Concorde Trivia
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50 free Concorde trivia questions with answers — technology quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
This Concorde trivia quiz covers the Anglo-French supersonic airliner from the 1954 study committee to the last landing at Filton. The easy questions ask which two countries built it, which two airlines flew it, how fast it cruised, why its nose drooped, what happened in July 2000 and when it retired. Then it moves into the engineering: the ogival delta wing, the four Olympus turbojets, the analogue fly-by-wire, the aluminium alloy that capped its speed, the fuselage that stretched by a foot in cruise, and the carbon brakes. The hard end is for aviation obsessives: the teenager who suggested the name, Tony Benn's defence of the letter 'e', the pilots of the first French and British flights, the number built, the airline that flew it subsonic across Texas, the Singapore Airlines livery, the 2 hour 52 minute New York–London record, the round-the-world charters, the Soviet rival nicknamed Concordski, the DC-10 wear strip that caused the only fatal crash, and the museums where the survivors sit today. Every answer was checked against the encyclopaedia entries on Concorde, Air France Flight 4590, the Tupolev Tu-144 and the test pilots before publishing, and the supporting sentence is stored with each question. Our aviation history and Boeing 747 quizzes are natural next stops.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Concorde was jointly built by manufacturers from which two countries?
Britain and France
Sud Aviation and the British Aircraft Corporation shared the work under a 1962 treaty that carried heavy penalties for cancellation.
Q 02On what date did Concorde make its first flight, from Toulouse?
2 March 1969
The Soviet Tu-144 had beaten it into the air by two months.
Q 03Who piloted the French-built prototype 001 on Concorde's maiden flight?
André Turcat
He took it supersonic for the first time on 1 October 1969 and later founded France's national air and space academy.
Q 04Which test pilot flew the first British-built Concorde from Filton to RAF Fairford on 9 April 1969?
Brian Trubshaw
Both prototypes were shown to the public together at the Paris Air Show two months later.
Q 05How many Concordes were built in total?
20
Two prototypes, two pre-production, two development aircraft and 14 production airframes; 18 survive on display.
Q 06Which two airlines were the only ones ever to operate Concorde in commercial service?
Air France and British Airways
Each took seven aircraft; more than 100 options from other airlines evaporated after the oil crisis and the Tu-144 crash.
Q 07On what date did Concorde enter commercial service with both airlines simultaneously?
21 January 1976
Air France flew from Paris-Roissy and British Airways from Heathrow that same day.
Q 08What was Concorde's regular cruising speed in service?
Mach 2.02
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.
Q 09How many engines powered Concorde?
4
They were Rolls-Royce/Snecma Olympus 593 turbojets, descended from the engines of the Avro Vulcan bomber.
Q 10Concorde's Olympus engines were based on those used in which RAF bomber?
Avro Vulcan
The Olympus was already flying in the TSR-2 strike bomber prototype when it was chosen, avoiding a costly all-new engine.
Q 11Concorde was the first airliner to be fitted with which type of flight-control system?
Fly-by-wire
It was analogue, and Concorde was also the first commercial aircraft to use hybrid circuits in its avionics.
Q 12What shape of wing did Concorde use?
Ogival delta
Johanna Weber and Dietrich Küchemann's 'slender delta' work at the RAE showed vortex lift could give good low-speed handling.
Q 13Why did Concorde have a nose that drooped for take-off and landing?
So pilots could see the runway
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.
Q 21Because it flew so high, Concorde's flight deck carried an instrument to monitor what?
Radiation levels
If solar activity pushed the dose too high, the aircraft would descend below 47,000 ft.
Q 22What was Concorde's average flight time on transatlantic routes?
Just under 3.5 hours
It supercruised at twice the speed of sound for around 75% of the distance.
Q 23Who first suggested the name 'Concorde'?
The 18-year-old son of a BAC publicity manager
De Gaulle used it publicly in January 1963; Harold Macmillan dropped the 'e' in a huff before Tony Benn restored it.
Q 14How far below horizontal was Concorde's nose lowered for landing?
12.5 degrees
For taxiing and take-off it went to just 5 degrees; the mechanism was built by Marshall's of Cambridge.
Q 15Why was Concorde's speed capped at about Mach 2 rather than Mach 3?
So the airframe could be built of aluminium
Above Mach 2 air friction would soften aluminium; the Hiduminium alloy could sustain a maximum of 127 °C over the aircraft's life.
Q 16By roughly how much did Concorde's fuselage expand from heating during supersonic cruise?
300 mm (12 in)
A gap opened on the flight deck, and on retirement flights engineers wedged their caps in it before the airframe shrank back.
Q 17Why was most of Concorde's surface required to be painted highly reflective white?
To keep the aluminium skin from overheating
The white finish cut skin temperature by 6 to 11 °C; a 1996 Pepsi-style scheme would have been impossible at full speed.
Q 18How did Concorde compensate for the rearward shift of its centre of lift at supersonic speed?
By pumping fuel between tanks
Fuel was moved along the aircraft as trim, avoiding the drag that control surfaces would have caused at Mach 2.
Q 19Concorde's Dunlop brakes were the first on an airliner made from what material?
Carbon
They saved 1,200 lb over steel and reached 300–400 °C after a typical Heathrow landing.
Q 20What was Concorde's maximum cruising altitude?
60,000 ft
Subsonic airliners cruise below 44,000 ft, so Concorde had its own fixed oceanic tracks with no other traffic.
Q 24Tony Benn said Concorde's final "e" stood for Excellence, England, Europe and what?
Entente
When a Scot complained that the nose cone was built in Scotland, Benn added that it was also 'e' for Écosse.
Q 25Which US airline flew Concordes at subsonic speed between Washington Dulles and Dallas/Fort Worth in 1979-80?
Braniff International
US registration stickers were placed over the French and British markings for each rotation.
Q 26Which Asian airline's livery was painted on one side of British Airways Concorde G-BOAD?
Singapore Airlines
Its 'Singapore Girl' cabin crew shared duties with BA staff, but BA always held the operator's certificate.
Q 27Concorde's only fatal crash, Air France 4590 in July 2000, came shortly after take-off from which airport?
Paris Charles de Gaulle
All 109 on board and four people in a hotel at Gonesse were killed.
Q 28The runway debris that burst Flight 4590's tyre fell from which airline's DC-10?
Continental Airlines
It was a titanium wear strip about 435 mm long, fitted at Houston earlier that month.
Q 29Most of the passengers on Flight 4590 were Germans on their way to board what?
A cruise ship
The MS Deutschland was waiting in New York for a 16-day voyage to Ecuador.
Q 30Which material was used to line Concorde's fuel tanks as a safety modification after the 2000 crash?
Kevlar
Burst-resistant tyres and more secure electrical controls were added too, and service resumed on 7 November 2001.