I love technology, especially when it’s applied to aircraft. I spent a few years working at the Airbus factory in Filton, Bristol and I think this was the seed for my ongoing fascination. Filton was the home of Concorde, the worlds first (and only successful) supersonic passenger aircraft. It was also sadly the last entire aircraft to be built and assembled at the Filton factory.
Working in the computer industry I suppose I’m acclimatised to technology always moving forward, often at a bewildering rate. For a processor to remain current for more than a few months would be a preposterous thought. One would think that all that computer technology would lead to better and better aircraft design but it simply doesn’t work that way. Despite being the most beautiful aircraft ever built and something the British public took great pride in, Concorde was condemned to the scrap heap. At 2pm on the 26th November 2003 it touched down for the last time, ironically on the very runway it first took off from at the hands of Brian Trubshaw in April 1969.
Concorde wasn’t even allowed a dignified ending. Museums around the country all wanted to get their hands on one and some of the final press pictures were of the beautiful fuselage strapped on a barge with the wings clipped to make it fit. It was a cruel end for a wonderful example of engineering. The reason? Concorde wasn’t economical. Yes that’s correct, British Airways scrapped their own flagship because is didn’t earn them enough money. Bollocks to the public and what they think, bollocks to our sense of achievement and national pride, it’s all about money.
Taking a look at the other side of the pond, the Americans have produced without question the most technologically advanced aircraft of all time. The series of X-Planes first broke the sound barrier and then went on to achieve the highest speed ever recorded by an aircraft. The Lockheed Blackbird series of aircraft (A-12 and SR-71) flew reconnaissance missions over hostile countries, higher and faster than any jet aircraft has ever done. So fast that ground to air missiles simply couldn’t catch them. So when did these amazing accomplishments take place? Back in the 1960’s! The end for the Blackbirds was if anything even more cruel than Concorde’s. The designer of the Blackbird, Kelly Johnson had developed the most sophisticated aircraft of all time and with the capability to perform many roles. None of these roles beyond reconnaissance ever came to be. In 1968 the then Secretary of Defence Robert McNamara ordered all the Blackbird tooling destroyed due to changing Defence Department priorities. The American public didn’t even find out about this wonderful aircraft until its death warrant was already signed.
These are just a couple of extreme examples involving the most advanced aircraft that were ever built, all of them in the 1960’s. Since then development of higher, faster and better aircraft has simply ceased to be. We have better things to spend our money on, like dropping bombs on Iraq and Afghanistan. Even space flight hasn’t advanced since the 1970’s, that’s too expensive as well.
When are our governments going to understand that we need these icons to take pride in? Without them, life becomes a mundane struggle with no flare. I want to see Concorde’s replacement on the drawing boards. Heck, lets make it bigger and faster! Come on America, you’re the best at this stuff. You flew hypersonic once, get out there and better it. Somebody give me something to wave a flag about and feel proud of.