Concorde Secrets: What Airlines Had Orders For The Supersonic Jet?

[Music] concorde was retired in 2003 after 27 years of operation it's remembered for its long service with both british airways and air france but did you know that it was much more popular at its outset in fact 18 airlines placed options for concorde as we now know all except two airlines cancelled them concorde and the development and future of supersonic flight could have turned out very differently and more of these orders been realized let's take a look at the airlines that placed and cancelled options and why they did this plans for supersonic commercial aircraft picked up in the late 1950s and early 1960s in the united states boeing was working on the 2707 while lockheed was working on the l2000 russia had developed and built the tupolev tu-144 which first flew just before concorde concorde was europe's contribution to supersonic passenger flight it was developed as part of an international treaty between the british and french governments the name concorde was in fact chosen to represent this cooperation with the english concord and french concord meaning agreement each of the two governments spent the equivalent of 1.44 billion dollars developing the aircraft vastly more than original estimates although the governments never saw any profit on the program operating airlines did concorde was built by british firm british aircraft corporation later to become bae systems and french firm sud ave yashan later aerospacial despite being funded by the two governments the intention was to sell to airlines worldwide concord took its first flight on march 2nd 1969 and entered service in january 1976. despite plenty of interest from other airlines aircraft were only ever delivered to british airways and air france each airline took seven aircraft and a further six aircraft were developed as prototypes and testing models there was no shortage of interest in concord and in all around 100 options for later purchases were placed by 18 airlines only british airways air france and interestingly iran air converted these to committed orders there were originally two versions of the aircraft a long range and a short range version there was little interest however in the short-range aircraft and this was ultimately dropped all orders and options placed were for the long-range version according to website heritage concorde here are all the airlines who had options or orders for the supersonic jet boac would place six options in 1963 and one more after it became british airways in 1984 air france would order six in 1963 and one more in 1980 pan american world airways would place six options in 1963 plus two more in 1966. continental had options for three in 1963. american airlines and trans world airlines or twa each placed four options in 1963 and two more in 1964. middle east airlines placed options for two in 1963 with two more in 1964. qantas placed options for four in 1964 two for air india in 1964. three for japan airlines in 1965 and two for belgium carrier sabina in 1965. between 1966 and 1967 eastern airlines would place options for six united airlines also went for six aircraft in 1966 ranif placed options for three in 1966 while lufthansa had options for three in 1967 air canada had options for full in 1967. the caac or civil aviation administration of china had options for three in 1972 and finally iran air had officially placed orders for two concord jets in 1972 this included an option for one more as you can see concorde was never designed to be operated by just a british and a french airline even though it was a joint program between those two countries however all other orders and options were cancelled though most by 1975 with a few airlines hanging on until 1979 and 1980 with only 14 aircraft delivered the program would never be able to recover the massive cost of development to break even the consortium required 150 orders had more of these orders stuck perhaps the concord program and the future of supersonic flight would have proceeded differently why then was concord and the dream of supersonic flight not to be for these airlines although reasons differed from one airline to another let's go over some of the overarching issues plaguing the aircraft program firstly the increasing cost of development led to increases in the cost to airlines coupled with this were uncertainties over both the cost of operation and what premium passengers would be prepared to pay supersonic flight was new and increasing costs did not help confidence in its operating possibilities in a 1973 report of pan am cancelling its orders the new york times explained this fear well the price has soared from the under 20 million dollars per plane originally estimated until with spare parts it's 46 million in 1972 dollars many insiders estimate escalation clauses will bring the price to 60 million dollars the us alternative to the concorde the boeing 2707 was cancelled in 1971 this was for a variety of reasons including rising costs design difficulties and environmental pressure the aircraft actually had more options placed than concorde at least 122 options from 26 airlines including several that also placed options for concorde such a high-profile cancellation did nothing to boost confidence in supersonic travel or the concorde program but unlike the american-made boeing 2707 the soviet tupolev tu-144 was actually built and entered service the aircraft had its flaws including a short-range high fuel consumption and limited passenger comfort while concord improved on all of these it was still indirectly affected when a tu-144 crashed in 1973 while demonstrating at the paris air show like the cancellation of the boeing 2707 this was a significant setback for supersonic travel at a critical time the noise and environmental pollution associated with the sonic boom and operation caused many problems for concorde just as they were a significant factor in the cancellation of the boeing 2707 early in the programme airlines had been denied landing slots at new york jfk and there was an increasing concern that territories would ban overland flying the prospect of exclusively over water supersonic flights was not a limitation many airlines could handle things changed quickly in aviation and in the 1970s there was a shift in operating models many airlines saw the potential of larger high capacity aircraft to reduce costs and ticket prices thus the appeal of premium high cost travel diminished aircraft such as the boeing 747 first flying in 1969 provided a new direction for airlines many including qantas and several u.s airlines embraced the 747 and changed their fleets significantly now let's look at some of the more notable concord orders mentioned in the list above one of the most interesting concord orders was from iran air it was the closest to becoming a third operator of concord having placed a confirmed order for two aircraft and one further option these orders were placed in october 1972 amidst close ties between iran and france several other deals between the countries were placed at the time and pilots would travel to france for concord training in 1978 the same year that the first aircraft was due to be delivered iran had change of power relationships with the west changed and the order was viewed as a sign of opulence from the previous shah the orders were cancelled in 1980 with the oil crisis at this time being the final straw the aircraft moved over to british airways while never appearing in iran-air livery concord did actually fly to the country taking place before the order cancellation this was done as a wetlease deal with air france for flights between paris and tehran and kish island qantas at one point had strong ambitions for supersonic flights it placed options for both concorde four aircraft and the boeing 2707 six aircraft the 2707 project of course was cancelled and in 1973 qantas finally dropped its concord options as well as the general problems with supersonic flight faced by all airlines qantas had more specific issues it planned to operate concord from sydney to london via singapore but with only four aircraft the frequency would be much lower than other services would passengers pay a high premium just for faster service but it was less frequent and less luxurious than other options there was also a concern where the concorde could even operate non-stop to singapore being right at the edge of its four thousand mile range it switched instead to the newly developed boeing 747 opting to follow the model of high capacity and low affairs through scale this served it well as it operated the 747 right up to 2020. in fact in the 1970s it was the world's only all 747 airline instead of the premium option of concord it offered a top first-class product including a captain cook themed lounge on the 747 upper deck there were three original launch customers for concorde bo ac the forerunner of british airways air france and pan am these three airlines all placed options for six aircraft each in june 1963. there was a keen interest in supersonic flight in the us all the leading u.s airlines at the time placed options for concorde this is despite u.s manufacturer boeing having its separate 2707 sst program this apparently caused some concern for u.s president kennedy who said the following of the pan am order this order involves hundreds of millions of dollars in balance of payments which is going to sabotage a program to put the united states up in the lead in the 70s pan am placed options for six aircraft in 1963 and went on to place two more options in 1966 however it cancelled all its options in january 1973. its main problem was with the economics of operating concord the increasing cost to the aircraft coupled with rising oil prices left it uncomfortable about the fares that it would have to charge the cancellation from one of the launch customers and a major us airline was not good news for the program manufacturers knew this and had tried hard to persuade pan am to stick with concorde in the months following pan am's order cancellation all other us-based airlines cancelled their own options this included continental american airlines twa and braniff by then united airlines and air canada had already cancelled ranif international airways was a large u.s operator flying domestically as well as within the americas and after 1970 it also flew to europe and asia it ceased operations in 1982 amidst rising oil prices and growing competition after deregulation in the us the airline placed options for three concords in 1966 but along with all other u.s airlines cancelled these in 1973. it did however go on to operate concord domestically in the us the only airline ever to do so this was done in a more indirect fashion in 1979 the airline was expanding and wanted to return to this prestigious idea to operate concorde the solution was an interchange agreement with british airways and air france braniff operated concord domestically between dallas fort worth and washington dulles airport this portion of the flight was to remain subsonic british airways or air france crews would operate the supersonic transatlantic sector an impressive undertaking granif crews were trained on concord but british airways still had a cockpit crew on board as observers for insurance purposes u.s law also required the aircraft's registration numbers to be changed for domestic flights the cooperation however only lasted around one year another interesting option came from china via the civil aviation administration of china or caac it placed two options in july 1972 and one more in august it held out longer than most other airlines and did not cancel its last option until february 1980 this would have been an interesting move had it gone forward chinese aviation at the time was very limited and the country was looking to introduce more long and international routes concorde would have served premium routes while also acting as a vip transport for chinese leaders officials were apparently impressed with the design and aerodynamics according to asia times political and economic troubles finished off concord ambitions the caac was unable to make down payments to convert options to orders and cancelled options in late 1979 and early 1980 with the concord program costing so much and so many airlines cancelling options for aircraft the future was bleak for further supersonic developments concorde of course remained in service until 2003 and was for some time profitable to operate did you know about all of the airlines that replaced options for the concorde let us know your thoughts and reactions in the comments if you like this video please like and subscribe to the simple flying channel and be sure to click the notification bell

Channel: Long Haul by Simple Flying

Views: 88,504

Keywords: aviation, flying, flight, boeing, airbus, planes, aircraft, 737, 747, 757, 767, 777, 777x, a320, a321, airbus a380, a380, airports, american airlines, united airlines, delta airlines, british airways

Id: QqY1PXPOU2o

Length: 14min 34sec (874 seconds)

Published: Tue Aug 11 2020