There must be a better way to cross the ocean.
Over the Christmas holiday, my wife and I were lucky enough to be able to fly from London to my hometown of Greensboro, NC. The trip was scheduled to take 14 hours. However, thanks to bad luck and the very unhelpful representatives of Virgin Atlantic and United Airlines, we managed to miss our connecting flight and spent an extra night in Washington D.C. However, we were able to get to Greensboro the next day.
Now, if you ever get the chance to fly across the Atlantic, by all means, take it. It will be an experience you are likely to remember your entire life. However, the actual plane ride over the ocean will probably be about the worst eight hours of your year. For someone who has never been on a long distance plane trip, it is hard to fully explain just how uncomfortable an experience it is. Cramped, uncomfortable seats. Jet Lag. Turbulence. Each hour crawling into the next in an inescapable tedium.
It is during these moments, I think that there must be a better way. Well, being able to buy a first-class ticket would make it better, but my guess is that even that only makes it more tolerable. Then I realize there was a better way. There was a plane that could make the journey in half the time or less. “Concorde”. The name is legendary in passenger aviation, and yet, somehow, she flies no more.
How in this age of ever expanding technology, where companies are racing to be the fist to offer rides into space, could the Concorde have failed?
In a cramped seat somewhere above the ocean, I decided I would find out the story behind this legendary aircraft. I hope you enjoy it as much as I have.
