50 years ago Concorde first scorched across the Atlantic. Now snail-paced planes are a dystopian nightmare and it takes hours to charge electric cars to go 50 miles. DAVID MARCUS’s chilling account of America’s lost ambition

Nearly fifty years ago, Concorde’s first non-stop transatlantic flight was the subject of science fiction.

The slender, supersonic, 60-meter-tall tailless bird with a downturned nose seared over the ocean, throwing a shock wave across the water, implying the promise of a new era of modern travel.

It seemed like a start.

It turned out to be the end.

On September 26, 1973, Concorde’s sprint from Washington DC to Paris took three and a half hours.

The current Boeings cover that distance in more than twice as long.

In 1969, four years earlier, American men landed on the moon, a feat unmatched today.

Was there something in the water? Was Gordon Lightfoot really that inspiring?

If the 20th was the century of technological transformation, the 21st so far feels like a century of mechanical mediocrity.

Where’s my flying car?

In the 1980s, my friend Denise flew aboard the British Airways Concorde.

I asked her what it was like to be on the cutting edge of human endeavor.

“There was a takeoff in the air,” she recalled the moment the four Rolls-Royce/SNECMA Olympus 593 engines finally unleashed, pushing the passengers back into their roomy, gray leather seats.

It felt like the future, or as she put it, “The mindset was that we were taking a leap forward.”

There was silence in the cylinder of the cabin.

The plane was traveling at Mach 2, 2100 km/h, faster than the speed of sound it produced.

The Concorde also rose higher than today’s commercial jets.

At 18,000 meters you could see the curvature of the earth outside the windows. If you look up, you can catch a glimpse of the total darkness of space.

Passengers dined on an extravagant feast of lobster and caviar canapés, fillet steak, heart of palm salad with Roquefort dressing, Dom Pérignon champagne and fresh strawberries with cream.

Six courses with impeccable service and fine wines can fill an entire flight time.

Of course they could smoke.

Who would have guessed that Concorde was not the beginning of the era of modern commercial flight, but its fleeting pinnacle?

For thirty years, until its retirement in 2003, the Concorde was a placeholder, a promise of more to come.

Twenty listless years later – nothing comes close.

Yes, a Concorde flight was an expensive luxury only available to the elite, but so were cars, portable phones and flat screen TVs once.

Why hasn’t pioneering air travel followed this trend of affordability and technological advancement?

There were good reasons why the supersonic commercial aircraft was withdrawn from service.

The signature boom, created by the buildup of air pressure waves, like water on the bow of a ship, erupted with loud bangs on the ground, making overland flying politically impossible and limiting the usefulness of the technology.

The fatal crash of Air France Flight 4590, a Concorde, on July 25, 2000, didn’t exactly endear the plane to the public either.

But that doesn’t change the sad reality that planes still had propellers in 1923. In 1947, United States Air Force Captain Chuck Yeager broke the speed of sound in the cockpit of Glamorous Glennis. And almost 80 years later, you’re lucky that your seven-hour transatlantic flight leaves on time.

Commercial aviation today is a filthy, inefficient nightmare. Seats are covered in stained rags and the service is painful. Praise yourself as a privileged player if you don’t witness a brawl due to insufficient overhead space.

These are just symptoms of a deeper ailment. The real problem is that we no longer feel like we’re striving for greatness.

A nation once known for its youthful ambitions sits like a statue of weathered alabaster, dismay on its brow, far removed from its thrilling past.

What progress has man made in the past fifty years? You probably have them in your hand.

Smart phones. The Internet. Social media. Streaming services.

We are told that technology has never moved faster, but where are the modern marvels in the plastic of our reality?

The only machines that are getting better and more affordable are the ones that keep us glued to our couches.

Even the price of a new car has risen 25 percent under President Joe Biden. A used vehicle now costs $27,000. Five years ago that would have bought a brand new budget ride.

We once had dazzling World’s Fairs with Halls of the Future and playful mid-century cartoon depictions of the wonders that awaited us in the then-distant year 2000. The times ahead were thrilling and tied only to the imagination and ingenuity of the humanity.

Now a Concorde is in the collection of the USS Intrepid Air and Space Museum in New York City.

Exhibits should show artifacts from the past, not unrealized human potential in the present.

If I asked you to draw a picture of 2073, honestly, what would it look like? Our visions of the future are dark dystopias of rising seas, burning forests, AI apocalypse and economic collapse.

In 2023, some will even shy away from progress.

Where do we come from when we declare ourselves masters of the universe, if we are no better than deplorable white supremacists and remnants of the dying patriarchy, they ask.

Instead of chasing supersonic travel times, we spend two hours charging an electric vehicle to cover 50 miles.

We strive to be small. Keep your carbon footprint low. Don’t say anything offensive. Stay home and it will all be over soon.

In these days of stagnation, it is important not to forget the Concorde.

Perhaps there is a glimmer of hope. There are experiments in Kansas to achieve silent supersonic speed. Investments are being made in corporate jets reaching Mach 2 and above.

Perhaps we can rediscover this spirit of greatness. Maybe not.

But man’s greatest achievements must not be collecting dust in museum galleries.