Concorde

Concorde was a Franco-British commercial supersonic airliner developed and manufactured by Aérospatiale (France) and the British Aircraft Corporation. It entered service in 1976 with Air France and British Airways and was retired in 2003. The name evokes concord and cooperation between the two countries.

Development began during the 1960s as part of the Anglo-French Supersonic Transport program. The prototype first flew in 1969, signaling the advent of civilian supersonic travel. Concorde was designed for long-range transatlantic routes and offered high speed at the expense of fuel efficiency and operating costs.

Technically, Concorde used a slender delta wing and a drooping nose to improve visibility on takeoff and landing. It was powered by four afterburning Rolls-Royce/Snecma Olympus 593 engines and carried around 92 to 128 passengers depending on configuration. Its cruise speed was about Mach 2.04, roughly 1,350 mph (2,180 km/h), with a typical range around 7,000 km.

Operationally, Concorde served mainly international routes between Europe and North America, most notably Paris and London to New York. While capable of cutting trip times significantly, the aircraft required long mission planning, substantial maintenance, and high ticket prices, limiting its market.

On 25 July 2000, Air France Flight 4590 crashed shortly after takeoff from Paris, leading to the fleet’s grounding for over a year and, following economic pressures and changing aviation markets, its retirement in 2003. Since then, no passenger supersonic airliner has entered service, though interest in eco-conscious, high-speed travel persists. Some Concordes are preserved in museums.