On this day, Sept. 26, in 1973, the Concorde made its first nonstop flight across the pond, from D.C. to Paris, in a record-smashing three hours and 32 minutes. A Boeing 747 took twice as long to go as far.
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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.
Cruising at Mach 2 – or 1,350 mph – at 60,000 feet, Concorde flew five miles above and 800 mph faster than the subsonic 747s plodding across the Atlantic. The radio chatter between aircraft could get interesting, according to Tye.
BA never suffered a serious accident with its seven strong fleet. Concorde service was profitable by the late 1980s and if not for the economic downturn and Air France Concorde crash of 2000, may have survived to this day.
Concorde is sadly no longer flying, but it is still possible to visit some of the remaining 18 airframes, there are others not open to the public but you can still see them.
Elsewhere, the frames at the Smithsonian Museum in Washington and another in Barbados have been preserved to a high standard. Despite the ongoing preservation, none of these Concordes are anywhere close to being airworthy.
Boom Supersonic, the US plane manufacturer, plans to have the answer with its new Overture jet, which is set to transport customers at twice the speed of today's fastest commercial aircraft, and is regarded as the new Concorde.
Supercharged: Concorde was the first -- and still only -- passenger aircraft that had turbojet engines with afterburners. Raw fuel was introduced into the exhaust of the plane's four engines, immediately increasing the engines' thrust by almost 20%.
Technical, financial, and regulatory hurdles make a return to the skies extremely unlikely. Concorde is an aircraft that captures the imagination and is instantly recognizable even to non-aviation fanatics.
The Concorde made its first successful flight on March 2, 1969, with a maximum cruising speed of 2,179 km (1,354 miles) per hour, more than twice the speed of sound. It made its first transatlantic crossing in 1973.
Concorde was also popular with the Queen and celebrities. Joan Collins travelled with the aircraft so frequently that she became something of an ambassador for the service. Other notable passengers included Elton John, Mick Jagger, Elizabeth Taylor and Sean Connery.
Fred Finn, is the worlds most-travelled man, and with a world record that no one can ever beat – the world's most-travelled Concorde passenger! Fred Finn was on the first and last Concorde flights and holds the Guinness World Record for the most Concorde flights as a passenger!
But that hasn't stopped many aviation geeks from calling the new Boom supersonic aircraft Concorde 2.0, although the plane will officially be known under the name 'Overture'. Boom Supersonic's Overture plane is slated to roll out in 2025, fly in 2026 and expected to carry passengers by 2029.
The Concorde carried out supersonic flights until 2003, when it was retired. Also, because the plane flew faster than the speed of sound, it created a sonic boom, an explosive noise caused by shock waves that were a nuisance to people on the ground.
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 fastest fighter jet ever created was the NASA/USAF X-15. It was an experimental aircraft that resembled more of a rocket with wings but managed to reach a record 4,520mph. The fastest fighter jet in the world today is the MiG-25 Foxbat, with a top speed of 2,190mph, half the speed of the X-15.