Concorde at Heathrow

The Aerospatiale-BAC Concorde supersonic transport (SST), along with the Tupolev Tu-144, was one of only two models of supersonic passenger airliners to have seen commercial service. First flown in 1969, Concorde service commenced in 1976. It regularly flew from London Heathrow (British Airways) and Paris Charles de Gaulle (Air France) to New York JFK.

Concorde had a cruise speed of Mach 2.02 (around 2,170 km/h or 1,350 mph) and a maximum cruise altitude of 60,000 feet (18 300 metres) with a delta wing configuration and a reheat-equipped evolution of the engines originally developed for the Avro Vulcan strategic bomber.

It was the first civil airliner to be equipped with an analogue fly-by-wire flight control system. Commercial flights, operated by British Airways and Air France, began on January 21, 1976 and ended on October 24, 2003, with the last “retirement” flight on November 26 that year.

A scaled down model of the craft sits at the Entrance to Heathrow airport.