How could the Concorde be called a failure? After all, it flies higher and faster than any other commercial jet. Yet for its entire life, the Concorde ran in the red financially, although for sure it was a technological marvel. When the pilots fired the afterburners and the plane zoomed to over 1000 miles per hour - nearly twice the speed of sound, and three times faster than a normal jet - and it soared to almost ten miles above the earth - a 737 flies at about half the height. So high was the Concorde that passengers could see the curvature of the earth. In spite of this apparent success two things killed the Concorde: The information revolution, and a large slow jet. In the 1960s when the Concorde was developed, there was a need to hop around the world. Today, though, with cell phones, cheap long distance service, and express mail, there are many times where a person can just stay put, instead of hop a continent. But most significantly, the Concorde missed the market. The Concorde was built when travel was for the elite, especially business travelers, CEOs and the like. Today travel is a mass market, where cheapness is prized over quickness. Two-thirds of travel now is for fun, not business. The Boeing company guessed this correctly. At the same time as the Concorde was developed, they built the first 747 - a plane that flies slower than its predecessor the 707, and whose successors - the 757, 767, and 777 - fly even slower than the 747.

How could the Concorde be called a failure? After all, it flies higher and faster than any other commercial jet. Yet for its entire life, the Concorde ran in the red financially, although for sure it was a technological marvel. When the pilots fired the afterburners and the plane zoomed to over 1000 miles per hour - nearly twice the speed of sound, and three times faster than a normal jet - and it soared to almost ten miles above the earth - a 737 flies at about half the height. So high was the Concorde that passengers could see the curvature of the earth. In spite of this apparent success two things killed the Concorde: The information revolution, and a large slow jet. In the 1960s when the Concorde was developed, there was a need to hop around the world. Today, though, with cell phones, cheap long distance service, and express mail, there are many times where a person can just stay put, instead of hop a continent. But most significantly, the Concorde missed the market. The Concorde was built when travel was for the elite, especially business travelers, CEOs and the like. Today travel is a mass market, where cheapness is prized over quickness. Two-thirds of travel now is for fun, not business. The Boeing company guessed this correctly. At the same time as the Concorde was developed, they built the first 747 - a plane that flies slower than its predecessor the 707, and whose successors - the 757, 767, and 777 - fly even slower than the 747.