Concorde and other marvels

I put up my old poster of Concorde flying past Manhattan in my bedroom today and somehow I've cheered right up.  It's probably superimposed and it's certainly a bit of a cliché, but there is something pure about the idea behind Concorde, however capitalist a symbol it is to have a picture of it flying over a very 80s-looking Manhattan.  The innovation that was Concorde shouldn't be forgotten.  Who'd have predicted a step backwards in aviation such as losing the possibility of getting from London to New York in 5 hours?  Progress is never constant.

Not that I would ever have been able to afford to fly in it though.  It was horrifically elitist, but I'm still glad that it existed; that some people were able to use it.  I wouldn't begrudge anyone that privilege.  It was just reassuring to know that it was something you could do, travel from London to New York so quickly.  You wouldn't lose anytime at all, flying in that direction.  New York is five hours behind London, so you'd get there at the same time that you left.  That must've felt like a kind of space-age time-travel in itself.

The fuel consumption was pretty astronomical though and I suppose one or two people in high places realised that there were more efficient ways of making money.  A Boeing 747 to name just one.  Get a few people to fly first class on that, and you're making a killing, surely?  This doesn't seem right in this day and age of climate change and global warming, but I've got a soft spot for aeroplanes.  They are undoubtedly extraordinary feats of engineering and harmony with the laws of physics.  Of which I know absolutely nothing, but that doesn't stop me from marvelling at them.  (And reminiscing fondly of the time I once got to fly a small one.  Not for long, and only at a safe height when the plane was virtually flying itself, but that's the point, really.  Get a plane to the right altitude and speed and it really is quite happy to fly itself.  That's what it's built to do.)