Boeing 737-400 vs Concorde - Comparison

The Boeing 737 Classic are narrow-body airliners produced by Boeing Commercial Airplanes, the second generation of the original Boeing 737-100/-200. Development began in 1979 and the first variant, the 737-300, first flew in February 1984 and entered service in December of that year. The stretched 737-400 first flew in February 1988 and entered service later that year The shortest variant, the 737-500, first flew in June 1989 and entered service in 1990. It is re-engined with higher bypass ratio CFM56 turbofans for a better fuel economy and has upgraded avionics. With a 133,500–150,000 lb (60.6–68.

0 t) MTOW, it has a range of 2,060 to 2,375 nmi (3,815 to 4,398 km). At 102 ft (31 m), the -500 is similar in length to the original 737-200 and can fly 110 to 132 passengers. The 110 ft (33.4 m) long -300 can seat 126 to 149 passengers while the 120 ft (36.4 m) long -400 accommodates 147 to 168 seats. It competed with the MD-80 family, then with the Airbus A320 which prompted Boeing to update its offer with the 737 Next Generation, thus designating the -300/400/500 variants the 737 classic. In total, 1,988 aircraft were delivered until the year 2000: 1,113 -300s, 486 -400s and 389 -500s.

Source: Wikipedia

The Aérospatiale/BAC Concorde () is a Franco-British turbojet-powered supersonic airliner that was operated from 1976 until 2003. It had a maximum speed over twice the speed of sound, at Mach 2.04 (1,354 mph or 2,180 km/h at cruise altitude), with seating for 92 to 128 passengers. First flown in 1969, Concorde entered service in 1976 and operated for 27 years. It is one of only two supersonic jetliner models to operate commercially; the other is the Soviet-built Tupolev Tu-144, which operated in the late 1970s.Concorde was jointly developed and manufactured by Sud Aviation (later Aérospatiale) and the British Aircraft Corporation under an Anglo-French treaty. Twenty aircraft were built, including six prototypes and development aircraft. Air France and British Airways were the only airlines to purchase and fly Concorde. The aircraft was used mainly by wealthy passengers who could afford to pay a high price for the aircraft's speed and luxury service. In 1997, the round-trip ticket price from New York to London was $7,995 (equivalent to $12,900 in 2020), more than 30 times the cost of the least expensive scheduled flight for this route.The original programme cost estimate was £70 million before 1962, (£1.39 billion in 2020). The programme experienced huge cost overruns and delays, with the programme eventually costing between £1.5 and £2.1 billion in 1976, (£9.44 billion-13.2 billion in 2020). This extreme cost was the main reason the production run was much smaller than expected. Another factor that affected the viability of all supersonic transport programmes was that supersonic flight could be used only on ocean-crossing routes, to prevent sonic boom disturbance over populated areas.

With only seven airframes each being operated by the British and French, the per-unit cost was impossible to recoup, so the French and British governments absorbed the development costs. British Airways and Air France were able to operate Concorde at a profit after purchasing their aircraft from their respective governments at a steep discount in comparison to the programme's development and procurement costs.Among other destinations, Concorde flew regular transatlantic flights from London's Heathrow Airport and Paris's Charles de Gaulle Airport to John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York, Washington Dulles International Airport in Virginia, and Grantley Adams International Airport in Barbados; it flew these routes in less than half the time of other airliners. While subsonic commercial jets took eight hours to fly from Paris to New York (seven hours from New York to Paris), the average supersonic flight time on the transatlantic routes was just under 3.5 hours. Concorde aircraft were retired in 2003, three years after the crash of Air France Flight 4590, in which all passengers and crew members on board were killed; this was the only fatal incident involving Concorde. The general downturn in the commercial aviation industry after the September 11 attacks in 2001 and the end of maintenance support for Concorde by Airbus, the successor to Aérospatiale, contributed to the aircraft's retirement.

Source: Wikipedia