Remembering the Concorde

Travel Blog  •  Rob Verger  •  03.09.09 | 12:01 PM ET

Photo by Rob Verger

Last week marked the 40th anniversary of the first flight of the Concorde. The plane, the only supersonic commercial aircraft, was in service between 1976 and 2003. In 2000, the fiery crash of an Air France Concorde claimed 113 lives.

I saw a Concorde for the fist time this weekend, on display at the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum in New York City. Inside the plane, I was struck by the narrow, claustrophobic cabin in the pencil-thin fuselage, the tiny windows and tightly packed rows of seats. Outside, I loved seeing the cool sweep of its delta wings and its stunningly narrow nose.

“I knew that we were approaching our maximum height of 57,000 feet, or more than 10 miles off the ground, when I looked out the window and noticed the slight curvature of the earth,” Philip Shenon wrote for the New York Times in an article about riding the plane from New York to London in 2002. “The Concorde is the only commercial airplane to fly so high that the earth’s shape is detectable.”

The price? The same article reports that in 2002, on British Airways, it was $12,652 round-trip.

At the Intrepid, seeing the iconic plane is included with the price of admission.

Tags: Air Travel, Airworld, Luxury Travel, Museums, North America, United States, New York, New York City, News and Briefs

Rob Verger

Rob Verger is a frequent contributor to World Hum and the site's former air travel blogger. His articles and photographs have appeared in the Boston Globe and other publications, and he's a former undergraduate writing instructor at Columbia University. If you like, .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) or follow him on Twitter.


5 Comments for Remembering the Concorde

Chris 03.09.09 | 2:38 PM ET

How is the Intrepid museum since the overhaul? I thought it was pretty good before.

Rob Verger 03.09.09 | 4:02 PM ET

Chris,

This visit was actually my first time there, so I have nothing to compare it to. I thought the place was fantastic, though.

Here’s a Times article about the renovations: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/07/arts/design/07intr.html

Anyone been there both before and after the renovations?

Chris 03.10.09 | 11:18 AM ET

I guess this means I need to go back to NYC. :-)

Jackie 03.11.09 | 2:47 PM ET

Aviation has grown by leaps and bounds. My new favorite luxury private jet has to be the QSST. This is a great article on it. This will undoubtedly revolutionize private, passenger, and commercial flying.

http://luxury.affluence.org/?p=706

Rob Verger 03.11.09 | 5:06 PM ET

Thanks for pointing this out, Jackie! Looks fascinating. Each one should cost $80 million, and they’re estimating it could be delivered in 2016. Wow.

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