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0 pointsbrucehoult1y ago0 comments

Concorde at least made more money than it cost to operate (and maintain).

The TU-144 made 102 commercial flights, with 55 of those carrying passengers -- the others I assume were cargo.

Not 102 flights per day or month -- 102 flights TOTAL between the first commercial flight in December 1975 and retirement from passenger service in 1978 and from all commercial service in 1983.

With 16 built, that's an average of 6 flights each in their lifetime.

SpaceX has Falcon 9 rocket boosters with 4x as many hypersonic flights on them.

0 comments

throwaway20371y ago

    > Concorde at least made more money than it cost to operate (and maintain).

This overlooks development costs. Wiki says:

    > Delays and cost overruns increased the programme cost to £1.5–2.1 billion in 1976, (£11–16 billion in 2023).

That is an astonishing price for 20 aeroplanes!

brucehoultOP1y ago

I didn't overlook development costs, I SPECIFICALLY excluded them, and SAID that I was doing so.

iancmceachern1y ago

But you can't just exclude them. They are part of the cost.

1 more reply

michaelt1y ago

£16 billion in inflation-adjusted development costs is peanuts.

You should look at the costs of the F-35 :)

hnaccount_rng1y ago

But of the F-35 there are >1000 planes to amortise the costs over. Which is two orders of magnitude larger than the concorde

mgfist1y ago

F35s are now selling for $81m on average per plane - https://www.airandspaceforces.com/f-35-program-office-lockhe...

And yes, the program is expensive but there will be thousands of F35s by the end of it all (1000+ already)

tobinfricke1y ago

What cargo would justify a supersonic flight?

bcatanzaro1y ago

They often flew mail on it as their cargo. But the plane was more a matter of national pride than something that made sense.

mattclarkdotnet1y ago

Anything high value and perishable, like sushi grade fish for example. Or did you mean morally justifiable?

iancmceachern1y ago

Flying fish that are increasingly not sustainably harvested on insanely fuel in-efficient supersonic planes is exactly humanity deserves to go extinct.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse

0 pointsbrucehoult1y ago0 comments

Concorde at least made more money than it cost to operate (and maintain).

The TU-144 made 102 commercial flights, with 55 of those carrying passengers -- the others I assume were cargo.

Not 102 flights per day or month -- 102 flights TOTAL between the first commercial flight in December 1975 and retirement from passenger service in 1978 and from all commercial service in 1983.

With 16 built, that's an average of 6 flights each in their lifetime.

SpaceX has Falcon 9 rocket boosters with 4x as many hypersonic flights on them.

0 comments

throwaway20371y ago

    > Concorde at least made more money than it cost to operate (and maintain).

This overlooks development costs. Wiki says:

    > Delays and cost overruns increased the programme cost to £1.5–2.1 billion in 1976, (£11–16 billion in 2023).

That is an astonishing price for 20 aeroplanes!

brucehoultOP1y ago

I didn't overlook development costs, I SPECIFICALLY excluded them, and SAID that I was doing so.

iancmceachern1y ago

But you can't just exclude them. They are part of the cost.

1 more reply

michaelt1y ago

£16 billion in inflation-adjusted development costs is peanuts.

You should look at the costs of the F-35 :)

hnaccount_rng1y ago

But of the F-35 there are >1000 planes to amortise the costs over. Which is two orders of magnitude larger than the concorde

mgfist1y ago

F35s are now selling for $81m on average per plane - https://www.airandspaceforces.com/f-35-program-office-lockhe...

And yes, the program is expensive but there will be thousands of F35s by the end of it all (1000+ already)

tobinfricke1y ago

What cargo would justify a supersonic flight?

bcatanzaro1y ago

They often flew mail on it as their cargo. But the plane was more a matter of national pride than something that made sense.

mattclarkdotnet1y ago

Anything high value and perishable, like sushi grade fish for example. Or did you mean morally justifiable?

iancmceachern1y ago

Flying fish that are increasingly not sustainably harvested on insanely fuel in-efficient supersonic planes is exactly humanity deserves to go extinct.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse