Business: Supersonic Debut: Two Views

After $3 billion in development costs and years of delay, the supersonic Concorde went into commercial service last week. An Air France plane made an inaugural flight from Paris to Rio de Janeiro; a British Airways craft flew from London to Bahrain. Aboard the Rio flight was Chris English, a TIME Washington Bureau copy clerk whose hobby is flying commercial airliners (since 1969 he has logged 412,000 air miles). TIME London Bureau Chief Herman Nickel flew to Bahrain. Their accounts follow, along with their ratings of their flights on factors other than speed (four airplanes was the highest possible).

PARIS TO RIO....

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