The general downturn in the commercial aviation industry after the September 11 attacks in 2001, and the ceasing of maintenance support for Concorde by Airbus (the successor company of both Aérospatiale and BAC), also contributed. The type was retired in 2003 after the crash of Air France Flight 4590, in which all passengers and crew were killed. Concorde won the 2006 Great British Design Quest organised by the BBC and the Design Museum, beating other well-known designs such as the BMC Mini, the miniskirt, the Jaguar E-Type, the London Tube map and the Supermarine Spitfire. In the UK, any or all of the type are known simply as Concorde, with no definite article the. Kennedy International Airport in New York, Washington Dulles International Airport and Grantley Adams International Airport in Barbados it flew these routes in less than half the time of other airliners.Ĭoncorde's name, meaning "harmony" or "union", was chosen to reflect the co-operation on the project between the United Kingdom and France.
Among other destinations, Concorde flew regular transatlantic flights from London's Heathrow Airport and Paris's Charles de Gaulle Airport to John F. The aircraft was primarily used by wealthy passengers who could afford to pay a high price in exchange for Concorde's speed and luxury service. Air France (AF) and British Airways (BA) were the only airlines to purchase and fly Concorde. Twenty aircraft were built, including six prototypes and development aircraft. It is one of only two supersonic transports to have been operated commercially the other is the Soviet-built Tupolev Tu-144, which was operated for a much shorter period.Ĭoncorde was jointly developed and manufactured by Aérospatiale and the British Aircraft Corporation (BAC) under an Anglo-French treaty. First flown in 1969, Concorde entered service in 1976 and continued flying for the next 27 years. It had a maximum speed over twice the speed of sound at Mach 2.04 (1,354 mph or 2,180 km/h at cruise altitude), with seating for 92 to 128 passengers. For other uses, see Concorde (disambiguation).Īérospatiale/ BAC Concorde ( English pronunciation: Expression error: Unrecognized punctuation character "[".) is a British-French turbojet-powered supersonic passenger jet airliner that was operated until 2003.
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