Obsolete before it hit the drawing board and where possible, such options would be better replaced by overland VLT, very rapid rail! Particularly if MSR thorium is the preferred power source!
Alan B.

Another 'Concorde', a technical triumph but a white elephant financially.

hopefully the downsize means less warmist alarmist travelling the globe preaching to others. I doubt it though.

Excellent essay.

European multi-national airliner projects seem to have a political momentum that defies economic sense. The US (ie. Boeing) has the faster reacting economic sense. Boeing developed the 707 and then the 747 faster than Europe could react.

The US dropped Supersonic projects while UK-France blundered on with Concorde. The US were winding down 747 jumbo production [1] while Europe blundered on with the 380 jumbo.

Then, as Binoy implies, increasingly fuel efficient 2 engine widebodies are out-selling the 4 engine jumbos.

[1] I understand that Boeing ended 747 (passenger) production in the 2010s, although a few freight 747s are still being built - as at 2018 http://www.flightglobal.com/news/articles/boeing-to-keep-747-8-production-steady-for-ups-order-445447/

I wonder what the emission carbon footprint is of an A380 half-full & a twin-engined 777 fully loaded.

They'd should have further developed the L1011, technologically 30 years ahead of time & according to my friend who captained one, a breeze to fly.