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.
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A flight in 1963 cost $43 ($340 with inflation), and about $360 in 2015. The most expensive an average ticket has ever been was in 2000, when a ticket cost $409 ($581 with inflation).
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.
With skillful negotiating on BA's part and a lack of optimism from the Government, British Airways bought Concorde entirely in 1984 for £16.5 million. The deal saw BA receive all spare parts for the aircraft owned by the government and was released from a profit share scheme. So, where does the £1 come in?
On 25 July 2000, Air France Flight 4590 crashed shortly after take-off with all 109 occupants and four on the ground killed. This was the only fatal incident involving Concorde; commercial service was suspended until November 2001.
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.
The aircraft quickly proved itself unquestionably as it reached speeds of up to 1,354 mph. To put that into context, that is around 800 mph faster than a Boeing 747 and over 350 mph faster than the earth spins on its axis!
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.
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.
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.
Back in 1975, things were simple. All fares were refundable and bundled with a plethora of services. According to a contemporary edition of the OAG North American Edition, the cheapest unrestricted one-way flight on American Airlines cost $138 including taxes.
Of its final, celeb-studded passenger flight, CNN's Quest says: It didn't matter how famous you were, the star was the plane. Faster than a speeding bullet: 20 years after it last flew, Concorde remains unsurpassed in terms of speed in the world of commercial flight.
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 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.
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.
According to Venus, the jet is being developed to fly at Mach 9, or nine times the speed of sound. That equates to about 8,000km/h (5,000mph). By comparison, the Concorde flew at about Mach 2, Overture is being built for Mach 1.7, and Hermus and Destinus are designing their hypersonic planes for Mach 5.
The cockpit voice recorder (CVR) recorded the last intelligible words in the cockpit (translated into English): Co-pilot: Le Bourget, Le Bourget, Le Bourget.Pilot: Too late (unclear). Control tower: Fire service leader, correction, the Concorde is returning to runway zero nine in the opposite direction.
It was just one minute 17 seconds after its pilot was told the plane was on fire. According to a report by the Mirror, Captain Christian Marty's last words on July 25, 2000, were: Too late...no time. The co-pilot was then heard to say: Le Bourget, Le Bourget.
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.