Concorde Facts and Figures

Concorde: Pride of the Air France fleet

Concorde remains the world's only supersonic passenger aircraft.

It operates daily out of London Heathrow and Paris' Charles de Gaulle airport to North America.

It cruises at around 1350 mph at an altitude of up to 60,000ft (11 miles).

A crossing from Europe to New York takes less than three and a half hours - less than half the normal flying time for other jets.

The record crossing stands at 2hrs 52mins 59secs.

Travelling westwards the five-hour timed difference means Concorde lands before local arrival time catches up with the local departure time.

History of the aircraft

Concorde was born out of separate French and British projects which joined forces in 1962.

Concorde facts

100 passengers

Range: 4,300 miles (6,880 kms)

Speed: Mach Two (2,150kph)

The partnership led to the British Aircraft Corporation (later British Aerospace) and Aerospatiale of France to build 20 Concordes.

The first prototype plane (001) was rolled out of its hangar at Toulouse in France in 1967.

Its first flight took place on 2 March 1969 from Toulouse.

1969: The first flight of Concorde 002 took place from Filton, near Bristol in the UK, on 9 April 1969.

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 than year.

Specifications

Four Rolls-Royce/Snecma Olympus 593 engines provide more than 38,000lbs of thrust each.

They are some of the most powerful commercial jet engines in existence and provide a take off speed of 220 knots.

Concorde is 62.1 metres long and consumes 5,638 imperial gallons of fuel every hour.

Its maximum take-off weight is 185 tonnes and it has ten landing wheels.