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What speed did Concorde take-off at?

About Concorde With a take-off speed of 220 knots (250mph) and a cruising speed of 1350mph – more than twice the speed of sound - a typical London to New York crossing would take a little less than three and a half hours, as opposed to about eight hours for a subsonic flight.



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About Concorde With a take-off speed of 220 knots (250mph) and a cruising speed of 1350mph – more than twice the speed of sound - a typical London to New York crossing would take a little less than three and a half hours, as opposed to about eight hours for a subsonic flight.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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So, to answer the question, yes, some fighter jets are faster than the Concorde. However, it is important to note that the Concorde was primarily designed for passenger travel, not for combat or aerial maneuvers.

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The short answer is no. While the Concorde was undoubtedly fast, reaching speeds of up to Mach 2.04 (1,354 mph or 2,180 km/h), it fell short of the blistering speeds of a bullet.

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The Concorde's retirement was due to a number of factors. The supersonic aircraft was noisy and extremely expensive to operate, which restricted flight availability. The operating costs required fare pricing that was prohibitively high for many consumers.

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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.

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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 earned £500 million for British Airways after tax profit, this was between a loss making 1982 and a highly profitable 2000 with just seven aircraft.

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Did Concorde ever perform a barrel roll – well yes and the video below will tell you all about it. It was performed by one of British Airways' most celebrated pilots Brian Walpole.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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