A Brief History of Concorde...

Concorde was born out of separate French and British projects which joined forces in 1962. The partnership led to the British Aircraft Corporation (later British Aerospace) and Aerospatiale of France to build 20 Concordes.

1967: First prototype plane (Concorde 001) was rolled out of its hangar at Toulouse in France
1969: First flight of 002 took place on 2nd March from Toulouse
1969: The first flight of Concorde 002 took place from Filton, near Bristol in the UK, on 9 April.
1969: Concorde successfully completed its first supersonic flight on 1 October.
1973: Concorde 002 lands at Dallas/Ft Worth on its first visit to the USA.
1974: The aircraft completes its first double transatlantic journey in one day on 17 June.

During this period the aircraft was subjected to 5,000 hours of testing by the time it was ready for passenger service. The first commercial flights took place on 21 January 1976 when British Airways flew from London Heathrow to Bahrain and Air France from Paris to Rio. Transatlantic flights began later that year.

1995: 16th August - Concorde sets a round-the-world flight record of 31hrs 27min from New York to New York.
2003: 31st May - Air France's last commercial Concorde flight
2003: 24th October - British Airways' last commercial Concorde flight.

Sources:

BBC, 2000. Concorde Facts and Figures (Online) http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/851027.stm
Just Flight Ltd., 2004. Concorde Professional - A Pilot's Guide. Phoenix Simulation Software Ltd.

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