture, how and where the aircraft is being designed and manufactured, etc.
This is not the place to make controversial statements about the need to have supersonic, as opposed to very special ‘cheap fare’, aircraft. What can be said is that whenever a faster and more convenient from of transport becomes available it is always used. Throughout history there has always been, and always will be, the urge to reduce time spent on journeys. Figure 1 shows that there is relationship between growth of population and the length of a day’s journey. Very little progress was made prior to the early 19th century when a day’s travel covered anything up to 50 miles. Then a sharp increase in population was accompanied by a big jump in the journey length and in 50 years it increased to about 500 miles in a day. At t0-day’s rate of progress one hesitates to predict what will happen in 50 years from now.