On Fri, 24 Oct 2003 03:49:58 -0700, umpston wrote:
to let their Concordes go out in a blaze of glory, as they will today,

No, a blaze of glory would have been mach 2 from the Thames estuary,
through the centre of town, at 300 feet. That would have been ++impressive.

Sadly the enviro-nimbys always get their way. Think about transport

Early 20th century - massive underground rail network created in London
Post WWII - spaceflight, satelites
60's moon landing, motorway network
70's Concorde
80's onwards - no more moon flights, no more Concorde, dying space flight,
trains that are slower then the Mallard, car's limited to 1960's speeds,
road destruction, rail destruction (started with Beeching). The only thing
of note is the Channel Tunnel, and even that was way over budget

Since the Early 70's transport technology has regressed to bureaucratic
nonsense