Concorde

Concorde
A British Airways Concorde at Heathrow airport in London
Role	Supersonic airliner
Manufacturer	BAC (now BAE Systems) Sud-Aviation, Aérospatiale (now EADS)
First flight	2 March 1969
Introduction	21 January 1976
Retired	26 November 2003
Status	Retired from service
Primary users	British Airways Air France
Number built	20 (including 6 non-airline aircraft)
Program cost	£1.3 billion
Unit cost	£23 million in 1977

Concorde was a passenger airplane that flew faster than the speed of sound. It was made by the French company Aérospatiale and the British company British Aircraft Corporation. Concorde carried passengers from 1976 to 2003.

Concorde flew across the Atlantic Ocean in a little less than 3.5 hours. Other airplanes take about eight hours.

The first scheduled flights were on 21 January 1976. Concorde flew between several different cities in Europe, North America, South America, and Asia. Some people did not like the sonic booms caused by Concorde flying faster than the speed of sound. At different times, Concorde was not allowed to fly over certain countries because of this.

Gallery

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  A Concorde landing, showing the "nose" tilted down

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  A British Airways Concorde on the ground

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  A Concorde in flight. Notice the special shape of the wings

Other websites

• British Airways Concorde page
• Braniff Airways Concorde page
• Design Museum (UK) Concorde page
• Concorde Experience at the National Museum of Flight, Scotland
• Pathé film of 002's maiden flight from Filton to RAF Fairford on 9 April 1967