It has been over half a century since Concorde took its first flight. Despite expectations to change the landscape of aviation, only 14 of the supersonic jets conducted commercial operations.
The fastest transatlantic crossing was conducted by a Concorde jet on February 7th, The plane flew from New York to London in under two hours and 53 minutes. Ultimately, these extraordinary abilities came at a price. Once the jets were in the hands of British Airways and Air France, they were able to maintain a healthy income stream for a while. Generally, fares were around 30 times greater than the cheapest fees for the era.
Ultimately, each flight only needed to be half full to break even. According to iNews , an investigation concluded that the debris was a fragment of a metal strip that had fallen from another plane. This exploded and hit a fuel tank, which instantly ignited a fire, causing the pilot to lose control of the aircraft.
In , three years after the crash of Air France Flight , one of the greatest aircraft ever designed and built touched down for the last time. After 27 years of service, the world's most famous aircraft, the Concorde, was retired. Air France was the first to ground their Concorde followed quickly by British Airways, putting an end to supersonic passenger flight, at least for the time being.
To some, it was a graceful and beautiful aircraft, to others, it was noisy, polluting chunk of aluminum. The real question, though, is whether it was a great plane and whether it was grounded by politics and fears over its safety or because it was an expensive luxury for the super-rich?
Technically speaking, there can be no doubt that the Concorde was a revolutionary aircraft. As a joint program between the United Kingdom and France, it was well ahead of its time in many ways. It was the first aircraft to have computer-controlled engine air intakes, a very significant leap in aviation at the time. This allowed the plane to slow the air flowing into its engines down to 1, mph in as little space as 4. The designers weren't just showing off as this prevented the engines from exploding.
The Concorde aircraft featured carbon-fiber brakes and fly-by-wire controls. This might not sound impressive as they are the norm today, but during the s this was a technological marvel and decades ahead of Airbus who made this technology mainstream. Concorde aircraft's signature feature, apart from the wings , is probably its long, drooping nose. This innovation allowed the aircraft to be streamlined during flight but could be dropped lower to give the pilot a good field of vision during takeoff and landing.
This interesting design feature made the Concorde airplane and its company instantly popular among media and passengers. By the time Concorde was retired it was the only aircraft in the British Airways fleet that required a flight engineer. Twenty Concorde planes were built in France and the UK - six prototype and development aircraft and 14 service planes which were operated by Air France and British Airways. Concorde number was moved to its new home by engineers from British Airways and Airbus, who towed the iconic aircraft across Filton Airfield and up a ramp into the new purpose-built hangar.
Two development aircraft built for testing, numbers and , can be seen at the Airbus factory in Toulouse, and the Brooklands Museum in Weybridge. Branson later wrote that Virgin Atlantic had wanted to run the fleet for many years to come, but no agreement was reached. Earlier this year it was announced that Club Concorde has raised the funds to purchase and restore a Concorde aircraft with the aim of returning it to service by , to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the aircraft's inaugural test flight.
In Sir Richard Branson announced plans to launch a new supersonic passenger jet dubbed Concorde II , which it is claimed will be able to speed from London to New York in just three-and-a-half hours.
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