Chronicle of Britain (Jol Publishing)

A little background

On the 11/29/1962, after long negotiations, the British and French governments decided to embark on one of the greatest adventures in the history of aviation: Julian Amery (British minister of Aviation) and Jouffroy de Courcel (French ambassador) signed an historic draft treaty for collaboration in building of a supersonic transport aircraft…

Seven years later, after an equal participation between Sud Aviation (future Aérospatiale) and British Aircraft Corporation, French Concorde prototype 001 make its first flight on the 03/02/1969, piloted by André Turcat. Its English brother Concorde 002 will follow Concorde 001 five weeks later, on the 04/09/1969 (see the document at left).

On the 10/01/1969, Concorde smashes the sound barrier and flies at Mach 2 on the 04/11/1970.

On the 01/21/1976, Concorde opens era of supersonic passenger flight: it is the opening of Paris - Dakar - Rio route.

As a result of legal ruling on the11/22/1977, Concorde is authorized to carry out the first commercial connection of Paris and London to New-York. Every day since then scheduled flights transport demanding and time conscious passengers with precision punctuality.

Currently fourteen Concorde are in service, six at Air France and seven for British Airways (another one for different missions - see the page "Different missions and records" - ).

Þ From 01/21/1976 to 01/21/1996, it transported 3.7 millions passengers and exceeded 200,000 hrs (140,000 hrs at Mach 2.02)