The Secret History of Concorde by J.W. Greene

THE SECRET HISTORY OF CONCORDE Speed, style, and the golden age of supersonic travel In 1976, you could fly from London to New York in three and a half hours, arriving before you left. Today, you cannot. This is the extraordinary story of the only passenger aircraft ever to make technology move backwards—and why we still miss it. Concorde was magnificent, impractical, and utterly impossible. It was designed by two nations who didn't trust each other, cost ten times its original budget, flew on a single route for most of its life, and yet became the most loved aircraft in aviation history. For twenty-seven years, it flew twice the speed of sound whilst serving champagne. Then, in 2003, it stopped forever, and supersonic passenger aviation simply ceased to exist. This is the secret history of that aircraft: the Cold War swagger that drove its creation, the engineering genius that made it work, the sonic boom that crippled its business case, the crash that shattered its myth of invulnerability, and the economics that ultimately grounded it permanently. It's a story of breathtaking ambition, spectacular cost overruns, champagne-soaked glamour, and the uncomfortable truth that sometimes, the future doesn't arrive—it just flies past at Mach 2 and never comes back. Read more