The Concorde, first launched in 1977, was a joint British-French governmental venture to create a commercial, passenger supersonic jet. It ran over budget (six times over, actually) and was banned in various spots around the world (including New York City, temporarily) due to concerns over safety and the thundering sonic booms that resulted from the jet's breaking of the sound barrier. It lost a tremendous amount of money for both England and France and ran its final flight in 2003, at that point a bit outdated—the cockpit, while impressively techy in 1979, was full of analog dials and displays that looked silly in the 21st century. Only 20 Concordes were made, and there was no real motivation to update them, due both to a lack of competition and a distinct lack of profitability. Yet it was also an iconic, incredible achievement, capable of flying New York City to Paris in 3.5 hours, and still current holder of a ton of speed records.

Nothing we have now can touch it. A flight from NYC to Paris today takes over seven hours, compared to the 3.5 it took the Concorde. Plane travel has, for better or for worse, become more about economy than luxury, speed, and style. Sure, a cross-country flight on Southwest will only run you $150, but there's no thrill, no sense of the cutting-edge. The Concorde had those qualities in spades.

While researching the Concorde, I found a lot of interesting sidenotes to the story. For one, many of the same design team that created the Concorde went on to engineer the Airbus, the populist economy plane of our modern, boring times. But funniest to me is the continual hatred the British have of the French, and how it manifested in the forced alliance between the two countries to build the Concorde.

In response to a "perceived slight" by the French President Charles de Gaulle, British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan pulled what I now think of as a Bushian move: He changed the spelling of "Concorde" to the more "English" Concord. Even funnier, when the British Minister for Technology, Tony Benn, later changed the spelling back, there was mass nationalistic outrage in England. To diffuse it, Benn had to specify that the reconstituted E on the end of the word stood for "Excellence, England, Europe and Entente (Cordiale)." Yeah, right, Benn. I'm sure the E stood for England. Unbelievably, this quelled the Francophobe anger, though Benn would later mutter about how ridiculous the whole mess was in his memoirs.

We'll take our iPhones over 1979's Walkmans, and thank god for internet porn. But just one time, we'd like to break the sound barrier while crossing the Atlantic.

Gizmodo '79 is a week-long celebration of gadgets and geekdom 30 years ago, as the analog age gave way to the digital, and most of our favorite toys were just being born.

The plane, dubbed Alpha Bravo, was slated to be shown off at Heathrow but now, according to British papers, it may be "cut into pieces" and sent to Dubai. Six of the planes are already in museums, and this puppy isn't fit for flight anyway, as it wasn't given the safety upgrade that the others got after that 2000 Paris crash.

Still, some people are sad to think of the last of the skinny-but-mighty supersonic passenger jets sitting on top of a cruiseliner with its wings literally clipped. [Telegraph UK]

The first part of the run will be propelled by a jet engine, originally designed for the Eurofighter. After the Bloodhound reached 300mph, propulsion duties will be taken over by an experimental "bespoke" hybrid rocket, during which time the driver will be subjected to 2.5Gs of acceleration force until he hits 1050 mph. The whole process will take about 40 seconds, amazingly.Naturally, possible blackouts, horrific crashes and mechanical malfunctions are all in the cards here. Dont' worry though — according to the Times, he is preparing in the most ludicrous way possible: "He will practice... in a stunt aircraft, flying upside-down over the British countryside." No date for the run has been set, but we should get a few more details after the Minister Drayson's formal announcement today. [Times Online]

The North American Eagle is a joint Canadian-American attempt at reclaiming the world land speed record, and it really is built from a salvaged F-104. Co-owner Ed Shadle spotted the 1957-vintage aircraft in a scrapyard in 1998 and bought it for $25,000, and it's taken ten years of work to turn it into a record-worthy road vehicle with a predicted top speed of 835 mph. That's a mile in 4.3 seconds apparently, but that kind of performance doesn't come cheap: each test run sets the team back $18,000 in parts and fuel since the gas-guzzling engine gulps 160 gallons per minute. Hence the search for a "good looking" driver who'll be able to pull in sponsors, says Ed.

Still, it turns out the original plane was once flown by Chuck Yeager himself, which must bode well for the upcoming record-breaking attempts, don't you think? The competition for the pilot/driver is real, and it's open to global contenders: all you have to do is send in a photo and a 400-word email outlining your credentials. The chance to rocket along the ground faster than your own sound waves is one heck of a prize. [The Times Online]

Unlike other aircraft fuel efforts, like hydrogen-fueled planes or vodka with Red Bull, the synthetic fuel used in the B-1B is actually derived from natural gas using the Fischer-Tropsch process. The 50% synthetic fuel and 50% petroleum gases mixture, however, is as capable as regular fuel, feeding with ease the B-1B's four General Electric F101-GE-102 augmented turbofans and pushing the variable sweep-winged bomber at Mach 1.25 to its objective, where it can launch AGM-69A short-range nuclear missiles, drop 24 Mk84 bombs or spread a lot of good will and clean air.

According to the USAF, the fuel is still under test after trying it successfully in this B-1B and the subsonic B-52 Stratofortress. They are aiming "to have every aircraft using synthetic fuel blends by 2011," according to Maj. Don Rhymer from the Air Force Alternative Fuels Certification Office. My favorite quote, however, comes from Captain Rick Fournier, the B-1B commander:

It's great to be part of an Air Force initiative that is also helping the environment, Captain Fournier said. "Using a fuel that is cheaper and cleaner ... what could be better?"

Rick, if Senator McCarthy was still around, you would be in jail by now. Damn you hippies in the military! Damn you! [Military.com, Boeing and Wikipedia]

A machometer, the bit of kit that registered exactly when the plane broke the speed of sound, fetched $34,700. And the landing gear — just where exactly in his (only a man would, I think, buy this) house is the new owner going to show that off: in the guest bathroom?— went for the same amount of money. [Concorde Encheres and Daily Mail]

To put that speed into perspective, it would take 0.14s to download a DVD and only 3s to get your mitts on a HD-DVD. Mr. Löthberg carried out the procedure to demonstrate the viability of such speeds in a residential context.

If Internet connections do ever become this fast, your porn collection is likely to grow beyond the point you can feasibly hide it and everyone will know you for the pervert you are. That said, not everyone will have such perverse uses, certainly not the homeowner herself... Mr. Löthberg's 75yr old mother! [Newlaunches]

The way the QSST is able to keep itself so quiet lies in its aerodynamics. Instead of creating two large booms like most supersonic planes, the QSST is designed to create many smaller ones. (boom, boom boom, boom, boom.)

Gizmodo sure could use one of these to get to all of the tech conventions around the world. Especially since I get so bored on long flights that Chen said that I'm like sitting next to a toddler.– Ben Longo

All Sonic, No Boom [PopSci]

Is there any low-end gadget more ubiquitous than the clock radio? There's nary a fleabag motel room in the world, from Oklahoma City to Ouagadougou, that doesn't have one of these slumber-piercing marvels of digital technology perched upon the nightstand. How, exactly, did mankind awake before the clock radio's invention? Did folks actually have to forego the screechy pleasures of Mike and Mike in the Morning at 6:30 a.m.? The mind boggles.

Most clock radios, alas, are pretty straightforward affairs—your basic molded plastic boxes with dials and snooze bars. Fortunately, some budget-conscious product designers have rolled the ball ever-so-slightly forward in the clock-radio realm. This week, Low End Theory went in search of the most innovative clock radios on the market, provided they were priced under the magic $20 barrier. Because, honestly, who has more than $20 to spend on a frickin' clock radio? Certainly not a motel proprietor in Burkina Faso.

The full rundown of affordable, semi-marvelous clock radios comes after the jump. PLUS: Who's got the skinny on Supersonic?

Before I get to the bargains, first let me drop a little wisdom regarding the clock radio's glorious history. Luxury vendor Bulova claims to have invented the gadget back in 1928, but the good folks at Smithsonian magazine say it ain't so. This 1997 snippet depicts a 1921 handwound version, which I'm sure did an excellent job of picking up the one or two radio stations in existence at the time. (Super-geek bit of trivia, courtesy of Wikipedia: the world's first radio news program was broadcast out of Detroit in 1920.)

Of course, clock radios didn't start getting seriously low-end until the advent of foreign manufacturing and digital displays. Nowadays, you can pick up a perfectly serviceable model for under $10, provided you don't care a whit about style and reception quality.

Now, reception quality I can do without: I need a little fuzzed-out blather to get me up, and I've got my laptop-stereo-WEFUNK combo to satisfy my musical needs. But no way I'm giving up on style, even with a light wallet. And so the Conairphone TCR200 (picture above) is like manna from heaven. Totally a chocolate-and-peanut-butter combination, except with an "oversized snooze button" and (get this spec) "AM/FM tuning." You mean they have FM now? Sweet. And yours for only $14.02.

My snooping around revealed that the biggest recent innovation in the clock-radio space is projection—that is, the clocks will cast the time on the wall opposite your bed, so you needn't twist your head toward the nightstand at 3 a.m. The best-looking model I could dredge up comes from jWin, a Low End Theory favorite. For some reason, it totally reminds me of Twiki from the 1979-1981 TV version of Buck Rogers in the 25th Century.

Given my fascination with geography, I'm also crushing on the SPEGLOBE, which is shaped like the planet and provides a reading lamp, to boot. The caveat here is that it comes from the realm of "business supplies," an industry not known for its high-quality gadgetry. Don't spin that globe too hard, or you'll end up cracking the LCD.

If you're more vintage-minded than the typical shopper, though, none of the current clock radios will do you right. Best, then, to turn to the virtual pages of eBay, for a throwback unit that can double as a doorstop: this gargantuan (22 inches long) model from Yorx. There is nothing in the seller's hype sheet about audio quality, but I'm willing to bet it's pretty good; this clock radio's so big and unwieldy, you'd almost think it had a tube preamp stashed in the rear. The winning bid of one Canadian dollar was already submitted, but you might still be able to wrest it away from the seller. Ask politely, offer another loonie, and prepare for many pleasant mornings of borderline white noise.

Got any leads on other fab clock radios under $20? I know that space constraints forced me to drop a few gems, like this unit partly inspired by the Weeble Wobbles. Tips and leads appreciated, as always; send 'em my way.

SUPERSONIC SKINNY?: I'm thinking about launching a semi-regular "Brand of the Moment" feature, to focus on mysterious low-end vendors whose wares you see everywhere. I'd like to start the series with an in-depth look at the Supersonic brand, but I'm sorta running into a brick wall on these blokes. Anyone know where they manufacture, and how they're able to offer such ridiculously low prices? One hunch I had is that they're merely rebranding jWin stuff, but I don't have much evidence to support that contention. Who's got the inside scoop? Drop me a line and let the sunshine filter through.

Brendan I. Koerner is a contributing editor at Wired and a columnist for both The New York Times and Slate. His Low End Theory column appear every Thursday on Gizmodo.

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