In the 1960s, Great British airplane manufacturer British Air Cooperation and France’s Aérospatiale (now a part of Airbus) cooperated to build the first supersonic passenger jet. In 1979, the first aircraft rolled off the production line and entered service; only twenty aircraft were produced in total. The Concorde traveled two times faster than the speed of sound, which allowed its passengers to fly from London to New York in three hours and a half hours. However, due to its speeds, tickets were costly, costing about $12,000 for one round trip. In 2003, the Concorde airplane was retired from service. While its passengers enjoyed its fast travel times, many came to believe the time saved did not justify a five-figure ticket price. Government regulations also undermined the Concorde since many countries banned its flight in their airspace to avoid the sonic boom. These regulations severely limited the plane’s possible routes to ones over the Atlantic Ocean. Finally, in July of 2000, a Concorde aircraft crashed on the runway killing all 109 passengers. While the reason behind the crash (a punctured tire) was preventable, this incident undermined faith in supersonic jets. Since the Concorde retirement, there have been no supersonic passenger jets.
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