But one incident eclipses all these issues. Concorde was involved in a serious accident on July 25, On Air France Flight , some debris blew a tire and punctured one of the fuel tanks. The fire and engine failure caused Concorde to crash into a nearby hotel, killing people in total.
This Concorde prototype was built in November , but after it was completed, no customers would purchase the model. It was eventually bought by British Airways through a transfer contract.
Concorde holds the record for the fastest transatlantic airliner flight from New York to London, the fastest airliner circumnavigations going both east and west. Visit the Museum today to experience Concorde for yourself! Topics: Pilot , History , Engineering , airlines , travel , plane , technology. Search Toggle Search Toggle search box. The Need For Concorde During the Cold war, Britain and France wanted air travel that went faster than the speed of sound, which meant that the two countries had to create a plane faster than any other commercial airliner flying at that time.
Going Supersonic The aircraft gets blisteringly hot when it goes supersonic, which caused Concorde to expand inches at its cruising speed of Mach 2 due to thermal expansion. So if the Concorde had so many achievements, why was it discontinued? Issues Faced By Concorde One of the issues that negatively affected the success of Concorde was the cost of fuel. Recent Posts. Subscribe for Blog updates.
For another thing, we knew that it was usually the pilots' habit to come back for one final pass, coming in from the north-west and usually making a slow pass along the airfield in that characteristic Concorde nose-high attitude with the nose drooped for better pilot view.
The aircraft would be empty, of course, with no passengers aboard. On one occasion, however -it may have been the last time they did a Concorde weekend at LBA, in fact -they did things just a little differently. On this occasion, it was an Air France aircraft and she had departed to the south-east and the crowds had dispersed as normal.
We'd waited about ten to fifteen minutes for the customary 'surprise' return of the aircraft. And boy, was it worth it. She came in from over the Chevin -you could see her, coming in nose-low and very, very fast -so you could tell that something different was going on.
She crossed the end of the runway at about feet, doing something that looked like about knots -that's about mph or 0. You could tell she was at transonic speeds because you could actually see the shockwaves on the wings; the little feathers of cloud that show you that parts of the airflow over the wings is already beginning to 'bunch up' and form pressure fronts, the really weird transonic aerodynamics that slower aircraft simply don't have to cope with.
The noise of course was a good bit behind the aircraft but was awesome when it came. But then came the most awesome part of all. When he'd reached about half-way along the runway, the pilot lit the 'burners again and hauled the aircraft right into the vertical. I'm not kidding; the aircraft was going straight up. Just like a jet fighter -but this was an airliner, remember! He sustained that climb until the aircraft was no longer visible from the ground. A total of 20 aircraft were eventually produced, and 14 entered service with British Airways and Air France.
On March 2, , Concorde flew into history with its maiden flight, and the first supersonic transcontinental crossing came in , from Paris to Washington, D. Fred Finn , a retired business executive whose flights on Concorde earned him a place in the Guiness Book of World Records , still remembers seeing Concorde for the first time from the passenger lounge before his flight from Washington, D.
It was rare to have a flight without at least one famous passenger, from royalty to rock stars to supermodels. Finn, whose flights were covered by his employer, eventually became a celebrity of sorts himself for his constant presence on Concorde. Concorde also enticed the wealthiest passengers with charters, both domestically and abroad, as well as several around-the-world trips.
The six cabin crew were in charge of executing multi-course meal service to odd passengers per flight. And pour Champagne they did.
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