History of Concorde

The story of Concorde

35 years after its maiden flight, Concorde is now on display in museums all over the world, including Concorde at Filton! Even today, the challenge of designing a plane that could fly passengers in comfort at a speed which most fighter planes could not even reach for a few minutes, remains impressive. Here is the story of Concorde, a unique and truly special airliner.

Concorde – a chronology

29 November 1962 – British Aircraft Corporation and leading French airline company, Sud Aviation, agree to design and manufacture jointly a 100-seat supersonic airliner.

January 1963 – A British Aircraft Corporation executive comes up with the name ‘Concorde’ by flicking through a thesaurus.

May 1963 – It is agreed that Concorde components will be built at only one place but that assembly lines will be at both Filton and Toulouse. The UK will manufacture 60 per cent of the engine and 40 per cent of the airframe.

11 December 1967 – The first supersonic prototype, 001, is rolled out.

2 March 1969 – 001 makes her maiden flight, limited to 250 knots and 10,000 ft altitude.

9 April 1969 – The Filton-built second prototype (002) makes her maiden flight.

1 October 1969 – Concorde 001 achieves Mach 1.

4 November 1970 – Concorde 001 achieves Mach 2 and 002 follows eight days later.

June 1971 – Concorde 001 makes the first intercontinental flight to Dakar, West Africa (2500 miles) in 2 hours 7 minutes. Work begins on two pre-production Concordes (01 and 02).

June 1972 – Concorde 002 begins a 45,000 miles sales tour of 12 countries in the Middle East and Australia.

26 September 1973 – Pre-production Concorde 02 flies from Washington to Paris in a record time of 3 hours 33 minutes.

6 December 1973 – The first production Concorde (201) makes her maiden flight from Toulouse reaching Mach 1.57. The first UK-built production Concorde (202) flies supersonic two months later.

21 January 1976 – Concorde’s first airline service is broadcast live on television. British Airways’ Concorde 206 takes off from Heathrow for Bahrain as Air France’s Concorde 205 leaves Paris for Rio de Janeiro via Dakar.

24 May 1976 – The Washington service is opened from London and Paris. British Airways lands its Concorde at Washington just ahead of the Air France Concorde finishing in a nose-to-nose point in front of the control tower.

22 November 1977 – Flights begin from London to New York (Concorde had been barred from this route because of noise pollution).

20 April 1979 – The final Concorde from the twin production lines at Filton and in Toulouse, 216, (the Concorde on display at Concorde at Filton), makes her maiden flight from Filton without any airline livery.

13 June 1980 – Concorde 216 is delivered to British Airways and flies in service with the registration that she carries today, G-BOAF.

21 May 1993 – Concorde 216 is the first of the fleet to be fitted with a refurbished interior (including leather seats).

1977 – 2003 – British Airways offers twice daily scheduled services from London to New York (average flight time is 3 hours and 20 minutes; a Boeing 747 averages more than 7 hours for the same journey) and a weekly service to Barbados during August and in the winter.

It also flies three times a week to Bahrain, Dallas Fort Worth (via Braniff), Miami (via Washington), Singapore (via Bahrain), Washington Dulles and Toronto (various schedules during the summer months).

A return to New York costs supersonic passengers £6,290 plus tax.

Air France operates a five days a week service from Paris to New York and also flies to Caracas (via Santa Maria), Mexico (via Washington), Rio de Janeiro (via Dakar) and Washington Dulles.

26 November 2003 – Concorde 216, the last to remain flying and the last to fly supersonically, makes her final journey home to Filton. During her flying career, Concorde 216 has flown 18,257 hours, made 5,639 supersonic flights and completed 6,045 landings.

Today all seven of British Airways’ Concordes are on display around the world (including Concorde at Filton!). Air France retired its four aircraft to museums in France, Germany and the USA.