Post by LOU on Mar 26th, 2011 at 4:06pm
CoolP,
I know your are a fan of the SST, but here is a short story about why this beast was doomed from the beginning. Sure, getting across the pond in 3 hours was tres cool indeed, but at the cost of a small car, was it worth it?
One afternoon we were headed west across the Atlantic in our 2 engine 767, plodding along at M.78 when we received several frantic calls from SHANWICK (ocean control east of 30 degrees west) and GANDER control advising us of a Concorde making an emergency descent in our location due to an engine failure. Soon, we saw the beast as it descended to a lower altitude.
It turned out the Concorde had lost and engine at high altitude cruise and could not fly that high on 3 remaining engines. The plane also had to reduce speed and really started to suck up the fuel. They landed in Gander and there they sat until a rescue mission could be dispatched to pick up the passengers. So a three hour crossing turned into a multi-day voyage.
I know your are a fan of the SST, but here is a short story about why this beast was doomed from the beginning. Sure, getting across the pond in 3 hours was tres cool indeed, but at the cost of a small car, was it worth it?
One afternoon we were headed west across the Atlantic in our 2 engine 767, plodding along at M.78 when we received several frantic calls from SHANWICK (ocean control east of 30 degrees west) and GANDER control advising us of a Concorde making an emergency descent in our location due to an engine failure. Soon, we saw the beast as it descended to a lower altitude.
It turned out the Concorde had lost and engine at high altitude cruise and could not fly that high on 3 remaining engines. The plane also had to reduce speed and really started to suck up the fuel. They landed in Gander and there they sat until a rescue mission could be dispatched to pick up the passengers. So a three hour crossing turned into a multi-day voyage.
