Concorde 40 today

At least today is the 40th anniversary, of the first flight of the Concorde from Filton near Bristol, an incredible machine, which is made all the more remarkable, since all these years later, no commercial airliner has been built since, to match its speed and it's unlikely, in the lifetime of anyone reading this, that another passenger aircraft will be built with similar capabilities.

Whilst it's a source of immense pride of what the British aerospace industry was once capable of, to me it's a reminder of the failures of Britain as a nation.

In common with a majority of air travellers, whilst we might have admired the thing from a distance it is rare that any of us actually had a trip on the thing.

My first trip on the Concorde consisted of entering at the rear of the plane, walking through to the front and after a quick butchers at the cockpit leaving via the front, I was in fact visiting The Intrepid Space Museum, In New York, where they have a British Airways Concorde, plonked on a barge, in the Hudson River (much recommended, credit crunch allowing (rules me out), if you tire of being dragged round the shops).

Now I mentioned, Concorde being a reminder of the failures of the British nation, and it's for this reason, at the same time as France and Britain were developing this superb aeroplane with the assistance of the British & French taxpayer, Boeing in America were developing the 747 Jumbo Jet, which opened up long distance travel to the masses, something which Concorde despite being funded by taxpayers in Britain and France never pretended to do.

Concorde will be remembered fondly for a long time to come, but it's my guess that, passengers will be flying Boeing's 747 jumbo, for at least another 40 years. Concorde built for the elite few could never have flown without massive taxpayer subsidies, so whilst it was a technical marvel and still is, it was also a resounding commercial failure.