Why was the Concorde retired in 2003?  Not because it wasn’t making money. The accident in 2000 had some effect, certainly, but by 2002 the planes were flying back at 90% capacity.  Then, out of the blue in April 2003 BA & AF announced the retirement of the Concorde, which came as a complete surprise to everyone flying the planes.  The Pilots Union negotiated with BA to continue flying until November 2003.  But AF decided to stop flying immediately. A few factors influenced these decisions.  The Paris accident; it took a while to get customer confidence back.  The Gulf War II, disintegrating French-US relations and the fuel crisis played bigger parts.  Air France decided to stop flying to some degree due to the boycotting American things in France (as American were boycotting French things) over the disagreement about Gulf War.

When AF’s passenger load fell dramatically, they made the decision to abandon the aircraft.  In addition, Airbus, the manufacturer, made it clear to BA that they didn’t want the airline to continue flying Concorde.  Orders for Concorde dropped because the 747 had just been introduced with a huge passenger load; airlines that ordered the Concorde decided they couldn’t afford a plane with such small passenger load and one that guzzled fuel so badly. The Concorde burns 4x as much fuel per passenger mile than a subsonic airplane – which is a concern during a fuel crisis. But noise is the much more significant issue.

Take-off noise was immense; even in the beginning the planes had to be modified to meet the standards of the day – today those standards have been lowered, and current engines are just too loud. Only 1 manufacturer, Boom Supersonic, is working on a hybrid. Sonic boom is the other issue. Maybe fly faster at lower levels? The FAA changed the rules about SST over land and are in the process of defining what degree of boom will be acceptable, a positive move. Currently, Lockheed Martin has an experimental plane flying in test, so maybe in the next few years we may see something. Boom Supersonic actually has lots of preorders for their concept plane called Overture – UA ordered 15 planes with an option for 35, and other airlines also have pre-orders. The US government and military is interested as well, which will bring in funds that Boom needs to continue.

Essentially, an overview of Canada and its history:  The country is the 2^nd largest country area-wise in the world at 3.85 million sq miles, is 70% uninhabited with a population of 40 million.  There are 10 Canadian provinces with 3 territories in the sparsely populated north.  The colors on the flag are red for hope and tranquility, white for prosperity; The national tree is Maple; national animal is the beaver, Atlantic cod is the national fish.  Early history includes the First Nations: Innuit in the north, Iroquois along the St. Lawrence River, Mi’kmaq in PEI and eastern areas, Haida on the west coast – who were considered the Vikings of the pacific northwest.

Explorers: John Cabot who landed on the continent and called it the New Found Land; Jacques Cartier who explored St. Lawrence River for France in 1535, the first French claimed territory; Champlain, founder of Quebec in 1608 who oversaw French colonization;  Henry Hudson sailing for the Dutch, trying to discover a route to Asia (all the explorers were!) when his crew mutinied and set him afloat in an open boat never to be seen again –  the Hudson river and Hudson bay named for him. The War of 1812; the peace treaty between the US and Brits who had control of a lot of Canada at the time. The Native Tribes that helped win a lot of the battles, including Chief Tecumseh and the birth of the Dominion of Canada in 1867.  Very informative and interesting history about our neighbor to the North.

Yes!  All about DNA, CODIS and Forensic Genealogy.  We talk about the 250,000 unsolved cases in the US that is increasing at a rate of 6,000 per year.  He explains the different Indices in CODIS: 1) Forensic Index which has over 1.4 million DNA samples looking for a suspect; 2) Convicted Offender Index which has 18 million profiles, but only for those convicts after they are released from prison (which seems really odd, why aren’t they put into the database when they are sent to prison?), and 3) Arrestee Index which has 6 million profiles from the 31 states that participate, providing DNA if the person is arrested, not just convicted.  Since CODIS was initiated – sponsored by Clinton in 1994 – there have been over 754,000 hits with 732,000 investigations that benefited.  Cool.

Next he talks about the Grim Sleeper murderer from California who killed between 1995 & 1998, taking a break until 2002 to 2007 when he killed again.  10 victims, all woman, all shot with same gun.  He left DNA at every scene by there were no matches.  In 2008, California decided to do a familial match within their DNA database (CODIS does not allow this type of matching), yielding results in 2010, identifying a male relative who turned out to be the son of the person leaving DNA in the Grim Sleeper crimes.  From there they found Lonnie David Franklin (the dad) who was the killer, convicted of the crime in 2016 and jailed for the rest of his life.  After further research, it turns out he didn’t take a break – he killed an additional 11 women during those years, and catch this – was arrested 15 times, but somehow managed to avoid having his DNA taken for one reason or another.  Wild.

He wraps up the lecture with the Golden State Killer – 13 murders, 50 assaults, 100 burglaries from 1976-1986; DNA at every scene, no fingerprints, a physical description. Through DNA they traced the family down to 1000 individuals, then narrowed that down further to 2 people, finally identifying the suspect and gaining evidence through fingerprints on a car door handle and DNA from a Kleenex in his trash.  34 years later!  In 2020, he was arrested at the age of 79 and sentenced for life. 

There was also a case from 1975 in Lancaster, PA – The Italian Connection – where a 19-year-old woman was killed in her apartment with absolutely no clues, except blood left by the murderer in the hallway and on the carpet.  There was no DNA forensics in 1975, so the blood just sat until 1985 when they could test it.  The case lagged until 2019 when a Cold Case department was formed in Lancaster.  The team then traced the familial DNA back to an Italian town in Calabria, then matched all the individuals who lived in Lancaster whose family came from that town.  Turns out a former classmate who lived in the same apartment complex killed her and got away with it until 2020 when he was arrested and sentenced to 50 years with no parole.  Absolutely incredible.  Great lecture we are so glad we were able to see it live!