Why must Japan be so far away? 
Why isn't Concorde flying anymore? 
💀
@matrix
I can't answer the first question, but I can answer the second.
Concorde was never a good commercial plane. When it went supersonic, it obviously made a LOT of noise. Because of regulations, it was severely limited in it's speed when flying over populated areas. So most of the time it didn't fly even close to the speed of sound, like it was designed to. Which ultimately resulted in it being highly inefficient to fly. Which meant expensive tickets, which lead to low sales.
@sargoysmuck @alyx @matrix They’re claiming ticket prices will be around business class but I suspect that’s optimistic; every business-class traveler is going to take the flight that gets there in around half the time if they can. It makes more sense to assume these tickets will be first-class prices while offering more of a business-class experience, but you get to your destination way faster.
Still, if “taking a supersonic flight” was on your bucket list, it’s something most people could at least save up for.
@dave @sargoysmuck @alyx @matrix I think their business class is when the businesspeople want to fly from the US to Paris for breakfast. I’m thinking Concorde, of course.
The big question might be, “Is the entire fuselage a giant tank of jet fuel?”
@sargoysmuck @alyx @matrix @dave Got it. The planes were prone to blowing up and they had to replace the tires too often. Two good reasons to ground ‘em right there.😁
@polarisera @alyx @matrix @dave @sargoysmuck No wonder the government’s trying to get everyone to walk or cycle everywhere, easy targets!
Elon is said to be quite the entrepreneur, wonder if the rich will be able to buy time on the joystick to rack up some pedestrian points.
Elon can just tell the conservatives he’s cancelling pedos and leave out that it’s pedestrians instead of pedophiles. If US conservatives research it like everything else they sign into law, they won’t read it and it’ll work.
@sargoysmuck @epic @alyx @matrix The Comet was grounded because they had an unfortunate tendency to disintegrate mid-flight, because the squared-off windows created pressure points which were subject to too much fatigue stress when pressurization kicked in.
I guess the lesson here is that if it’s cutting-edge, and it’s British, don’t fly in it.
@matrix @alyx The Boom is coming by the end of the decade supposedly. Not quite as fast as the Concorde but it’s supposed to be a lot more efficient. Maybe the tickets will even be semi-affordable (will definitely be expensive though).