They advertise the indigo skies, that sublime moment when the passengers of the Concorde actually see the curvature of the Earth fade into the darkness of space. Flying the Concorde is unarguably an aesthetic experience.
But the reality is that the Concorde is less about poetry than it is about its own sovereign nation of speed, a country where saving three hours' flying time is worth spending any amount of money. And there is, of course, exclusivity.
Singer Diana Ross was waiting to board the Concorde when she was arrested on suspicion of drugs last September. (The Brunei royal family was aboard the same flight.)
Last year the Duchess of York, Sarah Ferguson, made the three-hour, 20-minute flight from London to New York on the "Conc", arriving in half the time a subsonic jet would take.
Elton John, Margaret Thatcher, Bruce Willis, Madonna and Julia Roberts also are frequent Concorde passengers, Faye Franco and Eleni Mountanos told USA Today. They assist British Airways' VIP Concorde passengers at New York's John F. Kennedy Airport.
But it is not celebrities who make up the bulk of passengers. "It's really become a business person's tool," says British Airways' spokesman Mr John Lampl, who estimates that 80 per cent of Concorde passengers are businessmen or businesswomen.
While the aged planes are set to expire by 2017 - and there are no manufacturing plans for a new Concorde - there has been a recent upsurge in people flying the costly routes.
"Prosperity - you can see it in the way people travel," says Ms Rina Anoussi, owner of the Travel Business in New York. "They say: `Any money, just get me there. It has to be the right room, the first three rows of the Concorde'."
Those who actually travel by Concorde say speed is the deciding factor, far greater than comfort.
Ms Frances Preston, president and chief executive officer of BMI, the huge New York performing rights corporation, said: "Everybody thinks it so luxurious. But it really it like flying tourist class. The seats are so small, there is no wide partition between the seats. So you and your fellow passengers are always fighting for elbow room.
"But the fact that it gets there quickly makes up for discomfort. And once they serve the meals - which they do practically for the entire three hours - you can't walk through aisles. So it is confining. But the soaring feeling is great and the fact that it gets there in three hours helps prevent jet lag."
Ms Preston, who says she last used frequent flyer miles to upgrade to the Concorde, says she was planning to fly again in several weeks and has yet to decide if she will do so or not following the crash.
Another Concorde traveller was an immediate convert.
"It's no hype," said Greta Van Susteran, a legal analyst for CNN who first flew on the Concorde with her mother in 1994. "It's hard to describe the feeling. The sky turns pitch black. You know you are out there. When you break the speed of sound you read it digitally on the wall. But you also feel it somehow.
Ms Van Susteran describes the plane, which is said to bend in flight, as a small tube, a compartment that, while luxurious, is not nearly as spacious as a traditional first-class compartment.
These people and others listened in sadness as news was broadcast of the first crash of a Concorde in its 30-year history. It was fast, it had never crashed. The question on their minds, as news of other safety concerns began to emerge, will linger; is the Concorde still worth it?