Will Concorde Fly?

On Tuesday July 17 at 2:18 p.m. a plane dubbed Alpha Foxtrot took off from London's Heathrow Airport two minutes ahead of its official departure time. It landed at its destination three hours and 20 minutes later — right on schedule. In a summer marked by all-day flight delays and cheek-by-jowl airport queues, many European travelers might ruefully call that fact alone a minor miracle. For British Airways the successful verification flight was a flash of good news on a day when CEO Rod Eddington was warning shareholders that his business faces "testing times." That's because the Alpha Foxtrot is no...