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The Concorde Flies Into Aviation History

BY AWAKE! WRITER IN FRANCE

After 27 years of service, the Concorde—“the world’s only supersonic passenger aircraft”—has gone into retirement. Citing rising costs and decreasing customer demand, British Airways withdrew the last of its fleet of seven Concordes from commercial service in October 2003. Five months earlier Air France, the only other operator of this plane, with its distinctive delta-shaped wings, had ceased flying its five aircraft.

Thus closed a chapter of aviation history that opened in 1962 when British and French engineers joined forces to develop a long-distance supersonic aircraft. The prototypes made their maiden flights in 1969, and commercial supersonic transport became a reality in January 1976, with flights to Bahrain and Rio de Janeiro.

The Concorde may have been a technological success, but it was a commercial flop. The oil crises of the 1970’s were hard to swallow, since the plane guzzles over 5,600 gallons [25,600 liters] of fuel per hour—triple the amount per passenger that is consumed by a standard aircraft. The Concorde was also saddled with a limited range of only 4,300 miles and a low passenger capacity—just 100. Hence, it was not economical for the airlines. Another obstacle to Concorde’s expansion was the opposition that arose to its operation early on in the United States, purportedly because of noise concerns.

Price was another issue. Tickets cost thousands of dollars. Relatively few passengers could thus afford to fly on the Concorde. With its cordon-bleu menu of champagne, foie gras, and caviar, the Concorde “was the best travel experience anyone could ever have,” stated one businessman. “It gave you the ultimate luxury, which is time. It’s not the most comfortable flight. But it was the most incredible feeling.”

Faster Than the Sun?

During its career, the Concorde transported nearly four million passengers—not really such a large number of people when one considers that the world’s fleet of Boeing 747’s transports that many in just a few weeks. What, then, made the Concorde such a remarkable aircraft?

Consider this: The Concorde cruised at 1,350 miles [2,150 km] an hour—twice the speed of sound—at an altitude of 60,000 feet [18,000 m] (more than 11 miles [18 km]). It traveled so fast that the 204-foot [62 m]-long plane actually stretched up to 10 inches [24 cm] in flight because of heat from friction. A regular crossing from Paris to New York in the Concorde took just 3 hours and 55 minutes, almost halving the time of a conventional flight. So quick was the flight that because of the time difference, passengers traveling west landed in New York to find that the local time was earlier than the time of their departure back in Paris!

The Concorde’s career was blighted by only one fatal accident. On July 25, 2000, an Air France plane crashed on takeoff from Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris, killing 113 people, including 4 on the ground. After various safety modifications, service was resumed a year later. But economics finally gained the upper hand.

The Concorde, which had neither rival nor successor, will spend its well-earned retirement in the world’s aviation museums. Jean-Cyril Spinetta, chairman of Air France, comments: “Concorde will never really stop flying because it will live on in people’s imagination.”

[Pictures on page 26]

Top: Champagne served

Center: Chief pilot in the cockpit

Bottom: Concorde prototype, France, 1968

[Credit Line]

All photos except prototype: NewsCast; prototype: AFP/Getty Images