[jemmyw]

Concorde was probably highly economical, just not directly. It could be seen as the project that started Airbus and saved European aircraft manufacturing. Except for not being able to know how things would have turned out if Concorde didn't exist.

[rsynnott]

Or, less optimistically, caused Airbus's predecessors' consolidation into Airbus, thus leaving the world with three, and then two, makers of large passenger jets, and leading to the current unfortunate situation where even though the 737's currently kind of a dud, you have to buy it anyway because it's half the market and the A320 side of the market is booked up for years.

Like I think there's a strong argument that the current extreme consolidation of the industry is quite a bad thing.

[harry_ord]

Admittedly I was only thinking in the direct sense. Saving european manufacturing is way outside my area of knowledge.