The Concorde was a highlight in air travel. I know someone who took the last flight and considered it one of his life experiences. This was a very special aircraft. Only 14 of the French - U.K. Concorde aircraft went into service starting in 1973 with its first passenger service in 1976. It was a technological masterpiece. It was fraught with high maintenance costs. Everything about it was expensive. It had a catastrophic air crash in 2000, and was retired in 2003.
You can imagine what has been going on to create a new version. The original Concorde costs of development were never recouped and there had been no intention to. So how would NASA be given the budget to develop a replacement? Got me. Yet, here's the news just announced at the end of November:
"NASA is developing a quiet supersonic jet in order to replace the dreams of the Concorde with one that is significantly less deafening to the people down below.
The supersonic passenger plane, called the X-59 aims to fly faster than the speed of sound, at almost twice as fast as the Concorde.
Engineers are aiming to reduce the sound of the typical sonic boom to a ‘sonic thump’.
The aircraft is the centerpiece of NASA’s Quesst mission, through which NASA will fly the X-59 over several to-be-selected U.S. communities and gather data about people’s perceptions of the sound it makes."
Is it Concorde II or the New Concorde?
Here are Santa and Mrs. Santa who visited the Museum for the Fantasy of Trees.
