Concorde : A Supersonic Story [BBC] 2017

three a technological masterpiece Concorde turned heads throughout her magnificent career it was this amazing triumph I mean it was a triumph she flew on the edge of space at twice the speed of sound outrunning even military jets then the black boy that went on inside her luxurious cabin passengers savored oak cuisine and vintage champagne [Music] it was an opportunity to step into another world around and there was Ronnie wood there behind the glamour Conchords journey was one of intrigue backstabbing and catastrophe the world's most prestigious aircraft crashes it was an accident that should never ever have happened this is the story of an airplane that went beyond pure mechanics to become a dream in the sky it's undeniable that it is the most glamorous and the most exciting the most brilliant aircraft in the world [Music] [Music] this is the story of an aeroplane an aeroplane that doesn't exist if it flies well flying in it will be like putting granny in a missile just seven years from now in November 1962 two nations France and Britain came together with a plan one that would set their course for the next 40 years they wanted to build a supersonic airliner a dream held since the end of the Second World War if the gamble comes off it could win a billion dollar market if it fails we'll be left with a great big white elephant and its feet stuck firmly on both sides of the English Channel the very first discussion is about Concorde took place in the late 1940s that's amongst British engineers they were dreaming of a future that was far far far from the world that they actually lived in which was a world of the bankrupt Britain of a coal driven Britain ration books a sort of black-and-white sooty world and yet here with these men dreaming up this glorious dander world [Music] when the American succeeds in flying faster than the speed of sound in 1947 a worldwide race began to build the first supersonic passenger plane [Music] the Nazis have made significant strides and aircraft technology during World War two now british scientists seized those ideas and took them forward in the course of our work this this sort of shape was evolved is the most likely shape for an aeroplane doing about mark - flying at twice the speed of sound across the Atlantic - rather a lovely shape it really feel if God meant aeroplanes to fly he meant listen to me this shape Britain now had the makings of a supersonic airliner but it was going to cost 100 million pounds to realise across the channel France was making progress on an idea that looked suspiciously similar they unveiled a model of a super Caravelle a supersonic Caravelle apparently the first supersonic airliner in the world rather than compete the two countries agreed they would combine their designs and share the costs mr. Julian a MIDI in company with the French ambassador almost crooned in admiration over the brainchild of their two countries on behalf of their governments they signed the agreement for the joint development and production Forte's perhaps or common market cooperation they agreed to build one in Toulouse France and the other at Filton in Bristol once you have the fiscal backing that political clearance the funds were there or so it seemed but it shouldn't take long to get into the sky five years and it'll be off this was a treaty between two centuries old rivals so suspicions were high our politicians I think this is why when didn't trust the French politicians and so they insisted that if ever anybody went out then the other side would have to pay the total until it was fully developed so that meant that we couldn't pull out either this clause would dog British politicians for the next ten years for now it was time to dig out those phrase books as engineers in Britain and France began work refresh how often do you go to Bristol I going to whistle every two weeks and I stare for three days does depend the world but you had the language problem a lot of the French spoke some form of English whereas very few of the Englishman I knew French do you speak French very little just enough to get by for food and such like see both sides of the operations organized language classes for their workers drawings were in French and we all learned what drill wars are what about was or nuts or split pens we kind of got used to the French terms Frances Concord workers take their lunchtime break and here that the soda vseo works at Toulouse it's very different indeed from the British aircraft corporations candy no filter there's about a thousand people in here and as you can tell there's a good lot of din and most French workmen like to take a glass of wine with their lunch the British engineer had to be careful then a lunchtime tipper didn't jeopardize delicate negotiations the technique was quite good because they would stone all all the money then give you a good lunch and they need to expect you to accept their proposal in the afternoon which had been work although I think he seldom what might have done with the production people I never found out from them but no that's scurrilous I suppose yeah teams of engineers from France and Britain got on very well together they liked a bit of raillery and as they were pushing each other the French teased the British the British teased the French so that competition amongst the engineers and the National prides involved led to a very successful machine unlike their engineers the politicians did fall out Harold Wilson was furious with president de Gaulle for adding a letter e to the word Concorde so he removed it but de Gaulle put it back in Bristol and to lose the workers didn't give a flying Fig awesome see cog horse on feet Concorde II so I don't think it makes any difference at all I don't care what they call it as long as it's successful so long as it's got the craftsmanship in it and the ability of the men that's working on it to fly now I think mister we may as well be together and put an e on and mate and get on with it they can put Kenny's on it if they wish I think it was a Toni band that said look let's put the e on Concorde and that's not worry about the little things and I thought the II actually did did the aircraft a favor it was them it was just a nice little touch people were working together for the betterment of the aircraft industry a year on from the anglo-french treaty the first designs of Concorde were released a wooden mock-up demonstrated the interior and the high-tech heat shield the orders came in very early the aviation the ship was very excited and the supersonic flight was in its early days but it was thrilling I think it's ruled everyone it's thrilled airline executives hard to imagine today airline executives being thrilled by the poetry of flight but they were then Concorde was the way forward everyone knew that Airlines across the world responded with great excitement 16 airlines ordering some 75 aircraft many of the orders were by airlines in the US which infuriated President John F Kennedy so he announced a plane that would be bigger faster and travel even further than Concorde America simply wasn't going to be left behind they were worried already because there's another player involved the Soviets who also had supersonic technology developing the pace also had former Nazi German engineers and designers working on aircraft and other military machinery so naturally the Americans were worried now that he'd had customers Concorde had to be turned into reality everything was built from scratch stretching existing materials to the limit it's the biggest international project hair project ever undertaken I mean after the American space program in the Russian space program this is probably the biggest of its kind in the world what made it even bigger was that they were building two identical planes so every part had to be manufactured twice one for the French prototype and one for the British do you put a sense of drawings you've got Jupiter sets of Management Jupiter sets of engineers worry the factory but was wonderful but the costs were racking up all the time the Conchords basic design features have been established and its performance defined bruising speed at map 2.2 or fourteen hundred and fifty miles an hour to be able to fly at more than twice the speed of sound required huge leaps in aircraft design the wings were perfected through months of exhaustive Windtunnel testing the engine's taken from a military aircraft were completely rebuilt making them more than twice as powerful we changed almost everything in that engine even the fuel system was changed by the time we'd finished the long streamlined nose was designed to cut through the air faster than any other passenger aircraft but engineers had to come up with an ingenious solution for takeoff and landing people who was fascinated by the droop snoot but I mean the reality is that it was actually really very much necessary and the whole object of the exercise of the droop snoot was to get that long needle nose out of the pilots line of sight so he could see the runway in front of him by 1966 large sections of the aircraft were being shipped from factories on either side of the channel and bang on time the first french-built component for the second prototype reached filter the vehicle and its load had traveled direct from toulouse by road and cross channel car Paris this is the normal method for moving Concorde components between toulouse and filter I remember the very first sections of the aircraft being delivered from the various production sites in the nose section was one of the first security in those days was not as you would expect nowadays there was such a sensitive project so I would spend a lot of time during the day coming down with just a little clipboard or something scribbled on I was down here every day just about looking around and I saw my bosses used to think where's Nigel but I was no you have you downstairs with his clipboard it was a passion and a prior and privileged to be actually working out here and see this Airport which was being built from scratch to something which would become the an icon of the 20th century visiting the British Aircraft Corporation factory at philtrum near Bristol the Queen was to see for herself how the anglo-french concorde project were shaping to the delight of the crowd but it was during her tour the news came that increased costs for developing me fifteen hundred mile an hour jetliner had rocketed to an estimated 500 million pounds while Her Majesty was showing keen interest in the work Parliament was expressing concern at the project's soaring expense Concord have cost five times its original budget to make matters worse the airlines who'd ordered it were asking for expensive additions it was impossible really for Concord not to go over budget because the original idea was that Concorde would be this lightweight supersonic dart city across the Atlantic all around the world because it went so fast well the VIPs on board wouldn't need much more from an English point of view that sort of sandwich cup of tea and a glass of whiskey but another airline such that particular French they said no this is a luxury aircraft its passengers would want champagne Bordeaux wine and oak cuisine but all this excess was causing Concorde to put on weight adding even more to the bill French never cared about the cost at all which escalated substantially and we mentioned this to a French minister he told uppish and so but these things are really when you get to this scale they're political they have to be decided politically as far as the French were concerned it was the grandeur of France so as the treasurer was concerned and can you make a quick buck for tax cuts for the rich I mean that was the difference between the British and French attitude but I am proud of the fact that I stopped it being cancelled because the Treasury wants to cancel it and the cabinet wants to cancel it do this because one the French were committed to it and if the British had shrewd he pulled out had done a kind of you know Concorde brexit what would have happened then is the French would have sued the British it's extrordinary thought us know but you country can't sue another country Britain we've had to pay them a fortune to France none of this seemed to matter on a glorious winter's day in 1967 when Concorde 0:01 was unveiled in France and the guests watch has the great hangar doors open to reveal 0:01 the first Concorde prototype the atmosphere was one of wild optimism and excitement for the future where even the flight attendants were dressed for space travel all this and the plane hadn't even left the ground yet here a touch of symbolism the two ministers jointly kept the ribbons to release the aircraft for its ceremonial roland here to was a chance to meet the brave test pilots would risk their lives flying the prototypes for the French former Air Force major Andre Turki and hold you up the British end of things Bryant rupture a former world war ii bomber pilot awkward camera shy but practical you don't worry very much about the danger no I don't think you can be a person who worries very much about the danger if that danger is really there anyway you've got to have some fear otherwise you'll just go after thing like a blue headed animal and I think some degree of fear is a it's a fundamentally required quality in the test buyers I first met Brian sub Shaw in 1968 and he actually had an office next door to the department I worked we had to dress them sometimes in some early yeah because initially on Concorde I had to wear parachutes pressure suits as if they're flying the fighter plane when you're a test pilot and you're going to fly an airplane which is an unknown force there's a lot to think of you don't want people fussing around you just want to get on with it and a lot of people trying to make a fuss trap-jaw hated press scrutiny he was used to being in control who's going to make the final decision list when you do action you take off I do and nobody else top Sean might be in charge of the British end but the French Concorde would be flying first he'd be reduced to watching from the sidelines when on March the 2nd 1969 Andre Turki took Concorde 0:01 on its maiden flight [Music] the main thought is the Leverson keep going well that was me that was a kind of thinking I did other people shut their eyes I think it's a she went wrong I certainly watched the maiden flights out of Toulouse and I think Raymond Baxter's commentary still makes all the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end it was a brilliant piece of commentating by him [Applause] [Music] [Music] just those flies that [Music] certo God goes off to face the hazards of a press conference the flighted to lose was a great success but trop Shawn wasn't happy with a media circus and was now threatening to ban everyone from the British attempt this performance which surrounds this first flight of zero zero one is wrong i dint agree with it and I realized I've been saying that to you I'm stating it publicly but I am absolutely opposed to this and it is possible that I shall refuse to allow a similar activity for 0:02 [Music] as the big day drew near it was clear that this would be a huge public event the whole length of the field was filled with people employees and up on the hills they are there people watching by chose to stand down where the aircraft was so here's the engine starter Smokey Joe issue was called at a time because they were only production engines quite smoky in dark smoke out the back began to turn around the colleague of ours with so we better move back because we're going to be affected by the jet blast but I said no I'm gonna stay here I want to smell the Kara Sea and I want to get blown over and the noise when she actually got to run away out in the throttles full power will reheat it was magnificent sight [Music] Concorde zero zero two flew for our whole twenty two minutes touching down at RAF Fairford fifty miles away [Music] here the pilots were greeted by an even bigger press corps [Music] it had been a wonderful first flight trop Shores place in history was guaranteed whether he liked it or not Concorde now embarked on a rigorous program of flight testing and for those with the right connections here at last was a chance to have a go at the controls [Music] he on conservation what do you think of the level of noise and smoke I was inside and there wasn't slinking joking aside Concorde smokey engines were a concern even more worrying was the noise created when she flew faster than the speed of sound anyone on the ground would hear two very loud bangs known as the sonic boom I mean when a supersonic aircraft flies over a town or suburb or a city it will smash loose windows I mean it just does and when Tesla made a Britain boy the complaints that poured in or legion by 1972 Concorde was still fart and ready to enter service and the cost of the project had broken a billion pounds desperate to add to the 75 planes already ordered the prototype was sent on a sales tour with a small army of Engineers in tow my role then was to walk beside the aircraft to make sure he got to the taxi point safely and then we would start the engines and help is on its way we did all the maintenance that we couldn't help in the inspection looking at tire pressures and Drollet levels lots of stuff like that trying to sell the plane on behalf of the government with a swathe new Minister for aerospace Michael Heseltine [Music] when the first stops was arrived where the Shah Hakeem pilot seemed a likely customer it was designed to be the peak of the first sailors trip and hopefully I would secure his agreement to buy it well all went reasonably to plan well not quite we went on board and he came in sat that alongside me and I had 45 minutes lights in which to persuade him to buy and to allow us ever flying rats plane took off he got up said I must go on the flight deck that's the last I saw of him until we had landed but from atomic the Shah casually agreed to the deal but without a witness it was far from binding and then to my huge relief somebody said Your Majesty the time is London are you gonna buy it yes he said - Your Majesty the time was again if will will you give us over flying rats yes well my job is done Tehran had gone well but now the sales tour backfired rather than winning new orders they began to lose them the black smoke produced by the prototype engines horrified the Japanese [Music] they canceled their order for three aircraft things continue to go badly down under Arnold from Darwin 0:02 has made Conchords first sustained supersonic flight over land when Concord visited Australia people are very concerned about the noise disturbing Aboriginal homelands there was a sense of this aviation colonialism that the British and French were using this machine to overfly poorer peoples who would never be able to fly on Concorde themselves the sonic boom was becoming a global issue for example they were banned from flying down the seaboard of India because the Indians were saying why should we be disturbed by this noise are we less important than British and French people Concorde was heading home having had its first taste of a turbulent future but for those lucky enough to be on board it was an experience to remember particularly the last leg in - to lose that was long as supersonic fighter had done we are the home lands of the Mediterranean we could see Africa on the left-hand side and Europe on the right-hand side as we flew it 58,000 feet the three of us that flew on the aircraft just couldn't stop talking about you you know what's amazing on its return home Concorde was given the Royal Seal of Approval but the truth was its future was far from certain across the pond America's project was struggling even to get off the ground when Boeing first showed its supersonic airline it showed it in the form of a gigantic life-size model the Boeing design was too complex they had to swing wing and they had a double droop snoot the nose bent in two places not just in one and also the Americans were facing much greater economic challenges they were running the Apollo program and also they were embroiled in the Vietnam War which was sucking up huge amounts of money having spent a billion dollars with little to show the US government pulled the plug the Russians appear to be faring better their plane nicknamed Concord ski was poised to enter service it was very struck by the similarities of the design to the Concorde which leads me to believe there was certainly industrial espionage going on having said that I suspect the industrial espionage work both ways the Russian project was actually quite brilliant in one way in that Concorde ski was the first supersonic airliner to fly nothing worked it flew terrific what a wonderful public relations coup for the Soviet Union was one little problem in that the aircraft was rushed in many ways it was crude compared to Concorde its interior boy if you think flying on sudden one Airlines is unpleasant you should've tried Concorde Ski lavatories wouldn't work lighting would stop there was no hold for luggage under the aircraft the seats were very flimsy thin things it'd been too rushed and of course it proved to be quite self-destructive in June 1973 on a demonstration flight at the Paris Air Show Concorde ski suffered a catastrophic failure she was diving and about to crash it tore itself to pieces and exploded and only a rainfall of bits and pieces in the ground all six crews and eight people on the ground were killed Concorde ski would fly just 55 commercial flights inside the Soviet Union before being grounded in 1978 concorde superb engineering made failure far less likely but now ready to enter service it had problems of its own this was a bad time remember the early 70s gosh 1973-74 it's the time of the great oil crisis fuel costs rocketed and more than that it was also the time when the environment Lobby becomes vocal we dread one flight over our heads if the French and the British made a mistake with this plane we're sorry for them Concorde is no longer the darling of the skies it's being seen as a dark prince poor Concorde shown at the right time in the optimistic days of the late sixties and got to the markets that's exactly the wrong time by the end of 1973 a year after the world tour almost every one of Conchords orders had been canceled the dream of selling hundreds of aircraft was sunk not even British Airways and Air France were interested they did did not want Concorde in the least they had no interest in the airplane whatsoever I'm talking about the management of the airline and they just said we don't want them we don't want them well that was humiliating so I negotiated what in fact was a gift on profit-sharing conditions which meant no cash flow until the thing made a profit and that was the basis on which I dented this humiliating deal but at least I got a sail British Airways had acquired five aircraft worth 22 million pounds each so there was no holding back when it came to launching their first flights a huge publicity stunt involving international superstar Shirley Bassey [Music] in 1977 flights to New York began anyone able to stump up 431 pounds for a single fare could cross the Atlantic in three and a half hours rather than eight and [Music] they would discover that from the very first moment of arriving for a Concorde flight this was a unique and very special experience the great thing about the Concorde likes was that the Concorde lounge happened very quickly so having got a ticket you went through the Concorde doors and you were in a kind of rather nice hotel type reception like going to a big feast it was all d'oeuvres and canapes everything laid out it was just one drink as much as you know whatever help yourself at the bar George added G&T cause he's the gmt king and i had a coffee we would look at the passenger list and if he knew they were regulars to call them by their name they loved that familiarity of coming on and knowing the crew how much people think you know Concord that's pretty huge airplane but when you actually get up close to it it wasn't that big an aircraft and especially when you get inside it is quite quite narrow in sight the ceiling was low and the windows were tiny the windows were that not like windows on a normal plane there were little tiny portholes I'm searching to avoid the word cramped but then with Oscar and in fact you were your tights and Angela and the seat in front was closed and you know there was no space [Music] before takeoff while we were taxing out we would take a bar order we were trying offer champagne hot towels would be offered as they are in first-class and we managed to get all that done while the aircraft is taxiing it was just wonderful to meet George romantic it was so romantic I don't know why I use that word but it was just fantastic I felt really feel stuff they made you feel like that I was quite scared I think David Frost was on it and I knew David and I said I'm a bit nervous about this date I said oh darling don't be I'd do it three times a week the sensation that passengers would be aware of more than anything else would be during the take-off really feeling this great sort of surge of acceleration of the small of their back and you knew that the airplane was accelerating rapidly down the runway the tray table in front of me fell down so I was leaning forward trying to get this tray back I don't know why I was caring about the tray but and I couldn't get forward to it felt like a little push back in my seat I think when we took off we took over about a 30 30 degree angle but when he brought to press the button and put the afterburners on you Pratley stood on the tile but all what a flight and it was back it was so thrilling there was a wonderful moment where you just watched London go into a little dot which was just fantastic and I was white-knuckling it and then as soon as it took off it was fantastic thanks to the sonic boom controversy Concorde was only allowed to fly supersonically over the sea but now the throttle could be opened up and then the back boy that went on yeah and they just went on and on and on and you could see the the numbers ticking up on the speed and it was quite hard to comprehend because at some point where you think I'm actually now going faster than a bullet when the Mac counter registered twice as free the sound I decided I'm going to the loo and I went to the loo Mac to [Music] I was invited to go into the cockpit and I was quite scared because I had heard so many scary things about Concorde and to me it was a bit like going into space it was surreal it was amazing because all you could see was the blue sky and he couldn't really see anything else and it was just as smooth as lying in bed you had no sensation of speed at all you're sitting out there at fifty five fifty eight thousand feet in this very calm tranquil atmosphere you're above the thunderstorms you're above the jet streams you're above everything that causes turbulence you almost felt that you were just hanging there suspended in space I never got used to it I would pinch myself in disbelief who don't twenty-three miles a minute we're actually flying at twice the speed of sound had to be precise 1341 miles per hour eleven miles and this is how smooth that can't be and twice and more than twice the speed of sound now at cruising height the aperitif sand canapes consumed passengers could start ordering from the menu but this was not just any food this was Concorde food the champagne flowed the caviar came out and the smoked salmon we would start the meal service with a pre plated cold hors d'oeuvre then there was a choice of three hot main courses and a cold one when I was flying but chefs who designed the menus in particular with the roux brothers and in fact we had them on a flight one day and we were very nervous that the way we cooked the food lived up to how they had designed it and it was silver service and the menu I mean we had lobster and chicken you know I don't go by that go out and buy that very often and to wash it all down a wine list worthy of a michelin-starred restaurant the guy comes passes the wine and I know things and then I look and it's a foot shutter four tool at all which is like one of them really really great French wines I was thinking I've never had a four tool at all the wine was excellent as was the food I mean really really good I had some more and I had some more and I had some more and by the time I you know I'd actually arrived in New York at a ten o'clock meeting I suddenly realized that I had drunk probably about half a bottle of one of the finest Clarets on earth Concorde was expensive and prestigious with an in-flight service aimed at those with class so there really was only one type of passenger those who could afford it investment bankers fund managers were absolutely regular users of their apparently used it as a commuting tool when I'm doing it every week I truly can just regarded as commuting to work speed is what it's all about for me the ability to avoid these overnight flights get to the other end fresh that's what this great plane does the next category were your film stars celebrities pop musicians and the whole atmosphere on the airplane was completely different from the atmosphere you'd get on subsonic open all these guys they were constantly flying across the Atlantic on Concorde they all knew each other and it was a it was a sort of sociable event this particular time in the eighties I was doing a lot of traveling I was working in LA on a series and I wanted to come back to London a lot to see my family so it really made a huge difference in my life being able to go on Concord it was very expensive but sometimes it's worth investing in things that make you happy but there was another type of passenger those who had saved up to enjoy the trip of a lifetime they often got more than they were expecting around and they would about the four hey Thomas Mick Jagger Oliver God so he came down them hello and he shook our hands and I said George so we're back Mick Jagger got up and you followed me anyway we waited outside and that person came out and he said we gon win so I said no no you go first I didn't like to call him it seemed a bit so I said you go in first if you shot yes so cuz he he went in came out I went in cause it's still warm oh my word no matter how exciting things got all too soon the seatbelt sign would light up and Concorde will begin its descent very many passengers would get off the airplane feeling really sorry that the flight had ended you know couldn't it go on a bit longer they were enjoying it so much by the time you'd had a few drinks and something to eat and maybe a tiny snooze there you are in London in the rain Concorde has struck a chord with passengers and crew alike but it was hemorrhaging money by 1981 after just five years in the service British Airways and Air France had recorded losses in the tens of millions on their Concorde operations it was too expensive a service to operate and it was just too limited that was the problem the only route it could fly successfully was New York London London New York and a bit of Paris New York London Paris what Concorde needed was to charge a hell of a lot for tickets and to make it very exclusive indeed British Airways put up Concord prices to nearly double those of first-class on its other flights so now in the mid-1980s Concorde was at last turning a profit but with only one successful route London to New York most of the fleet were sitting idle the answer was to allow Concorde to be chartered anyone with the money could hire the whole plane and take it wherever they wanted my friends said they would like to fly in Concord and they thought that I should organize it for them so thought well why not so I ran up and I said them could I chart a Concorde for my friends supersonic for an hour and a half so he said to me well you can charge it for 17,500 pounds so that worked out to 175 pounds per passenger and I filled two compos I could easily have done 1/3 the charter market exploded as a host of entrepreneurs Concord fan clubs and travel agents cashed in on the new demand those charter flights took Concord to over 250 destinations around the world 76 of those were in the USA and so that enabled Concorde to be used as an experience the trip of a lifetime experience for many people but also a major marketing tool to British Airways one popular destination was a day trip to Egypt you could visit the Pyramids of Giza in the land of the Pharaohs and still be home in time for tea what did you like this really [Music] we're trying now down the Adriatic and as we approach Egypt someone from the front said if those on the left-hand side if you look out slightly to the front there's the pyramids and there's the Sphinx he said I feel sorry for you those on the right is it our saadat that was his words he did a figure of eight so those on it and I thought lovely it's a Christmas Santa specials fly from Bournemouth to the north of Finland to Lapland to make father Christmas little tours just on the Bay of Biscay for very little money indeed when I had the surprise on my 50th birthday which is in 1999 they said on that we've got your present don't bring ought to get you but would this be okay they'd open the envelope December look here I got went with my boarding pass absolutely fantastic the prestigious Concorde experience was at last being enjoyed by the very people whose taxes had paid for it didn't matter who you were you treated them all the same because they were flying this aircraft and they were getting all the service that was expected of you and there were some unique experiences that only Concorde could provide so the Sun had set but we're flying sort Northwest across towards Italy and he said we're going so fast the Sun is coming back up and what an experience to see the Sun coming back up and as we got to II throw the music stopped and someone started me had a good voice and he played the Queen and we sang God Save the Queen and that was the end of a glorious day brilliant Concorde was becoming a national icon and the plane was to be found at the heart of major public events it seemed like the dream would go on forever over time I've been on the bus to Farnborough as I got on the bus somebody said the Concorde is crashed in France and I thought him not not to be somebody sailing it was July the 25th mm and the unthinkable had happened the world's most prestigious aircraft crashes more than a hundred people are dead I couldn't believe it because you it can't he couldn't crash it was too magical to do I mean it sounds childish but in your mind it was just forever and to think people that died it was just dreadful according to Air France of the 100 passengers two were Danish one was a US citizen the rest were German the crash agone s shocked the world now every detail of the final moments of flight four five nine Oh was scrutinized it was a crash there was a classic aircraft accident there was a whole series of events and it was the cumulative effect of each of the errors in this error chain that led to the final overwhelming catastrophe [Music] it was a hot July day in Paris and the Air France Concorde was on a charter flight taking a hundred passengers to New York to join a cruise ship it was fully laden the airplane had been over fueled all the fuel tanks and the wing had been filled up completely full nineteen items of baggage were put in the rare cargo hold which were never weighed the net result of all this was that the airplane was over the maximum structural weight they were running late so there's a lot of pressure on the crew to taxi out and take off as quickly as possible and to get to New York non-stop by the time it had got to the runway threshold it had only burned 800 kilos of the 2000 kilos of taxi fuel that he had allowed for and what he should have done was to have burned off all that taxi fuel before he got airborne as they went down the runway the airplane encountered a piece of metal piece of metal lying on the runway that had come off a Continental Airlines dc-10 there was a piece of metal left on the runway but there were also maintenance errors on the part of Air France in the left hand undercarriage which had been worked on by Air France a couple of days before the crash they'd failed to put back in there a component called the spacer without that spacer the wheels could wobble around like wheels on a supermarket trolley the tire encountered the piece of metal when the airplane was traveling at 185 because the piece of metal cuts in but it didn't puncture the tire in a conventional way what it did was scout the time that flew up and hit the underside of the airplane with a tremendous amount of energy it set up a shockwave in that fuel tank there's no air space in the fuel tank to absorb the energy of that shockwave it blew out a piece of metal not a rupture from inside to out but a mini explosion from inside and out came a hundred litres a second of fuel a really massive fire generating a lot of smoke and a lot of unburned fuel which goes into the engines the fire warning went off for the number two engine and the flight engineer without any discussion with the captain or the first officer at all just went straight into a fire drill and shut that engine down the pilot rotated the aircraft 15 knots early to try and climb away it went off to the left-hand side of the runway hit a runway light before getting airborne sadly staggered into the air it never remotely reached its in-flight safety speed which was 220 knots they've tried to climb away got to about 200 feet but couldn't climb anymore but the real damage was done the real damage was this massive fire this dreadful blowtorch of fuel flaming fuel pouring out of tank number 5 causing the center of gravity moved further rare woods and this led to the airplane just rearing up and once that had happened really sadly the airplane and all those on board were doomed it was an accident that should never ever have happened the official French crash report concluded that the piece of metal on the runway had exposed vulnerabilities to Conchords fuel tanks and tires Air France and British Airways grounded their aircraft while expensive safety modifications were made they were relaunched in November 2001 but the world had moved on two months before the attacks on New York's Twin Towers had claimed 2,700 lives [Music] air travel lost disappear and demand for business flights into New York plummeted Concord was crossing the Atlantic almost completely empty added to that maintenance costs were soaring and so in April 2003 Concord retirement was announced it's the end for Concord after 30 years of supersonic flying British Airways and Air France will retire the plane in six months time and it was a shame you know when I heard the story that it was gonna be taken out of service what a bad day that was I was horrible nobody nobody liked her at all over the next six months there was a rush to take a last flight on Concorde every seat was sold and more flights were added then a grand tour of the United States Canada and the United Kingdom finally on the 24th of October 2003 flight 0:02 left New York for the last time [Music] so we're just about to set course the acceleration on the runway is quite something to remember some sure will be the rest of the flight [Music] it was done with a lot of press hullabaloo as you can imagine it's a big important day but often for the aircraft the top celebrities and the big red-faced newspaper editors and TV presenter type people on board spent much time as far as I can see getting drunk there were a lot of celebrities and among them was Piers Morgan and Jeremy Clarkson who had a fight and they were throwing glasses of water at each other like great overgrown schoolboys this machine if you could have seen it flying for the sky I mean staggeringly fast just as fireman's thinking never lost its beauty its poises composure and inside the very last flight even I think sir rough and drunken and awful [Applause] [Music] first one Concord then another a sight never seen before three in all waiting to land as we came down we saw tons of tons of people all waving and shouting and flags and banners and all of the fire engines from Heathrow had their hoses on and they were spraying water all over Concord as it landed it was very very moving because it was like it was totally the end of an era he was the end of an era [Music] the end of the reception about 10:30 at night I walked out across the tarmac I was the last to leave and there were five perfectly serviceable Concorde sitting on the ramp and they would never carry fare-paying passengers again and that's the time when it really hit me and that's the time when there was a actually literally a tear in the eye the end of Concorde felt to many as though the supersonic dream was over very sad that Concorde was retired in 2003 with no obvious successor it was the first time in aeronautical or perhaps technological history that we had actually taken the step backwards and we've just gone back to subsonic aircraft but in the last few years a new race has begun with at least three aircraft in development there's a company working on a 30 to 40 seat supersonic transport for businessman I think that could appear on the scene within the next five years as far as a full-blooded supersonic airliner is concerned I think we probably are going to have to wait a lot longer for that and I think eventually we will see perhaps hypersonic suborbital vehicles that do London Sydney in a matter of three hours something of that sort two and a half hours a month after the final flights into Heathrow the last Concorde ever made returned to Bristol sports an airfield from where Brian truck Shaw flew in 1969 Concorde was coming home and course we cried when we saw the Concorde their last flight over suspension of waiting but you know now I love this darkness because you knew it's gonna be the last doing there I don't quite what is this something mysterious about concorde most extraordinary exceptional the whole country in fact probably the whole world mourned its loss it changed many people's lives forever I think our whole experience with Concorde flying and the demise of Concorde have been with us all the time really and it's a tragedy but won't be lucky to have the opportunity to go on it now the star of a new collection dedicated to flight fifty years after she was unveiled Concorde is a museum piece designed for the elite paid for by everyone it's 17 years and back to the same seat on the same aircraft beautiful fast noisy expensive oh he's the infamous toilet many memories of that a symbol of post-war hope for the future yeah I hope my seat was always done I always used to be in the engineer seat doing engine runs and things but it's nice to sit a few green for go Concorde lived a life of superlatives and contradictions the white elephant that became a swan but just a little too far ahead of her time the giris think this aircraft used to take people fifty eight sixty thousand feet sipping champagne any other people at that weight and sleeve fighter pilots we were just so ahead of the time with me there's nothing like this around gets your memory bank going in or I mean or even now I mean they'll never be another one like it it's a shame so wonderful so I never sell I see [Music] let me take you on a little trip with supersonic ships at your disposal if you'd be suing for more on this or inspiring supersonic ship head to BBC iplayer for an episode of Perpetual Martian from the 1994 with contributions from the engineers and crews working on Concorde at the time in a moment here on BBC four getting right into the nuts and bolts of a BM off of the air witness a jumbo jet stripped down next

Channel: Roman Green

Views: 1,083,324

Rating: 4.7469749 out of 5

Keywords:

Id: jnh3PdNN6ps

Length: 59min 0sec (3540 seconds)

Published: Thu Oct 12 2017

Reddit Comments

[u/CDNChaoZ]

Featuring a droop snoot.

[u/herbivore83]

Just listened to the new Stuff You Should Know podcast on the Concorde so this is great timing!

[u/0and18]

Awarded¹