Some interesting facts about the Concorde turbojet

In order to fly nonstop across the Atlantic Ocean Concorde was developed to have the greatest supersonic range of any aircraft This was achieved by a combination of engines which were highly efficient at supersonic speeds a slender fuselage with high fineness ratio and a complex wing shape for a high lift to drag ratio This also required carrying only a modest payload and a high fuel capacity and the aircraft was trimmed with precision to avoid unnecessary dragThe retired turbojetpowered supersonic passenger airliner or supersonic transport SST is one of only two SSTs to have entered commercial service the other was the Tupolev Tu144 Concorde was jointly developed and produced by Aeacuterospatiale and the British Aircraft Corporation BAC under an AngloFrench treatyPicAFPFirst flown in 1969 Concorde entered service in 1976 and continued commercial flights for 27 yearsA total of 20 aircraft were built in France and the United Kingdom six of these were prototypes and development aircraft Seven each were delivered to Air France and British Airways Concordes name reflects the development agreement between the United Kingdom and France In the UK any or all of the typemdashunusually for an aircraftmdashare known simply as Concorde without an article Reflecting the treaty between the British and French governments which led to Concordes construction the name Concorde is from the French word concorde which has an English equivalent concord Both words mean agreement harmony or unionConcordes drooping nose developed by Marshall Aerospace enabled the aircraft to switch between being streamlined to reduce drag and achieve optimum aerodynamic efficiency and not obstructing the pilots view during taxi takeoff and landing operationsAir compression on the outer surfaces caused the cabin to heat up during flight Every surface such as windows and panels was warm to the touch by end of the flightDue to the high speeds at which Concorde travelled large forces were applied to the aircrafts structure during banks and turns This caused twisting and the distortion of the aircraftrsquos structureBy around 1981 in the UK the future for Concorde looked bleak The British government had lost money operating Concorde every year and moves were afoot to cancel the service entirely In 1983 BAs managing director Sir John King convinced the government to sell the aircraft outright to British Airways for pound165 million plus the first yearrsquos profitsThe Air France Flight 4590 crashAir France Flight 4590 was a Concorde flight operated by Air France which was scheduled to fly from Charles de Gaulle International Airport near Paris to John F Kennedy International Airport in New York City On 25 July 2000 it crashed into a hotel in Gonesse France All one hundred passengers and nine crew members on board the flight died On the ground four people were killed and one critically injuredA combo of photographs taken on July 25 2000 in RoissyenFrance near Paris shows the Air France supersonic airliner Concordes crash after it took off from Roissy Airport PicAFPThe flight was chartered by German company Peter Deilmann Cruises the passengers were on their way to board the cruise ship MS Deutschland in New York City for a 16day cruise to Manta Ecuador12 This was the only fatal Concorde accident during its 27year operational history It was the beginning of the end for Concorde as an airliner the type was retired three years laterA file picture taken on July 26 2000 in Gonesse northern Paris shows part of the nose cone after an Air France Concorde crashed during takeoff killing 113 people PicAFPA French court found Continental Airlines criminally responsible on December 6 2010 for the deadly 2000 Concorde crash ruling it was caused by a piece of metal left on the runway by one of the US carriers jetsOn 10 April 2003 Air France and British Airways simultaneously announced that they would retire Concorde later that year They cited low passenger numbers following the 25 July 2000 crash the slump in air travel following the September 11 2001 attacks and rising maintenance costs Although Concorde was technologically advanced when introduced in the 1970s 30 years later its analogue cockpit was dated There had been little commercial pressure to upgrade Concorde due to a lack of competing aircraft unlike other airliners of the same era such as the Boeing 747By its retirement it was the last aircraft in British Airways fleet that had a flight engineer other aircraft such as the modernised 747400 had eliminated the roleOn 11 April 2003 Virgin Atlantic founder Sir Richard Branson announced that the company was interested in purchasing British Airwaysrsquo Concorde fleet for their nominal original price of pound1 US157 in April 2003 eachVirgin Atlantic founder Richard Branson Pic AFPBritish Airways dismissed the idea prompting Virgin to increase their offer to pound1 million eachBranson claimed that when BA was privatised a clause in the agreement required them to allow another British airline to operate Concorde if BA ceased to do so but the Government denied the existence of such a clauseIn October 2003 Branson wrote in The Economist that his final offer was over pound5 million and that he had intended to operate the fleet for many years to come The chances for keeping Concorde in service were stifled by Airbuss lack of support for continued maintenance