AEROSPATIALE / BAC CONCORDE^95
o and to pass through the upper transonic
regime and to supersonic speeds, between
Mach 0.95 and Mach 1.7. Another feature was
the variable geometry nose which was lowered
while taxying, on take-o and landing to
improve the ightcrew’s visibility. Owing to air
compression in front of Concorde as it travelled
at supersonic speed, the fuselage heated up
and expanded by almost 1ft (30cm). Most of
its surface also had to be covered with a highly
re ective white paint to avoid overheating the
aluminium structure due to heating e ects
from supersonic ight at Mach 2. A lengthy
development programme following the
Concorde’s rst ight on 2 March 1969 meant
that it did not enter airline service until January
- Twenty aircraft were built, including six
prototypes and development aircraft.
Air France and British Airways were the
only airlines to purchase and y Concorde.
The aircraft was primarily used by wealthy
passengers who could a ord to pay a high
price in exchange for Concorde’s speed and
luxury service. Among other destinations,
Concorde ew regular transatlantic ights
from London’s Heathrow Airport and Paris’
Charles de Gaulle Airport to John F. Kennedy
International Airport in New York, Washington
Dulles International Airport and Grantley
Adams International Airport in Barbados; it ew
these routes in less than half the time of other
conventional airliners.
The type was retired in 2003, three years after
the crash of Air France Flight 4590, in which allpassengers and crew were killed. The general
downturn in the commercial aviation industry
after the 11 September attacks in 2001 and
the end of maintenance support for Concorde
by Airbus (the successor company of both
Aérospatiale and BAC) also contributed. In her
27 years of passenger service, over 2.5 million
people ew on Concorde.
With the skies now devoid of the world’s
most beautiful airliner, the domain of ying at
Mach 2 has once again returned to the elite few
wearing military ying suits.The need for speed
The fastest transatlantic airliner ight was from New York JFK to London Heathrow on
7 February 1996 by British Airways Concorde G-BOAD in 2hrs 53min, from take-o to
touchdown aided by a 175mph (282km/h) tailwind. On 13 February 1985, a Concorde charter
ight ew from London Heathrow to Sydney in a time of 17hrs 4min, including refuelling
stops. Concorde also set other records, including the o cial FAI ‘Westbound Around the World’
and ‘Eastbound Around the World’ air speed records.