Concorde flew at Mach 2 for 27 years — and never made a profit

Concorde was a joint British-French project to build the world's first supersonic airliner. Development began in 1962 under a treaty between the two governments. The original budget was £70 million; the final cost exceeded £1.3 billion (approximately $28 billion in today's money). The first commercial flights began in January 1976.

Only 20 Concordes were built, and only 14 entered commercial service — 7 each for Air France and British Airways. No other airline bought one. The aircraft was too expensive to operate, too loud (the sonic boom restricted it to over-water routes), and too fuel-hungry for the 1970s oil crises. A New York-to-London ticket cost over $12,000 in today's money.

Concorde flew for 27 years and never made an operating profit for either airline. The British and French governments wrote off the entire development cost. After the Air France Flight 4590 crash in July 2000 (113 fatalities) and the post-9/11 decline in premium travel, both airlines retired Concorde in 2003. The fastest airliner ever built was a museum piece.