Re: Bye bye Arctic
The Concorde was also uneconomical from the point of view of maintenance. Going super-sonic places an immense amount of stress on the entire craft, and especially the engines and the leading edges. At those speeds, the craft also required much more and more often inspections since a fracture that would lead to, at most, minor damage on a traditional craft would cause the Concorde to disintegrate upon breaking the sound barrier.
There was also the problem that the thing turned like a cow (the thing was so skinny and delicate that turning too fast would cause the thing to twist apart and shatter), so if you had to over-shoot your landing, it was either hope there was another runway with the same orientation, or you had an hour of fuel so you can loop back around.
Even the the super-luxury aircraft market where cost is no object is staying below super-sonic speeds and opting for 0.99-mach maximum speeds and aiming for 0.99-mach cruise. No one wants to buy a plane that is stuck in the hanger for maintenance longer than its usable flight time...
Biting the hand that feeds IT
