Air France and British Airways have announced that later this year they will retire all of their Concordes from commercial service. For many Americans the Concorde has always been a bit of a joke, a prime example of what happens when bureaucrats pursue prestige through engineering. By the early 1960s US private firms were clearly ahead of European jet makers. The governments of France and the UK launched a joint project to outdo the Americans at their own game, by designing a supersonic jet that would restore European technological preeminence. After years of experimentation at vast public expense, the Anglo-French designers had made an engineering wonder with little hope of ever turning a profit.