AEROSPACE OUTLOOK
DOES COMMERCIAL SUPERSONIC FLIGHT HAVE A FUTURE? by CRAIG ROVERE
UNITED AIRLINES & BOOM SUPERSONIC THINK SO On Tuesday, July 25th, 2000 at 16:44:33 local time Air France Flight 4590 began it’s takeoff from Charles de Gaulle Airport bound for JFK International Airport. About three-quarters of the way down the runway sat a piece of metal debris from an earlier flight. As the Aérospatiale-BAC Concorde approached takeoff speed, the debris on the runway punctured a tire. The blowout sent chunks of the tire into the underside of the left wing of the supersonic jet, rupturing the fuel tank. The ensuing fire compromised the ability for engines 1 and 2 to make sufficient power to stay in the air. The crew struggled unsuccessfully to make it back to the runway. Roughly 2 minutes after
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Manufacturing Outlook / June 2021
takeoff, Flight 4590 fell from the sky, taking with it the lives of all 109 people aboard as well as the future of commercial supersonic flight. In the wake of the Flight 4590 disaster, all Concord’s were grounded pending the results of an investigation. The outcome of the investigation wouldn’t matter. The accident didn’t cause the cancellation. It merely hastened it. Rising fuel costs had rendered the program unprofitable. Air France had been keeping the service going as a matter of national pride. The crash and ensuing PR nightmare were the final straw. By 2003 all supersonic routes were cancelled.