Popular Nostalgia

Concorde quickly became a symbol of technological advance and British pride despite being a joint enterprise with the French government.

More than 2.5 million passengers flew supersonically on British Airways’ Concorde since she entered commercial service in 1976. The most frequent passenger, an oil company executive, clocked up almost 70 round trip transatlantic crossings a year. A return to New York cost supersonic passengers £6,290 plus tax. Watch this video of her maiden flight.

History

Supersonic airline research in Europe began in 1956 and resulted in the British and French Governments signing an international treaty for the joint design, development and manufacture of a supersonic airliner six years later. The first prototype was rolled out at Toulouse in 1967 and since then, there have been a number of notable dates in the history of Concorde.

29 November 1962

British Aircraft Corporation and leading French airline company, Sud Aviation, agree to design and manufacture jointly a 100-seat supersonic airliner.

January 1963

A British Aircraft Corporation executive comes up with the name ‘Concorde’ by flicking through a thesaurus.

May 1963

It is agreed that Concorde components will be built at only one place but that assembly lines will be at both Filton and Toulouse. The UK will manufacture 60 per cent of the engine and 40 per cent of the airframe.

11 December 1967

The first supersonic prototype, 001, is rolled out.

2 March 1969
First flight of Concorde 001 from Toulouse France -limited to 250 knots and 10,000 ft altitude.

9 April 1969
First flight of Concorde 002 from Filton, Bristol, UK to its test centre at Fairford.

1 October 1969
Concorde’s first supersonic flight.

4 November 1970

Concorde 001 achieves Mach 2 and 002 follows eight days later.

June 1971

Concorde 001 makes the first intercontinental flight to Dakar, West Africa (2500 miles) in 2 hours 7 minutes. Work begins on two pre-production Concordes (01 and 02).

28 June 1972
Concorde 002 begins a 45,000 miles sales tour of 12 countries in the Middle East and Australia. British Airways (BOAC) orders five Concordes.

20 September 1973
Concorde 002 lands at Dallas/ Fort Worth on first visit to the USA.

26 September 1973

Pre-production Concorde 02 flies from Washington to Paris in a record time of 3 hours 33 minutes.

6 December 1973

The first production Concorde (201) makes her maiden flight from Toulouse reaching Mach 1.57. The first UK-built production Concorde (202) flies supersonic two months later.

17 June 1974
Concorde makes its first double Atlantic crossing in one day.

5 December 1975
UK Civil Aviation Authority awards Concorde its Certificate of Airworthiness.

21 January 1976
British Airways commences commercial supersonic travel from London to Bahrain. Concorde’s first airline service is broadcast live on television. British Airways’ Concorde 206 takes off from Heathrow for Bahrain as Air France’s Concorde 205 leaves Paris for Rio de Janeiro via Dakar.

24 May 1976

The Washington service is opened from London and Paris. British Airways lands its Concorde at Washington just ahead of the Air France Concorde finishing in a nose-to-nose point in front of the control tower.

22 November 1977
British Airways Concorde’s first London – New York commercial flight. Route opened from London to New York (Concorde had been barred from this route because of noise pollution).

20th April 1979

The final Concorde from the twin production lines at Filton and in Toulouse, 216, makes her maiden flight from Filton without any airline livery. (During her flying career, Concorde 216 is to fly 18,257 hours, make 5,639 supersonic flights and complete 6,045 landings.)

13 June 1980

Concorde 216 is delivered to British Airways and flies in service with the registration that she carries today, G-BOAF.
8 November 1986
First round the world flight by a British Airways Concorde – covering 28,238 miles in 29 hours 59 minutes.

7 February 1996
Concorde G-BOAD crosses the Atlantic between New York and London in a new record flight time of 2 hours, 52 minutes and 59 seconds.

11 August 1999
Two British Airways Concordes fly in supersonic formation to chase the total eclipse of the sun.

7 November 2001
British Airways re-launches its scheduled services to New York.

4 June 2002
Concorde flies up the Mall with the Red Arrows to celebrate the Queen’s Golden Jubilee.

24 October 2003
Concorde makes it’s last commercial flight from New York to London.

Statistics

Concorde measures 204ft in length – stretching between six and ten inches in-flight due to heating of the airframe. She is painted in a specially developed white paint to accommodate these changes and to dissipate the heat generated by supersonic flight. The wingspan is 83ft 8ins – much less than conventional subsonic aircraft as Concorde flies in totally a different way using “Vortex Lift” to achieve her exceptional performance. The height is 37ft 1ins. The characteristic droop nose is lowered to improve pilots’ visibility for take-off and landing.

Power

Concorde’s four engines – specially designed Rolls-Royce/ Snecma Olympus 593s – give more than 38,000lbs of thrust each, with ‘reheat’. This adds fuel to the final stage of the engine to produce the extra power required for take-off and the transition to supersonic flight. They are the most powerful pure jet engines flying commercially.

Speed

Concorde takes off at 220 knots (250mph) (compared with 165 knots for most subsonic aircraft). She cruises at around 1350mph – more than twice the speed of sound – and at an altitude of up to 60,000 ft (over 11 miles high). A typical London to New York crossing would take a little less than three and a half hours as opposed to about eight hours for a subsonic flight. Travelling Westwards, the five-hour time difference meant Concorde effectively arrived before she left. She travels “faster than the sun”.