Supersonic Anglo-French
On 29 November 1962, an Anglo-French treaty was signed to build
Concorde. The British and French governments agreed to share
resources for the design, development and manufacture of the
supersonic aircraft, which became known as ‘Concorde’ after the
French President Charles de Gaulle used the word, which means
agreement or treaty, to refer to the project during a speech.
Concorde's first flight was on 2 March 1969 when the 001
prototype flew from Toulouse in France. When the French test pilot
landed Concorde for the first time, he simply said ‘The big bird
flies…’ The British-made prototype 002 flew from Bristol's Filton
Airfield in the UK a few weeks later. Both models were displayed at
the Paris air show in June of the same year.
The Atlantic and beyond
Concorde made her first non-stop crossing of the Atlantic on 26
September 1973. Flying at an average speed of 954mph, the French
model flew from Washington, USA to Orly, Paris in a record-breaking
time of three hours and 33 minutes.
Commercial flights
began on 21 January 1976 when Alpha Alpha flew from London to
Bahrain and an Air France Concorde flew from Paris to Rio.
When the Scottish Parliament was formally opened by
The Queen on 1 July 1999, Concorde marked the occasion with a
flyover in formation with the RAF's Red Arrows to the sound of a
21-gun salute.
Concorde nightmare
On 25 July 2000, the Concorde dream became a nightmare when an
Air France Concorde crashed shortly after take-off at Charles de
Gaulle airport in Paris. One hundred passengers, nine crew and four
people on the ground were killed. The Concorde fleet of Air France
and British Airways were subsequently grounded, but not before
Alpha Alpha made what was to be her final flight, from JFK New York
to London Heathrow on Saturday 12 August 2000.
In 2001, Concorde was back after a £17m revamp, but Alpha Alpha
was not selected for upgrade. But British Airways and Air France
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 the end of the road.
A graceful retirement
On 10 April 2003, British Airways announced that it was retiring
its fleet of seven Concordes. A farewell tour of the UK and North
America commenced, with tens of thousands of fans saying their
goodbyes to the iconic aircraft.
The decommissioned aircraft have gone on public display at
museums around the world, with G-BOAA taking pride of place at the
National Museum of Flight in East Fortune
National Museums
Scotland is not responsible for the content of this video but it
has been selected as it is relevant to the National Museum of
Flight.