50 Fun Facts About Concorde

Concorde was jointly built by manufacturers from which two countries?

Sud Aviation and the British Aircraft Corporation shared the work under a 1962 treaty that carried heavy penalties for cancellation.

On what date did Concorde make its first flight, from Toulouse?

The Soviet Tu-144 had beaten it into the air by two months.

Who piloted the French-built prototype 001 on Concorde's maiden flight?

He took it supersonic for the first time on 1 October 1969 and later founded France's national air and space academy.

Which test pilot flew the first British-built Concorde from Filton to RAF Fairford on 9 April 1969?

Both prototypes were shown to the public together at the Paris Air Show two months later.

How many Concordes were built in total?

Two prototypes, two pre-production, two development aircraft and 14 production airframes; 18 survive on display.

Which two airlines were the only ones ever to operate Concorde in commercial service?

Each took seven aircraft; more than 100 options from other airlines evaporated after the oil crisis and the Tu-144 crash.

On what date did Concorde enter commercial service with both airlines simultaneously?

Air France flew from Paris-Roissy and British Airways from Heathrow that same day.

What was Concorde's regular cruising speed in service?

It was designed for up to Mach 2.2 but limited to 2.02 to extend airframe life; its top recorded speed was Mach 2.23 in 1974.

How many engines powered Concorde?

They were Rolls-Royce/Snecma Olympus 593 turbojets, descended from the engines of the Avro Vulcan bomber.

Concorde's Olympus engines were based on those used in which RAF bomber?

The Olympus was already flying in the TSR-2 strike bomber prototype when it was chosen, avoiding a costly all-new engine.

Concorde was the first airliner to be fitted with which type of flight-control system?

It was analogue, and Concorde was also the first commercial aircraft to use hybrid circuits in its avionics.

What shape of wing did Concorde use?

Johanna Weber and Dietrich Küchemann's 'slender delta' work at the RAE showed vortex lift could give good low-speed handling.

Why did Concorde have a nose that drooped for take-off and landing?

The high nose-up attitude of a delta at low speed hid the runway; the nose dropped 12.5 degrees for landing and a visor retracted with it.

How far below horizontal was Concorde's nose lowered for landing?

For taxiing and take-off it went to just 5 degrees; the mechanism was built by Marshall's of Cambridge.

Why was Concorde's speed capped at about Mach 2 rather than Mach 3?

Above Mach 2 air friction would soften aluminium; the Hiduminium alloy could sustain a maximum of 127 °C over the aircraft's life.

By roughly how much did Concorde's fuselage expand from heating during supersonic cruise?

A gap opened on the flight deck, and on retirement flights engineers wedged their caps in it before the airframe shrank back.

Why was most of Concorde's surface required to be painted highly reflective white?

The white finish cut skin temperature by 6 to 11 °C; a 1996 Pepsi-style scheme would have been impossible at full speed.

How did Concorde compensate for the rearward shift of its centre of lift at supersonic speed?

Fuel was moved along the aircraft as trim, avoiding the drag that control surfaces would have caused at Mach 2.

Concorde's Dunlop brakes were the first on an airliner made from what material?

They saved 1,200 lb over steel and reached 300–400 °C after a typical Heathrow landing.

What was Concorde's maximum cruising altitude?

Subsonic airliners cruise below 44,000 ft, so Concorde had its own fixed oceanic tracks with no other traffic.

Because it flew so high, Concorde's flight deck carried an instrument to monitor what?

If solar activity pushed the dose too high, the aircraft would descend below 47,000 ft.

What was Concorde's average flight time on transatlantic routes?

It supercruised at twice the speed of sound for around 75% of the distance.

Who first suggested the name 'Concorde'?

De Gaulle used it publicly in January 1963; Harold Macmillan dropped the 'e' in a huff before Tony Benn restored it.

Tony Benn said Concorde's final "e" stood for Excellence, England, Europe and what?

When a Scot complained that the nose cone was built in Scotland, Benn added that it was also 'e' for Écosse.

Which US airline flew Concordes at subsonic speed between Washington Dulles and Dallas/Fort Worth in 1979-80?

US registration stickers were placed over the French and British markings for each rotation.

Which Asian airline's livery was painted on one side of British Airways Concorde G-BOAD?

Its 'Singapore Girl' cabin crew shared duties with BA staff, but BA always held the operator's certificate.

Concorde's only fatal crash, Air France 4590 in July 2000, came shortly after take-off from which airport?

All 109 on board and four people in a hotel at Gonesse were killed.

The runway debris that burst Flight 4590's tyre fell from which airline's DC-10?

It was a titanium wear strip about 435 mm long, fitted at Houston earlier that month.

Most of the passengers on Flight 4590 were Germans on their way to board what?

The MS Deutschland was waiting in New York for a 16-day voyage to Ecuador.

Which material was used to line Concorde's fuel tanks as a safety modification after the 2000 crash?

Burst-resistant tyres and more secure electrical controls were added too, and service resumed on 7 November 2001.

On what date did British Airways fly its last commercial Concorde service?

Air France had bowed out on 30 May; grandstands were put up at Heathrow for the final landings.

What record time did a Concorde set from New York JFK to London Heathrow on 7 February 1996?

G-BOAD had a 175 mph tailwind; the same registration later wore the Singapore Airlines livery on one side.

A 1992 Concorde flight round the world from Lisbon in under 33 hours marked the 500th anniversary of what?

F-BTSD made six refuelling stops and later set the eastbound record too, in 31 hours 27 minutes.

Concorde's Soviet rival, so similar in looks it was nicknamed 'Concordski', was which aircraft?

It flew two months before Concorde and was actually a little bigger and faster, but carried passengers for only seven months.

Concorde's would-be American competitor, cancelled in 1971 before any prototype flew, was which project?

After that, the US, India and Malaysia all banned supersonic overflights, which some saw as protectionism.

Which pope flew on Concorde, in May 1989?

French presidents used it as a flagship, and the Queen flew it to Barbados for her Silver Jubilee in 1977.

In 2006 Concorde won the BBC and Design Museum's Great British Design Quest, beating which of these?

It also beat the mini skirt, the Tube map, the World Wide Web, the red telephone box and the Spitfire in a poll of 212,000 votes.

Concorde's air intake control units were notable as the first use in a passenger aircraft of what?

The intakes had to slow air from Mach 2 to subsonic before it reached the engines, using movable ramps and dump doors.

Concorde used reheat, or afterburners, at take-off and in which speed range?

Once through the transonic zone it supercruised on dry thrust, one of the technologies it pioneered.

What was Concorde's normal landing speed?

With the delta wing at a high angle it was flown largely on the throttle, so an autothrottle eased the pilot's workload.

How much did the Concorde programme cost by 1976, against an original 1962 estimate of £70 million?

The unit price hit £23 million by 1977, more than six times the original projection.

Which two 1973 events are cited for making airlines cautious about Concorde's fuel-hungry design?

With a full load Concorde managed 15.8 passenger-miles per gallon against 46.4 for a Boeing 747.

Which British test aircraft showed a slender delta could be controlled at speeds as low as 69 mph?

The Fairey Delta 2 was rebuilt as the BAC 221 to test the ogee wing at high speed.

Concorde's British final assembly line was at Filton, near which city?

Prototype 002 was built there, while 001 was assembled by Aérospatiale at Toulouse.

On its 2003 delivery flight to Seattle, Concorde G-BOAG flew supersonically over parts of which country?

US rules banned overland supersonic flight, yet it still set a New York–Seattle record of 3 hours 55 minutes.

Concorde flights were chartered to chase which astronomical event in June 1973 and again in August 1999?

It also carried the Olympic torch for the 1992 Albertville Winter Games.

Concorde G-BOAF lost most of its upper rudder at supersonic speed in April 1989 on a charter between which two cities?

The crew heard only a 'thud' at Mach 1.7 and assumed it was an engine surge.

Which two people served as Concorde's principal designer and deputy?

Satre had led the Sud Aviation Super-Caravelle design that turned out to be near-identical to Bristol's SST work.

Which Caribbean island did Elizabeth II fly to on Concorde for her Silver Jubilee in 1977?

She repeated the trip in 1987 and 2003; French presidents Pompidou, Giscard and Mitterrand also used the jet as a flagship on state visits.

Which West African city was a stop on Air France's Concorde route from Paris to Rio de Janeiro?

Air France also flew Paris–Azores–Caracas and Paris–Washington, while British Airways served Bahrain, Miami and Barbados.