Concorde may have retired but a number of projects hope to bring supersonic air travel back to the masses. On a March day in 1969, the future of air travel as revealed. !enty seven minutes later the screech "very loud noise# of ing signaled the end of !enty the maiden "inaugural# voyage of Concorde, one of only to supersonic passenger planes to ever fly. $ut it all came to an end in %&&', hen the fleet "flotte# as retired because of concerns about high costs, limited demand for the e(pensive tickets and the jets) safety,, folloing a deadly crash three years earlier. safety !o of the main problems facing any supersonic aircraft are increased drag "train*e#, !o and that famous +sonic boom, a loud gunshot-like noise that disturbed anyone unfortunate to be under the flight path "road#. rofessor /ang attends a team that has shon that a bi-plane ith to, stacked "eplil*es# ings "ailes# could bring huge improvements over the traditional delta-ing seen on Concorde. 0ndeed hen e have to ings, if e place them in a carefully designed manner, the shockaves "onde de choc# from the to ings can cancel each other and they can fly ith half the drag of Concorde 2oever if you are holding off booking that dream transatlantic trip in the hope of the shorter flight time in the near future, you may have a long ait. 3nginers believe it ill be +14 to %& years before anything an ything like Concorde is seen in the skies again.