Final flight of the Concorde #onthisday #airplane #concorde
68Fun Facts:
In 2003 Richard Branson offered to buy the fleet for Virgin Atlantic at £1 (the price British Airways paid the UK government in 1980) when this was rejected he offered £ 1 million and then £5 million but nothing came of it.
G-BOAD, the aircraft that holds the record for the Heathrow – JFK crossing at 2 hours, 52 minutes, and 59 seconds, is on display at the Intrepid Sea-Air-Space Museum, New York, USA
By the 2000s the Concorde was pretty spartan when compared to what could be offered in Business class on subsonic flights (leg room, lying down, better in flight entertainment etc). This was thanks in large part to the supersonic jet’s narrow fuselage. Still it was a hit with business travelers thanks to the time savings on offer.
Although Concorde was technologically advanced when introduced in the 1970s, nearly 30 years later, its analogue cockpit was outdated. By its retirement, it was the last aircraft in the British Airways fleet that had a flight engineer; other aircraft, such as the modernised 747-400, had eliminated the role.
The final Concorde flight was a short one from Heathrow to Filton in Bristol for decommissioning on November 26th, 2003
Studies started in 1954, and France and the UK signed a treaty establishing the development project on 29 November 1962, as the programme cost was estimated at £70 million (£1.39 billion in 2021). Construction of the six prototypes began in February 1965, and the first flight took off from Toulouse on 2 March 1969. The market was predicted for 350 aircraft, and the manufacturers received up to 100 option orders from many major airlines.Only 20 were built
According to one article I found as many as 40 of Concorde’s best customers (those who flew on 20 or more times a year) were killed during 9/11
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