It’s been nearly two decades since supersonic commercial flights last shuttled passengers across the Atlantic Ocean. As Bill Whitaker reports this week for 60 Minutes, that’s been enough time for companies to start examining the feasibility of supersonic commercial travel again.
The original aviation icon that once flew scheduled commercial flights at twice the speed of sound: was the Concorde. The Concorde was supposed to break the United States’ hold on commercial air travel, but in 1974, just 12 years after Britain and France signed their agreement to build the plane, its economic viability was being questioned.
Morley Safer reported for 60 Minutes at the time, “For as beautiful as Concorde looks as it blazes through the sky pushing 1,400 miles an hour, the economics of commercial aviation have made it a $2½ billion white elephant and no airline really wants it.”
Watch Safer’s full 1974 report on the Concorde in the video player above.
This article was originally published on November 19, 2021.
