Current State of Air France Concordes

The idea of civilian supersonic transport was born in the late 1950s. The British Bristol Aeroplane Company (BOAC) and the French Sud Aviation were both working on their own designs called the Type 223 and Super-Caravelle, and these were largely funded by their respective governments. The British design was for a thin-winged delta shape for a transatlantic-ranged aircraft for about 100 people, while the French were intending to build a medium-range aircraft.

The two countries joined forces by way of an international treaty on 28 November 1962. As a result, two new companies called British Aircraft Corporation (BAC) and Aérospatiale had been formed and this lead them to secure 100 non-binding orders from the major airlines of the day including BOAC (which eventually became British Airways) and Air France.

Construction of two prototypes began in February 1965: airframe 001, built by Aerospatiale at Toulouse, and 002, by BAC at Filton, Bristol. The French model made its first test flight from Toulouse on 2 March 1969, piloted by André Turcat, and first went supersonic on 1 October of the same year. As flight testing progressed, 001 embarked on a sales and demonstration tour on 4 September 1971, which was also the first transatlantic crossing of Concorde.

A further 70 orders for aircraft were received as a result of the marketing flights, but a combination of factors led to order cancellations: the 1973 oil crisis, financial difficulties of airlines, a crash at the Paris Le Bourget air show involving the competing Soviet Tupolev Tu-144. Environmental concerns such as the sonic boom, takeoff-noise and pollution were also to blame. By 1976 only four nations remained as prospective buyers: Britain, France, China, and Iran. But in the end only Air France and British Airways took up their orders.

[Photograph courtesy of Diorama Sky on Flickr]