Concorde crash

Sir, - It is a great shock to the aficionados of aeronautics that Concorde, the only supersonic aircraft flying in the world, which celebrated its 30th birthday in March 1999, should crash near Paris last week. In aviation circles it is seen as the epitome of high-tech aircraft design. It remained a marvel as no rival supersonic aircraft has been in sight, although a 10 year study to build one was terminated in 1998. Till this crash curiously 13 Concorde - commonly referred to it in singular - were dotting the sky. Concorde was among the pioneering effort in fly-by wire electronic controls and special antilock brakes (now common in cars). However its engines were a civilian version of those used to power Britain's military planes, the Vulcan bombers and relied on afterburner to generate the acceleration needed and to break the sound barrier. Unluckily, according to reports, this has proved to be its Achilles heel.

R. Sundaram,

Chennai

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