The Problem With Modern Engineering (According to an Engineer)*

*Co-Written with Nada E.

Edward Dutton begins his book, At Our Wit’s End, discussing the discontinuation of the Concorde, and why it might indicate a general decline in intelligence: ‘In the 1950s, some of the world’s most intelligent and creative people were put to work’ to connect Western Europe with the U.S. much faster, and on the 2nd of March 1969, ‘Concorde was in the sky’. It took just three and a half hours to get from London to New York. However, in 2003, the Concorde was discontinued due to exorbitant fuel costs, but also, a crash in 2000 that undermined public confidence. According to Dutton, this crash was ‘essentially due to incompetence’:

Concorde crashed; all because an earlier aeroplane hadn’t been maintained properly. There had been problems with Concorde before — such as part of the rudder breaking off on a 1989 flight — but never a crash. The system had always worked. The pilots, in the heat of the moment, had always realised how to save the plane; the ground crew had never made any major mistakes. Public confidence was shaken and, by 2003, Concorde was permanently grounded. We were back to how it used to be.

The question is, why has the Concorde not re-launched or been improved upon? Dutton’s answer is that ‘we are becoming less intelligent’, which is why, he argues…