Overview

The Aérospatiale-BAC Concorde supersonic transport (SST), along with the Tupolev Tu-144, was one of only two models of supersonic passenger airliners ever to have been operated commercially. First flown in 1969, Concorde service commenced in 1976 and continued for 27 years. It regularly flew from London Heathrow (British Airways) and Paris Charles de Gaulle (Air France) to New York JFK. During its service life, it set many records including a record flight time of 2 hours, 52 minutes and 59 seconds between New York and London, on 7 February 1996. Following its only crash in 2000, and the September 11, 2001 attacks, operations ceased in 2003.

The plane's costly development phase represented a substantial economic loss for the French and British governments, although it made large operating profits for British Airways for much of its service life. In retirement, Concorde remains an icon of aircraft history.

Concorde had an average cruise speed of Mach 2.02 (an airspeed of around 2,140 km/h or 1,330 mph) with a maximum cruise altitude of 60,000 feet (18,300 metres). It was an ogival delta-winged aircraft with four Olympus engines based on those originally developed for the Avro Vulcan strategic bomber. The engines were jointly built by Rolls-Royce and SNECMA, the latter gaining its first foothold in civil aviation turbojet engine manufacturing. Concorde was the first civil airliner to be equipped with an analogue fly-by-wire flight control system. It employed a trademark droop snoot lowering nose section for visibility on approach and sported taxi and landing lights that retracted flush to its body to reduce drag. Commercial flights operated by British Airways and Air France began on 21 January 1976 and ended on 24 October 2003, with the last "retirement" flight on 26 November that year.

In regular service, Concorde employed a relatively efficient cruise-climb. As aircraft lose weight from consuming fuel, they can fly at progressively higher altitudes. This is (generally) more efficient, so conventional airliners employ a stepped climb, where air traffic control will approve a change to a higher flight level as the flight progresses. With no other civil traffic operating at her cruise altitude, dedicated Oceanic airways across the Atlantic were allocated in which Concorde would be cleared in a 10,000' block, allowing her to slowly climb from 50,000 to 60,000 feet during her crossing. Throughout the entire landing approach, Concorde was on the "back side" of the drag curve.

In the late 1950s, the United Kingdom, France, United States and Soviet Union were considering developing supersonic transport.

Britain's Bristol Aeroplane Company and France's Sud Aviation were both working on designs, called the Type 233 and Super-Caravelle, respectively. Both were largely funded by their respective governments.[2] The British design was for a trans-Atlantic-ranged aircraft for around 100 people, while the French were intending to concentrate on a medium-range sector.

The designs were both ready to start prototype construction in the early 1960s, but the cost was so great that the British government made it a requirement that BAC look for international co-operation. Approaches were made to a number of countries, but only France showed real interest. The development project was negotiated as an international treaty between the two countries rather than a commercial agreement between companies and included a clause, originally asked for by Britain, issuing penalties for cancellation (Britain's Treasury would later twice come close to cancelling the project). A draft treaty was signed on 28 November 1962. By this time, both companies had been merged into new ones, thus the Concorde project was now a part of the British Aircraft Corporation and Aerospatiale.

The consortium secured orders for over 100 new airliners from the premier airlines of the day. Pan Am, BOAC and Air France were the launch customers with six Concordes each. Other airlines in the order book included: Panair do Brasil, Japan Airlines, Lufthansa, American Airlines, United Airlines, Air Canada, Braniff, Iran Air, Qantas, CAAC, Middle East Airlines and TWA.

The aircraft was initially referred to in Britain as "Concorde," with the French spelling, but was officially changed to "Concord" by Harold Macmillan in response to a perceived slight by Charles de Gaulle. In 1967, at the French roll-out in Toulouse the British Government Minister for Technology, Tony Benn announced that he would change the spelling back to "Concorde."[3] This created a nationalist uproar that died down when Benn stated that the suffixed "e" represented "Excellence, England, Europe and Entente (Cordiale)." In his memoirs, he recounts a tale of a letter from an irate Scotsman claiming: "you talk about 'E' for England, but part of it is made in Scotland." Given Scotland's contribution of providing the nose cone for the aircraft, Benn replied "it was also 'E' for 'Ecosse' (the French name for Scotland) —and I might have added 'e' for extravagance and 'e' for escalation as well!"[4]

Construction of two prototypes began in February 1965: Concorde 001, built by Aerospatiale at Toulouse, and Concorde 002, by BAC at Filton, Bristol. Concorde 001 made her first test flight from Toulouse on 2 March 1969 and first went supersonic on 1 October. As the flight programme progressed, 001 embarked on a sales and demonstration tour on 4 September 1971. Concorde 002 followed suit on 2 June 1972 with a tour of the Middle and Far East. Concorde 002 made the first visit to the United States in 1973, landing at the new Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport to commemorate the airport's opening.

These trips led to orders for over 70 aircraft. However, a combination of factors led to a sudden number of order cancellations. The 1973 oil crisis (Concorde used more fuel per passenger mile than her subsonic competitors), acute financial difficulties of the partner airlines, a spectacular crash of the competing Soviet Tupolev Tu-144, along with environmental concerns such as the sonic boom, take-off noise and pollution. Eventually, only Air France and British Airways, (the successor to BOAC) took up their orders, with the two governments continuing to take a cut of any profits made. In the case of BA, 80% of the profit was kept by the government until 1984, while the cost of buying the aircraft was covered by a state loan.[5]

The United States had cancelled its supersonic transport (SST) program in 1971. Two designs had been submitted; the Lockheed L-2000, looking like a scaled-up Concorde, lost out to the Boeing 2707, which had originally been intended to be faster, carry 300 passengers and feature a swing-wing design. Industry observers in France and the United Kingdom[citation needed] suggested that part of the American opposition to Concorde on grounds of noise pollution was, in fact, orchestrated by, or at least encouraged by, the United States Government, out of spite at not being able to propose a viable competitor, despite President John F. Kennedy's impassioned 1963 statement of commitment.[6] Other countries, such as Malaysia, also ruled out Concorde supersonic overflights due to noise concerns.

Both European airlines flew demonstration and test flights from 1974 onwards. The testing of Concorde set records that still have not been surpassed; it undertook 5,335 flight hours in the prototype, pre-production and first production aircraft alone. A total of 2,000 test hours were at supersonic speeds. This statistic equates to approximately four times as many as similarly sized subsonic commercial aircraft. Unit costs were £23 million (US$46 million) in 1977. Development cost overrun was 600%.

Concorde had restrictions on its livery; the majority of the surface had to be white to avoid overheating the aluminium structure due to the supersonic heating effects of Mach 2.[36] In 1996, however, Air France briefly painted F-BTSD in a predominantly blue livery (with the exception of its wings) as part of a promotional deal with Pepsi Cola. In this paint scheme, Air France were advised to remain at Mach 2 for no more than twenty minutes at a time, but there was no restriction at speeds under Mach 1.7. F-BTSD was chosen for the promotion because she was not then scheduled to operate any long flights that would require extended Mach 2 operations.

On all the Concordes that had a supersonic flight before retirement, the flight engineers placed their hats in the gap that appears at high speed between the console and the bulkhead before it cooled, where the hats remain to this day. However, in the case of the Seattle museum's Concorde, a protruding cap was cut off by a thief in an apparent attempt to steal it, leaving a part behind. An amnesty led to the severed cap being returned; the museum has been examining options to reattach it in some way. * During the multi-venue Live Aid, when famine relief concerts were held on 13 July 1985, pop star Phil Collins flew a Concorde from London so that he could perform at both venues (London and Philadelphia) on the same day.

The speed of sound varies greatly with the air temperature, meaning that if Concorde entered a warm pocket of air, her speed could increase from Mach 2.0 to more than Mach 2.04, without her actual velocity changing. The speed of sound is around 332 m/s at standard temperature and pressure.