Which Concorde flew over Buckingham Palace?

The first fly-past over Buckingham Palace was carried out on 14 June 1969 by Concorde prototype 002, flown by Brian Trubshaw and flanked by two Lightning jets, for the Queen's official birthday. The most spectacular flight, though, was the flypast for the Queen's Golden Jubilee, on 4 June 2002.



The Concorde that famously flew over Buckingham Palace was G-BOAD (Alpha Delta). On June 4, 2002, as part of the grand finale for Queen Elizabeth II’s Golden Jubilee, this British Airways flagship led a historic flypast in formation with the RAF Red Arrows. The aircraft, commanded by Chief Concorde Pilot Mike Bannister, flew down The Mall and over the Palace at a height of just 1,500 feet and a speed of 280 knots. This particular aircraft, G-BOAD, holds the record for the most flying hours of any Concorde (23,397 hours) and is also the plane that set the world record for the fastest transatlantic flight between New York and London in 2 hours and 52 minutes. Following the retirement of the Concorde fleet in 2003, G-BOAD was transported to New York City, where it is currently on permanent display at the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum. The 2002 Jubilee flight remains one of the most iconic moments in aviation history, symbolizing the pinnacle of British engineering and its close ties to the Royal Family.

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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.

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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.

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By the early 1970s however, opposition led to bans on commercial supersonic flight in Sweden, Norway, the Netherlands, West Germany, Switzerland, Ireland, Canada and the United States.

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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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British Airways and Air France were the only two airlines who operated the aircraft. It's said that during the aircraft's 27 years of service, there were more qualified American astronauts than there were British Airways Concorde pilots.

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Overtures toward commercial supersonic flight Overture will be a successor to the last commercial supersonic aircraft, the Concorde, which operated between 1969 and 2003.

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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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