Concorde was jointly developed and produced by Aérospatiale and the British Aircraft Corporation (BAC) under an Anglo-French treaty. Concorde's name reflects the development agreement between the United Kingdom and France. A total of 20 aircraft were built in France and the United Kingdom; six of these were prototypes and development aircraft. Seven each were delivered to Air France and British Airways. With only 20 aircraft built, the development of Concorde was a substantial economic loss; Air France and British Airways received considerable government subsidies to purchase them.
The Aerospatiale-BAC Concorde supersonic transport (SST) was the more successful of the only two supersonic passenger airliners to have ever operated commercially, the Tupolev Tu-144 being the other.
The first flight was in 1969, piloted by Andre Turcat. Concorde had a maximum speed over twice the speed of sound at Mach 2.04, with seating for 92 to 128 passengers. Concorde entered service in 1976 and continued commercial flights for 27 years until 2003. It flew regular transatlantic flights from London Heathrow (British Airways) and Paris Charles de Gaulle (Air France) to New York JFK and Washington Dulles, flying these routes at record speeds, in under half the time of other airliners. Concorde also set many other records, including the official FAI "Westbound Around The World" and "Eastbound Around the World" world air speed records. Over time the aircraft became profitable when it found a customer base willing to pay for flights on what was for most of its career the fastest commercial aircraft in the world. The aircraft is regarded by many people as an aviation icon and an engineering marvel.
Concorde was retired in 2003 due to a general downturn in the aviation industry after the type's only crash in 2000, the 11 September terrorist attacks in 2001, and a decision by Airbus, the successor firm of Aérospatiale and BAC, to discontinue maintenance support.
(See Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concorde )
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Years Manufactured:
1965 - 1979
Platform Type: Fixed Wing, Passenger
Initial Maker: Aérospatiale-BAC
Final Maker:
Aérospatiale-BAC
