Robert W asked:
Have we really taken a step backwards? Suppose a real life “Jack Bauer” had to get from NYC to London to save the world. On Concorde this used to be possible in 3 hours or so. Today, on a normal jet, it takes over 7 hours. Is there a Mach 2 (or above) aircraft that is capable of flying non-stop, without refuelling, from NYC to London any more?
. . . and I mean is it at all possible. Say the US Government needed to fly someone to London as fast as possible or a nuclear bomb would blow up in New York (but for some weird reason no refuelling was possible). Does the human race have any piece of machinery capable of this any more?
According to the website ( http://www.sr-71.org/blackbird/sr-71 ) - the SR71 is also no longer operational - the final bird flew in October 1999. So . . . any other suggestions for “Jack Bauer” 
Hmmm. Apparently the Tupolev Tu-160 is still in service and fully operational. It can fly at mach 2.05 and has a range of 7,640 miles ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tu-160 ). So we’d have to rely on the Russian Bear to save New York. What have we done with our technology . . . . . !!!!!