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That's because it used an afterburner to fly through the atmosphere like a fighter jet.

Actually, it didn't. The afterburners were only used on takeoff, and during the accelleration from Mach 1 to about 1.7. For the second part, afterburning wasn't strictly necessary, but turned out to be more efficient than accelleration on dry thrust.
Can't find good data on required runway length, but Concorde typically took off at 400 km/h, which is rather high. Accelleration from dry thrust may not have been enough to achieve 400 km/h on a typical runway.

IOW, people who refer to the F-22's supercruise ability as something new or unique, are wrong. Concorde could do this. (So could the English Electric P.1, prototype for the EE Lightning, by the way).

There are two prototypes of the TSR-2 at museums in the UK. I saw the one at Duxford before it was put into temporary storage, and it realy is most impressive.

Alledgedly, it was also US pressure on Britain that had the TSR.2 canceled - http://www.thunder-and-lightnings.co.uk/tsr2/index .html

Actually, only the partially completed airframes were scrapped. There is one prototype TSR2 at the Imperial War Museum, Duxford and another at the RAF museum, Cosford.
http://www.thunder-and-lightnings.co.uk/tsr2/survi vors.html

Engine technology has advanced a bit more than you suggested, especially for supersonic aircraft. Chief example is the F-22 that can fly supersonic without afterburner.
Actually, the P.1A prototypes for the English Electric Lightning could supercruise back in 1954, albeit only in a 'clean' (no weapons) configuration.

Damn right there mate. Britain used to be a pioneering country when it came to technology. Massive amounts of money flooding in from trading throughout the empire fuelled the industrail revolution and Engineers and technologists were practically hailed as heroes.

Unfortunately, all that ended when the last vestiges of empire faded between the 1940s and 60's and Britain's industries (particularly aviation) crumbled. In the 10 years from the abandonment of TSR2 the British motorbike industry collapsed because no one saw the japanese getting anywhere and the 80's saw the death of just about anything else that the UK had been good at.

Once Maggie had dragged us into the "age of accountants" I don't think anyone really cared anymore and celeb worship took over. Blair has taken celeb worship to excess and being seen in the company of rich and famous people like Bush and Gates gives him that feeling of self importance that being Prime Minister of the UK just can't provide any more.

So finally, don't expect the Blair government to put Open Source before Microsoft for anything other than minor, token gesture roles. Improved security, stability, Open Standards and whatever you may put forward as reaosns to go for FOSS mean nothing to the UK gov. compared to the "kudos" of a photo shoot with Tony's smug "look at me, I'm with Bill Gates, I'm soooooo important". Behaviour like this is usually due a) being bullied at school b)lacking in self confidence c) being hung like a squirrel.

Choose your preferred option. I just wish they'd piss off and let people who know what there doing have a chance. After all, it's all very well being the worlds 4th largest economy but if you pour money into Monopolies and can't see anything wrong with predatory behaviour and corruption, opps, corporate lobbying it ain't worth jack.

Nope - the original and best: the English Eclectic Frightning. Not that they had a great range - they were built for a re-run of the Battle of Britain to intercept supersonic bombers. There are records of one landing after an eight minute demo flight down to normal reserves. Latterly they were used for patrolling the Iceland Gap - refuel twice on the way up, and twice on the way back: sounds a bit of a lonely place to earn a living.

And since we're on the great British bad decisions for aviation - the TSR2. Would have wiped the floor with anything else in the skies, cancelled in a crappy deal to buy inferior F111s (which we never bought). Oh and it looks beautiful.

Best wishes,
Mike.

The other big white bird of British aviation - the TSR 2. Utterly magnificent but doomed from the start.

If you ever get a chance to visit Duxford, do check out the TSR2.

And for an even older design which still looks good, it has to be the Comet 1 - just a shame about that minor design flaw...

Best wishes,
Mike.