Think technology, think progress. As time moves forwards, tech gets better: faster, smaller, safer, or simply more beautiful. Rarely do we see devolution, because it seldom makes sense.

Concorde, however, is a curious example where we seem to have gone backwards. Ten years ago last month, she flew her final transatlantic flight, a journey that drew the curtains on the supersonic era of air travel.

Concorde was, and still is, way ahead of its time. It took almost two decades to go from conception to her maiden commercial voyage in 1976, but those years brought a revolution in engineering and aeronautical science. It cruised through the stratosphere at twice the speed of sound. Despite being a commercial airliner, it could fly quicker than a B-2 Bomber.

The idea of flying from New York to London in a mere three and a half hours, arriving before you took off, might now again seem like something lifted from a utopian sci-fi novel by H. G. Wells; it both baffles and saddens me slightly to think that this was once true.

Not only was it a marvel of engineering, but it also became a design icon of the 20th century. Its futuristic streamlined wings and quirky droop nose are classic examples of form and function combining harmoniously. A recent public poll run by the Design Museum in London resulted in Concorde being named Britain’s favourite design icon, beating other quintessential British designs such as the Mini and the London Underground map.

At just under £4,000 for a one-way trip, few could actually afford the luxury of Mach 2. But for British Airways, Concorde was profitable for most of its 27-year operational history, generating about £30m profit a year.

However, at the start of the new millennium the public’s mood changed. On 25th July 2000, Concorde suffered its first and only accident. Shortly after takeoff, Air France Flight 4590 from Paris caught fire and crashed into a hotel near the airport. All 100 passengers and cabin crew died.The tragedy was the beginning of the end. The post-9/11 slump in air travel was the final blow, and in 2003, it ceased service.

Concorde was too risky. It’s understandable that it came to an end. Nevertheless, it’s hard to ignore the fact that its retirement feels like a regression. And, on a grander scale, Concorde was an embodiment of the technological Zeitgeist of the mid-20th century. It was from an era that seemed more forward looking than we are today: lunar exploration, another thing of the past, was also in its prime. Concorde was costly and fraught with risk, but its creators envisioned a world where the impossible was achievable. It was the natural heir to pioneers like the Wright Brothers and Charles Lindbergh, and in comparison, today’s landscape looks shamefully bleak, polluted with “no-frills” airlines that are the antithesis of what air travel used to be.Concorde was the apogee of commercial aeronautical technology, and its loss is a symptom of a society no longer striving to do the impossible.