26th November 2003 was a sad day for aviation. The world’s only supersonic passenger airliner was grounded on this day and has remained a tourist attraction since that day and very unlikely to ever he granted air worthy again.
The Anglo-French project, conceived in the late 1950’s was a joint venture between 2 nations keen to show the world their aviation and engineering pedigree. With the space race well underway and the Americans and Russians engaged in a battle outside of the earth’s atmosphere, The English and French went about creating the worlds first supersonic airliner. Of course when the US and Russians caught wind of the plans, they were soon on the band wagon and suddenly supersonic passenger aviation was top of all agendas. There were many design and engineering issues to contend with and the Americans, mainly due to the pressure from Wall St. shelved the plans at mere full size model stage, reputed to have cost up to $100m. The Russian effort was also shelved as their main rivals were out of the running and they returned to the space race.
The Anglo-French effort however was pressing ahead, however was under serious threat as the initial £150m budget was long forgotten and costs escalating (reported to cost nearly 10x the original estimate!). The UK Government, with the French agreed to continue and in 1969 Concorde was born. The government set about selling the fleet but in the 10 years since it was conceived air travel had moved on suddenly bigger was better with Boeing launching its 747 capable of carrying 4 times the passengers of Concorde (despite taking more than twice as long to reach a destination!). Value for money was on the agenda and Concorde was not cheap to buy or to run. Carrying only 100 passengers, its commercial viability was in threat. With not a single aircraft sold, due in part the American states banning it from airspace due to it being too loud, BA and Air France took the fleet on and ran the planes. With the US finally persuaded, Concorde was a long haul specialist, Heathrow to New York in 2 hours 52 minutes (normally 7 hours!) cruising at Mach 2 (1300+mph!).
It was and still is an aviation icon, however its 100% safety record was tarnished following the terrible crash in 2000 at Paris, Charles De Gaulle, where all passengers and crew were killed just 30 seconds after takeoff. The cause of the crash to this day is not 100% certain, the official investigation lay blame on a piece of metal on the run way that fell from another aircraft just moments before, bursting the tyre and sending debris into the fuel tanks, rupturing them. Concorde was grounded pending further investigations. Concorde returned to service but following the 9/11 attacks commercial air travel, the lifeline of Concorde was in decline and it was only a matter of time before Concorde was withdrawn from service.
Concorde’s last flight was 26 November 2003. All of the 20 examples built are not scattered around the world as tourist attractions. I remember being taken to an airshow when I was about 9 and me and my dad watched as Concorde flew over, I’ll never forget the noise and sheer presence and will definately be dropping by my local Concorde museum to take another look.