Concorde Experience exhibition

Take a trip through each section of the Concorde Experience and discover Concorde's story at National Museum of Flight.

 

1. The Race

This section tells the story of the race to break the sound barrier and introduces Captain Chuck Yeager, the American test pilot who became the first man to travel faster than the speed of sound.

Key objects include an early test flight air ventilated suit and helmet.

2. Design and Build

Concorde was a stunning piece of design. Shaped like a dart, she shot through the sky at twice the speed of sound piercing the air with her needle shaped nose.

See a prototype Concorde engine and a model of a pre-production prototype aircraft. Discover more about the design and build of Concorde and learn about the technical and scientific issues behind supersonic flight with an interactive challenge.

3. Concorde Introduction

Discover the story of this revolutionary aircraft and take a virtual tour of Concorde to see what it would have been like to have worked and travelled on board.

4. The Flight

The Concorde experience was like no other. Concorde's power was really felt during take-off, as the plane accelerated like a rocket. By the time cruising speed was reached the flight was so smooth, the sensation of supersonic speed was barely noticeable.

Key objects in this section include menus from Singapore Airlines and Braniff International Airways who operated joint Concorde services with British Airways and Air France.

5. The Traveller

Concorde's passenger list was an A-Z of the rich and glamorous. Royalty or rock star, Hollywood actor or supermodel: they all agreed that Concorde was the only way to fly.

Find out why the aircraft was so popular and discover more about the celebrities that flew supersonically. Try your luck at our interactive game ‘Celebrity Squares' and see if you can guess which luggage belongs to which star!

6. The Crew

Find out what it would have been like to have worked on the world's most glamorous plane.  To become a Concorde pilot, you generally needed 10 years of airline flying experience. Cabin crew jobs were so much in demand that staff were allowed just three years of working on board to allow more people the opportunity to work on Concorde.

In this section you can see a Flight Engineer's seat and a cabin trolley.

7. The Debate

Not everyone loved Concorde. Environmental campaigners were concerned about the impact on the environment as Concorde consumed 25,629 litres of fuel every hour. They also worried about the effects of the ‘sonic boom' on people and animals.

8. The Crash

On 25 July 2000, the Concorde dream became a nightmare. An Air France Concorde crashed shortly after take-off from Charles de Gaulle Airport, Paris. There were no survivors: one hundred passengers, nine crew and four people on the ground were killed.

Learn about the tragic chain of events which caused the fatal crash and the conclusions of the accident investigation team.

9. The Re-Fit

In 2001, Concorde was back after a £17m revamp. Britain and France had joined forces once again, to restore people's confidence in the Concorde fleet and rebuild the supersonic dream.

In this section you can see a Concorde toilet and a pair of seats designed by Sir Terence Conran especially for the re-fit.

10. The Retirement

When Concorde was re-launched in 2001, British Airways and Air France were optimistic of success. They could not have foreseen the events of 11 September and the slump in worldwide air travel. Empty seats and an ageing fleet of planes meant only one thing: Concorde had reached retirement.

In 2004 Concorde Golf Bravo Oscar Alpha Alpha made her final journey from London to East Fortune. Learn more about this epic journey and how Concorde travelled not by air, but by land and sea to reach her final destination.