My favourite example is Concorde, which remained profitable throughout its service life but was cancelled because bigger profits can be made with slower planes.
Patents expire after 10 years so technology being locked away isn’t the biggest concern. The bigger problem is the dismantling of supply chains and loss of skills and experience when the workforce moves on.
The crash at Charles de Galle contributed along with 9/11, the sonic boom limiting flights and the inability to fly across the Pacific. Also the plane is super narrow making seating uncomfortable.
Seems like a pretty gross simplification. The concorde had been in service for 24 years by the time of the accident, and was already seeing decreased patronage. The price of jet fuel in the 70s and 80s prevented any large scale adoption, noise issues hampered this too. By the late 90s the planes were coming up to two decades of service and maintenance costs were rising. It was already on its last legs and the crash was more or less just the last nail in the coffin. If it hadn’t crashed it almost certainly would have retired around then anyway.
My favourite example is Concorde, which remained profitable throughout its service life but was cancelled because bigger profits can be made with slower planes.
Patents expire after 10 years so technology being locked away isn’t the biggest concern. The bigger problem is the dismantling of supply chains and loss of skills and experience when the workforce moves on.
Concorde was cancelled because one crash instantly turned it into the least safe plane statistically, and demand was dropping.
The crash at Charles de Galle contributed along with 9/11, the sonic boom limiting flights and the inability to fly across the Pacific. Also the plane is super narrow making seating uncomfortable.
Seems like a pretty gross simplification. The concorde had been in service for 24 years by the time of the accident, and was already seeing decreased patronage. The price of jet fuel in the 70s and 80s prevented any large scale adoption, noise issues hampered this too. By the late 90s the planes were coming up to two decades of service and maintenance costs were rising. It was already on its last legs and the crash was more or less just the last nail in the coffin. If it hadn’t crashed it almost certainly would have retired around then anyway.