The ascent and decline of aviation’s most stylish passenger plane
Has any aircraft ever attained the legendary status of this plane?
Concorde
The distinctive, streamlined rotor hasn’t graced the sky since November 2003 but still stands as an emblem of its era.
The Concorde emerged as a product of various elements during the sixties: advancements in aerospace engineering, heightened demand for air travel, and affordable fuel costs. It made its first commercial voyage in March 1969.
The concept aimed to significantly reduce transatlantic travel durations, cutting them down from roughly eight to around three-and-a-half hours between London and New York. Consequently, corporate attorneys could attend morning meetings in the U.S. with their counterparts in London via an early flight and return home the very same day. Back in 1985, during the Band Aid concert, Phil Collins played at Wembley Stadium in London and subsequently took off mid-concert to perform live in Philadelphia before the event concluded.
Thanks to Concorde.
The start of the decline for Concorde
The beginning of the end started on 25 July 2000, when Air France Flight 4590 crashed shortly after take-off, killing all 109 occupants and four people on the ground. Until then, Concorde had been the safest airplane in circulation. Commercial service was suspended until November 2001. The surviving aircraft were retired in 2003, 27 years after commercial operations had begun.
A majority of the 20 constructed models can currently be explored at different sites across Europe and North America. Additionally, the engineering feats have their own dedicated museum in Chihuahua, Mexico.
6 things that made Concorde remarkable
· During “supercruising,” the aircraft traveled at double the speed of sound for three-quarters of the journey.
• The quickest transatlantic flight took place on February 7, 1996, traveling from New York’s John F. Kennedy Airport to London Heathrow, completing the journey in just 2 hours, 52 minutes, and 59 seconds from departure to landing.
· The naming dispute over Concorde—unlike the more English-sounding Concord—was a point of contention between the French and British collaborators.
· To prevent the aluminum framework from overheating because of heat absorption, the exterior was coated with a highly reflective white paint.
· The supersonic Concorde operated at such lofty altitudes, around 17,000 meters, which resulted in passengers being exposed to nearly double the amount of cosmic ionizing radiation compared to individuals on standard long-distance flights.
· Boeing aimed to join the supersonic competition with the 2707 but had to cancel this project in 1971 without building any prototypes.
(Michael Leahy. Image: Franz Hermann / Pexels)
