12 years after final Concorde flight, supersonic jets are making a comeback

Concorde made its final commercial flight on October 24, 2003, but recent investments may soon bring a commercial supersonic jetliner back into service.

Concorde began as a joint venture by both the British and French governments, entering service in January 1976. Before its last commercial flight, which carried 100 passengers from John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City to Heathrow Airport in London, the supersonic jet was able to travel at two times the speed of sound. Investors are now hoping to return a vintage Concorde to the skies even as NASA explores new possibilities for supersonic travel.
The Concorde program was abandoned following the July 25, 2000 crash of Air France Flight 4590, which killed 113 people. The company was charged with involuntary manslaughter after the jetliner exploded while taking off from the Charles de Gualle airport in Paris. Prosecutors charged that titanium left on the runway was not installed properly on the D-10 engine, causing it to strike the left tire during takeoff.

Commercial flights resumed in September 2001, however both British and French officials announced the retirement of the Concorde in April 2003, citing low passenger numbers following the Air France Flight 4590 crash, a drop in air travel following the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, and rising maintenance costs overall, ending 27 years of service.

12 years later, NASA announced plans in June 2015 to set aside $2.3 million to fund eight supersonic aviation research projects. The funds would be allocated to industry and university researchers, including the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Wyle Laboratories, defense manufacturer Honeywell, Rockwell Collins, the University of California, and a number of others headed by NASA's Commercial Supersonic Technology Project.

NASA research on supersonic travel included the use of an old German photography technique to visualize shock waves created by supersonic airplanes, a photo of which the agency shared on Instagram in August. Using synthetic schlieren techniques, waves were able to be observed due to air density gradient and changes in refractive index.

Source: UPL