Concorde

The Aérospatiale-BAC Concorde supersonic transport (SST), along with the Tupolev Tu-144, was one of only two models of supersonic passenger airliners to have seen commercial service. First flown in 1969, Concorde service commenced in 1976. more...

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It regularly flew from London Heathrow (British Airways) and Paris Charles de Gaulle (Air France) to New York JFK. However, it never fully recovered from its only crash in 2000, and, for economic reasons post 9/11, operations ceased in 2003. Its development represented a major 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.

General features

Concorde had an average cruise speed of Mach 2.02 (an airspeed of around 2140 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 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.

Design and development

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. 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.

Read more at Wikipedia.org