Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2003/12/31
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Yesssss, you can trust us my precious ;-) On Wednesday, Dec 31, 2003, at 19:15 Australia/Melbourne, Frank Dernie wrote: > HST is interesting. Whilst I was a member of the H G Wells society at > Imperial College, where I was a student 1969-1971. Barnes Wallis gave > a lecture annually and in one of them he explained his design and > theory behind the HST. His argument was that Australia and New Zealand > were the only nations the British could trust so a plane needed > designing which could fly between us fast and non stop :-) He was, as > always, way ahead of his time technically. > Frank > > On Wednesday, December 31, 2003, at 02:17 am, Marc James Small wrote: > >> At 06:12 AM 12/30/03 +0000, Frank Dernie wrote: >>> It is possibly the development costs which they were talking about, >>> but >>> I don't think it ever made a profit - maybe the information you read >>> is >>> true and that which I read is not but I think not. If they were >>> making >>> a handsome profit why did they stop? >>> All the information I heard was that Air France never made any money >>> flying it and BA only on the New York route. >> >> Well, check your back-files of THE ECONOMIST for discussion, as they >> have >> covered CONCORDE in great detail since 1967 when it was first a >> reality. >> The UK and France wrote off development costs around 1980 which >> allowed BA >> to claim a profit (never a "handsome" profit, mind you!) for its >> operational life. I have no information, and no interest, in Air >> France, >> so I cannot comment on their (probably hamfisted) operation of the >> SST. >> >> The CONCORDE was grounded due to its age and for no other reason. The >> opposition of the US to the CONCORDE was only sour grapes, as our >> Congress >> refused to fund the Boeing SST. When this occured, the US government >> immediately went into hull defilade and has never given the CONCORDE >> an >> opportunity to succeed, even going so far as to pressure foreign >> governments in South-West Asia and Canada to deny the CONCORDE >> overflight >> rights to ensure that no Europe-to-Asia routes were possible -- and >> that is >> where the profits really could be found! >> >> Now, the US is proposing a hupersonic transport (HST), a suborbital >> craft >> which could do Vancouver-to-Sydney in under three hours and the >> Atlantic in >> less than an hour. The Europeans are also working on such an HST. >> If the >> US welches out and the Europeans build it, once again, the US will >> attempt >> to kill it, an awful thing for my government to do. >> >> If the HST works, though, us smokers might be more inclined to fly >> overseas, albeit Heathrow and Dulles D Terminal are the only >> "smokers-be-damned" airports I have ever been forced to pass through. >> >> Marc >> >> >> Marc >> >> msmall@infionline.net FAX: +540/343-7315 >> Cha robh bąs fir gun ghrąs fir! >> >> >> -- >> To unsubscribe, see >> http://mejac.palo-alto.ca.us/leica-users/unsub.html >> > > -- > To unsubscribe, see http://mejac.palo-alto.ca.us/leica-users/unsub.html > > Alastair - -- To unsubscribe, see http://mejac.palo-alto.ca.us/leica-users/unsub.html