Without a doubt, flying aboard the Concorde supersonic transport was the coolest airplane ride of my life. The departure from Paris was better described as a launch than a takeoff--barreling down the runway, engines screaming, the eventual leap skyward coming at the very last moment. Peering out the tiny cabin window I could see moisture swirling past the wing of this needle-nosed speedster as it struggled to fly smoothly in the low-speed phase of its 3½ hour sprint to New York.
Before we knew it, we passed the French coastline and powered up for the cruise-climb into the upper stratosphere where Concorde could stretch her legs, steadily gaining speed and altitude until the cabin machmeter clicked over 2.0, letting everyone know we had reached twice the speed of sound.
Like all airplanes, Concorde was purpose-built—designed to carry 100 passengers between continents in half the time of conventional transport aircraft. But it had weaknesses too, chiefly its dismal economics which eventually took it out of service more than a decade ago.
There’s a lesson in all this--every type of airplane delivers optimized performance and economics when used for its intended purpose. Using a Gulfstream IV to fly two passengers to San Diego probably doesn’t make sense any more than it would to use a King Air prop-jet to fly eight people to Chicago. And since the travels of most private flyers fall on a spectrum; long; short distances, 1 to 15 passengers, sophisticated consumers know that having access to a variety of aircraft is the best way to preserve efficiency and value.
Dreamline is the only private jet service that operates a diverse fleet including long range large cabin aircraft, mid-sized and light jets, and the venerable King Air propjet. So, whether you’re flying across the country or between continents, Dreamline is uniquely equipped and capable of furnishing the right airplane for all your travels in one seamless transaction.
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