Carter's Column

With my Grandfather on the flight deck of Concorde Alpha Charlie, G-BOAC at Manchester Airport. This aircraft was the "Flagship of the Flagships". LOOKING BACK AT WHAT SHOULD BE THE FUTURE For 27 years you could take off from London at 11:00am local time and land in New York at 9:30am local time. You could have breakfast in London, lunch in New York and (theoretically but hardly practically) be back in London for dinner. You could cross the Atlantic ocean in a little over 3 and a half hours while sipping champagne, eating caviar and mixing with people you had only ever seen photographs of in tabloid newspapers and magazines. As of October 2003 the same journey takes 7 or 8 hours depending on the Jetstream and you are eating standard airline food whilst mixing with 300 holidaymakers on your way across the pond. From 1976 until 2003 you had another option, although the possession of deep pockets or copious amounts of luck were required to do so, but you could have done...