Concorde was retired from service in 2003 and no longer flies. Most remaining Concorde aircraft are now on public display.
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The Concorde aircraft were retired in 2003, 27 years after commercial operations had begun. Most of the aircraft remain on display in Europe and America.
Today, British travellers have a better chance than many to spy one of the remaining aircraft, with seven dotted across the UK, more than in any other country.
It's over 40 years since Scotland's Concorde took to the skies in the first BA Concorde fleet commercial passenger flight. Don't miss the chance to get up close to G-BOAA. The National Museum of Flight is home to Scotland's only Concorde.
Such speed didn't come cheap, though: A transatlantic flight required the high-maintenance aircraft to gulp jet fuel at the rate of one ton per seat, and the average round-trip price was $12,000.
Concorde used the most powerful pure jet engines flying commercially. The Aircraft's four engines took advantage of what is known as 'reheat' technology, adding fuel to the final stage of the engine, which produced the extra power required for take-off and the transition to supersonic flight.
Flying at Mach 2 – about 1,350mph – the Concorde could fly 100 passengers and a crew of nine from NYC to London in an average of three hours and 30 minutes. With tailwinds, it made a record flight in just two hours, 52 minutes.
The Concorde's production and operation was an enormous financial undertaking for both the United Kingdom and France, contributing to sky-high ticket pricing for most consumers.
The Concorde was famously loud: a take-off at Washington airport in 1977 measured 119.4 decibels. By comparison, a clap of thunder hits 120 decibels while the pain threshold for the human ear is around 110.
The North American X-15 may be the fastest plane in the world, with speeds at 4,520 mph and Mach 5.93. It's an experimental aircraft used and powered by NASA and USAF.
Twenty Concorde aircraft were built, six for development and 14 for commercial service. All of these, except two of the production aircraft, are preserved. One aircraft was scrapped in 1994, and another was destroyed in the Air France Flight 4590 crash in 2000.