page_title: Anti-Concorde Project
section_title: Methodology
hierarchical_section_title: Anti-Concorde Project / Methodology
caption_attribution_description: English: Anti-Concorde Project (ACP) advertisement as it appeared in "The Times" on December 4, 1972, created by Richard Wiggs, founder of the ACP.
context_page_description: The Anti-Concorde Project, founded by environmental activist Richard Wiggs,
  challenged the idea of supersonic passenger transport, and curtailed Concorde's commercial prospects. When Concorde entered service in 1976, of the 74 options held at the time of the first flight, only those for the state airlines of Britain and France were taken up, so that only 20 were built, although flights were also flown for Braniff International and Singapore Airlines. It triggered research into the factors affecting the creation of sonic booms, which led to the Shaped Sonic Boom Demonstration which achieved their goal of reducing the intensity of sonic booms, and echoed public concern about aircraft noise that resulted in more restrictive noise limits for aircraft and airport operations, as well as changes in both operating procedures and aircraft design to further reduce noise levels.
context_section_description: Before the new Labour government took office in October 1964 with a £700m annual deficit, Government-funded "prestige projects" such as the Concorde (with escalating costs) had been shortlisted for cancellation. The 1962 development estimates for Concorde were £150-170m, and had risen to £280m. Evidence of financial mismanagement also emerged and the UK Treasury, responsible for tracking government spending, had not been involved in drawing up the Anglo-French agreement to build Concorde, and was not represented on the Concorde Finance Committee. The British government announced the cancellation of the Concord on 19 November but rescinded it the next day due to agreements with France and to the massive layoffs that would have resulted, but did cancel other projects. Wiggs believed that a strong enough lobby might have forced the cancellation. Wiggs began publishing claims about ozone depletion, sonic booms, airport noise, fuel consumption, potential profitability, and claimed that the taxpayer funded research and development costs would not be recovered for what he regarded as an "elitist and inherently unsafe" transport.
  Wiggs corresponded with newspaper editors and other correspondents, disputing claims by the British Aircraft Corporation (the British partner in building the Concorde) and by Government Ministers responsible for the program. Letter-writing only went so far, and so Wiggs began advertising in the national press, initially in New Scientist, New Society and the New Statesman, and later, full page advertisements in The Guardian, The Times, and The Observer. The advertisements argued against supersonic transport, and requested donations for further advertisements. Later advertisements included the names of contributors.
caption: Full page advertisement by Richard Wiggs for the Anti-Concorde Project, run in "The Times" in 1972.
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