Concorde - the fall of a legend | DW Documentary

concorde was the epitome of beauty and speed in aviation when she took off for the first time nobody could have imagined how the story would end to this day no aircraft can compete with her many dreamt of being able to experience concorde at least once only few could afford it concorde was a class of her own a queen of the skies her story is a dramatic adventure where ambition and genius play the leading roles and fate is the director on the 25th of july 2000 two concorde planes took off because so many germans wanted to take a supersonic flight to new york that day only one of the two planes made it to jfk airport for the second concorde the journey was over after just 133 seconds on this day faint came calling some passengers swapped seats between the two planes the 25th of july 2000 marked a turning point in the history of aviation [Music] [Music] we always felt we needed a concord it was a lifelong dream of mine but it was just a dream it was out of reach a classic case of megalomania well from after the fatal concord crash in july 2000 his dream came true his since high museum of technology near heidelberg got the chance to buy a french concord for one symbolic euro and even had it delivered to germany by air france [Music] the pilot on this flight was jean-louis chateau yeah uh two characteristics define concord beauty and speed the plane has always been admired by every pilot in the world not only uh design and top speed but also top technology and it was a window to the future technology concorde was the world's fastest ever passenger aircraft already a star in her active days she's now become a legend that continues to move people [Music] it accelerated to maximum speed and maximum altitude for cruising you're always flying at very high speeds every plate will be served today the flight from paris to new york is fully booked many passengers travel with big plans and small luggage [Music] well i fly a lot and so for me the faster one gets there the better it is the distance between check-in and the aircraft is the shortest at charles de gaulle airport yesterday's guests include film director jean-jacques barbara streisand and bruce willis yes he was here one in ten of our passengers is a showbiz celebrity on a scheduled flight from paris to new york you would arrive with very low fuel reserves something like a maximum of 20 minutes of additional flight time very little compared to other passenger planes ladies and gentlemen good morning it's the first time we've ever been on the concord we're very excited about it to be traveling through the sky at twice the speed of sound is something very few people get to do why did you book this flight on a concord it's a lifelong dream and we've been looking forward to it to go supersonic for two hours is just a thrill welcome on board music producer william victor zainer has seen a lot of the world but he is as excited as if this were his first flight german flight attendant brigitte cruiser has been working on concord for 12 years her life's ambition she moved to paris especially for this plane most of their passengers are regulars for the new ones brigitte cruiser patiently takes photos of the occasion i take another one if you have some champagne afterwards and everything caviar and champagne prelude to an opulent six-course menu the magic of concord is the absolute luxury the intoxication of speed what more could you want from a plane there's nothing better is the flight always as full as today it is 50 full especially during the week on weekends it's a bit quieter when concord flies at mach 2 the temperature of its outer skin rises it is now 109 degrees celsius the flight engineer explains and the concord hull expands by 20 centimeters a gap opens up he says look after an hour of supersonic flight i can stick my hand into it and the gap will close up again after landing kite the ability to fly supersonic for more than two hours at twice the speed of sound has never been achieved by any other aircraft before or after the pilot is only allowed to accelerate to mach 2 over the atlantic because breaking the sound barrier causes a frighteningly loud boom this is prohibited over inhabited areas the passengers in the plane do not notice anything as concord simply flies away from the sound [Applause] it's very exciting unfortunately i have to plead guilty to being a tourist and taking pictures of the mock meter as it went past mach 2. it's staggering to realize how few people have actually gone mach 2 and if you do any research with in aviation history you learn how much difficulty it was to break the sound barrier test pilots had to lose their lives for this their planes could not withstand the powerful forces of a flight at mach 1 that's about 1 000 kilometers per hour in october 1947 the u.s air force managed to break the sound barrier for the first time the orange bell x1 took off from the belly of a transport aircraft with test pilot chuck yiga in the cockpit his rocket plane had the right shape and its engines enough power and chuck yiga caught the right moment for mach 1. in europe too the military was fostering technical development the british fairy delta ii its delta wing became the model for the design of concord [Music] in june 1962 france and great britain signed an unusual treaty both governments pledged to build the first supersonic passenger aircraft at any cost the contract prohibited withdrawal from the programme the french team was led by test pilot andre [Music] turcar his counterpart was britain brian trumpshaw he had already flown the royal family both men were obliged to cooperate two educated people of the same age two different worlds [Music] at the beginning i found him a little difficult like a lot of uh people french people i found difficult to start with few of them ever made any effort to speak even a little french my colleague brian shaw refused to say even a single word in french they were rather distant and we at the beginning you know we we didn't call one another by our christian names or anything like that we didn't go into each other's houses all these things developed um in the course of the concord program the program was tedious because there was no central leadership no single responsible person in my own heart i would say thank god for the french because the french were very dominant in making sure that everybody kept going in the right direction to make concord happen but that was really hard at the same time in the soviet union andre tupolev was building a rival model the tupolev 144 scornfully called concordski in the west the kremlin ordered that it must take off in 1968 before concord on the very last day of that year the prototype tacks it to its first flight before concord [Music] was improvised in many ways above all she was the spawn of an incredibly ambitious race against the french and the english as the russians the soviets wanted to fly first they managed it by three months but they had to make many compromises in their rush which in the long run backfired on them and the planet despite the hasty start on political orders everything went well [Applause] according to the propaganda tupolev 144 would be serving long aeroflot domestic routes within a few years but the tu-144 would never be a success [Music] every pilot and passenger who had ever flown in the tupelov complained about the great many shortcomings in comfort inside the cabin it was incredibly loud the tupolev wasn't really able to fly supersonically for more than a very short time it would certainly never have made an atlantic flight [Music] and yet she too became an icon of aviation [Music] the first concorde prototype was launched in toulouse on the 2nd of march 1969 with andre to a car at the [Music] he's come up controls 20 degrees she flies [Music] it got a little hot on board no problem for us but certainly for the electronics so i decided to shorten the flight a [Music] bite after 27 minutes andre to a car landed superbird001 bathed in sweat and our wives were waiting [Music] sparked intense interest all over the world and the customer list got longer and longer with more than 70 purchase options china airlines wanted free concords further options were placed by lufthansa panam air india japan airlines and many more the concord customer airlines were represented by senior captains and stewardesses options taken on concords by the world's major airlines represent a potential sales value of hundreds of millions of pounds [Music] to further increase the million dollar rewards the latest prototype was sent out into the world the message of the advertising tour was this is what the most popular aircraft in the year 2000 will look like was welcomed everywhere with a vip reception everyone wanted to experience mach 2 for themselves but despite their enthusiasm they turned out to reject concorde in the united states a powerful lobby stood up against concord the american aircraft industry had abandoned its own supersonic project and now wanted to prevent the british french coalition from conquering the world market [Music] suddenly concorde was no longer a beautiful wonderbird but a noisy environmental sin actually i was in government at the time and there was a lot of complaints from environmental groups about the noise it was always a strange position because so many military airplanes are flying supersonic almost every military airplane [Music] 1973 a fateful year for concord international enthusiasm waned in view of rapidly rising oil prices no airline wanted to burden itself with a gas guzzler i think we had something like 77 options from all the major airlines in the world and step by step they all disappeared until eventually we were left with with uh air france british airways and pan-american and then finally pan-american went and that was a pretty big blow only the state-owned airlines in france and great britain bought a concorde in the end from an economic point of view concord was a devastating flop it never came close to serving a market and making it became the cornerstone of a successful european airline industry has a mystical status in people's minds but many were actually disappointed when they first saw how small and cramped it was inside disappointment among passengers was out of the question on the morning of the 25th of july 2000 many germans wanted to fly to new york at supersonic speed for the first time that was why two concords were taking off vanna and marguerita tellman an entrepreneurial couple from germany booked the late flight in the afternoon along with gizla daifus and her husband fritel he filmed the journey on his new camera the talmuds took the flight they had booked but friedhelm swapped his tickets he and his wife took the earlier flight so they could travel with their friend today was a special day for him 10 30 a.m the three passengers made it onto the concorde fritel's dream had finally come true here erica rocket launched the shaled flight to new york began at about 11 15 am four afterburners brought the plane to twice the speed of sound just as it had raced across the atlantic for almost 25 years a second concorde with passengers from germany was scheduled to take off in the afternoon while the first concorde had already crossed the atlantic and was about to land in new york air traffic controller jill laurella was starting work in paris it should actually have been someone else that day a colleague had asked me to cover his afternoon shift for him i was working in the tower of charles de gaulle airport in paris and i was responsible for handling the runways in the south of the airport [Music] brigitte cruiser the german flight attendant from the concord crew was brought back from her holiday especially for the second flight just like the controller in the tower she actually had other plans for that day you can expect the highest quality on this plane the customers pay for it and have every right to be demanding [Music] freetown daifus filmed the landing at jfk the german passenger and his wife were actually booked on the later plane we're in new york she has brought us here safely and we all got out and then he filmed the last shot from the corridor above and literally said she brought us here safely he had never said that after a flight before the plane was special to him but there was really something sinister about it she brought us here safely not the other one brigitte cruiser was opening the first bottle on the second concord departure from paris the german flight attendant already had over 2 000 flying hours on concord the passengers boarded at about 4 p.m 20 minutes later the captain confirmed that the concorde was ready for takeoff concord is a wonderful aircraft and we air traffic controllers have always watched her during takeoff and that day was no exception fully loaded with passengers luggage and fuel the concorde tacks it to the runway [Music] at 4 42 pm air france 4590 took off as the flight recorder logs later revealed is everyone ready yes top all four afterburners on but at the same time i warned the pilot on the radio that flames were coming out of the back of the plane concord 4590 you are on fire understood break down on second engine my heart was pounding and my adrenaline was pumping i had to keep working as best i could gear up understood gear up no do what you think is best you have priority for your return the situation was extremely difficult for us air traffic controllers because we had to take care of the burning concord and at the same time direct the other aircraft gear no understood i'm trying i'm on it switch off the second engine i've switched it off speed speed the landing gear won't retract speed speed le bourget too late no time i almost saw the explosion there was dense smoke like a mushroom but i couldn't stop working i had to keep in contact with the other planes in the air i had to continue my work [Applause] are you receiving me hundreds of rescue teams rushed in but nobody on the concorde could be saved hundred passengers and nine crew members died in the crash four people in a hotel building also died a few meters decided on life or death in the building next door there were only injuries i had the windows open in the office and i heard a hell of a noise a burning concord was coming straight at me i was on the phone and screamed the concorde's landing on me i threw down the receiver and ran but only got to the door three meters away then there was a huge explosion [Music] shortly before takeoff flight attendant brigitte cruiser had called her parents as she always did before a concord flight the next call did not come from her nose i turned on the television and saw the pictures of the concord in flames and then the crash and right away the telephone rang someone from the concord team asked me are you here cruising stream on a concord yes is your daughter flying on concord today yes i said i will call you again in a quarter of an hour he replied when the phone rang again i picked it up and he said to me i have some bad news for you there are no survivors thirteen of the dead came from the german city of manchester almost half of all the concord victims were from the same region including several couples who had wanted to take a cruise from new york [Music] just like margareta and vanner telnum it was my father who wanted to fly concord because he was amazed by its technology and speed it wouldn't have been important for my mother but there would have been no question of her not flying with her [Music] husband while the telmans died on their flight the daifus couple and their friend erica continued their journey on the cruise ship with mixed feelings they needed time to recover and process the shock they had only escaped with their lives because their friend erica hadn't been able to get a seat on the ill-fated concorde for this reason they had swapped seats with another couple and had taken the earlier plane their rebooking confirmation was like a second birth certificate for them a few hours after the crush the investigation into the causes began concord pilot jean-louis shuttle agreed to listen to the tapes of the black box as often as necessary the last two hours of operation before the disaster were fully preserved on the flight recorder chateau talks about this experience for the first time in an interview i would like to say that this is really the first time i've allowed myself to talk about it in public because i was involved in the investigation and knew the crew it's hard to listen to people who are about to die or not you listen to it again and again to understand everything exactly only the technical facts are important but of course you also hear human overtones that have nothing to do with the process that hits you hard like a slap in the face the official investigation report was not published for another 18 months but the cause had long been established by the investigating authorities a 20 centimeter long piece of metal had fallen off a u.s aircraft on the runway it was part of the engine of a continental airlines dc-10 and slashed the tyre of the departing concorde set in a ridiculously small piece of titanium weighing 200 grams set off a chain reaction as so often happens in plane crashes [Music] [Laughter] it was not the first time that concord's tyres had burst but this time a piece of tyre hit the tank and set off the deadly chain reaction after the accident better tires were purchased and the tanks reinforced air france and british airways paid more than 200 million euros for this safety package but in the end it was of no use three years after the accident concorde was taken out of service in may 2003 the sky over paris became the stage for bidding farewell to a legend people came from a far afield to experience concord's last flights and even listened to the tower radio such a mix of people from all walks of life i have already flown concorde there is something magical about her there it is the tickets were expensive the plane needed a lot of fuel speed has its price then there was the noise and everything else none of the five remaining french concords were scrapped all of them were preserved for posterity jean-louis chatelaine flew one of them out of the country this concorde broke the sound barrier one last time by taking a detour across the atlantic its destination was karlsruhe barbenbarden airport in view of the many german victims air france decided to donate this concorde to the since hein museum of technology near heidelberg [Music] that flight from paris to barton airport was my last fair france after that my life changed for the first time in aviation history we took a conscious backwards step we abandoned supersonic flight from then on only subsonic passenger aircraft were built in the context of aviation history it was a backwards step the cockpit was cramped and uncomfortable like a racing car only about 30 pilots were licensed to fly a concorde at any one time the french people saw concord as a project that was so ambitious it could outclass all its competitors it represented a daring and entrepreneurial national ii won last time fully booked one last time with some guests of honor among them was the wife of the captain of the concorde that crashed in palace andreas spate a german aviation expert was also invited by air france for the last flight to barden airport as when we got out of the plane it was like we had arrived with the beatles and the rolling stones it was like in the historical recordings people were cheering they were staring at us they were clapping [Music] the concorde was dismantled at barden air park for the journey down the rhine then the trip continued on the closed autobahn at night one million spectators looked on in ore as the concorde made its last journey to since i'm museum of technology an amazing spectacle a farewell to the kind of luxury that only came with concord [Music] for me luxury is first and foremost time and how you spend with little air resistance so you could do it with a reasonable amount of fuel it's the dream of many and if a few people really believe in their dream then it could come true nasa plays an important role in this dream and in the future of supersonics more than 70 years after breaking the sound barrier with the bell x-1 the u.s space agency is working on a new test program it wants to investigate how supersonic aircraft can be made environmentally sustainable one question is how the supersonic boom could be eliminated with a new design resulting in a different airflow mark copy mark we heard a loud boom followed by a soft boom at about 2 25. the spock's job heard a faint thunk this is spike 3 i did not hear anything a new experimental aircraft the x-59 has been built for nasa its sonic boom should only be as loud as a car door slumming this would enable an aircraft to fly over land at supersonic speeds which was not possible for concorde there are some promising initiatives for new supersonic aircraft on a smaller scale that means either business jets or about 50-seater commercial aircraft [Music] a good decade after the end of concord two new projects are being launched the company boom supersonic is working towards a supersonic passenger aircraft with 50 seats the pilots for the test model are already training in a simulator the other company aerion wants to launch its business jet in 2026 both companies have announced that they will fly on biofuel the big question is still is there a market every great human undertaking needs a good reason what would be the good reason for a new supersonic aircraft good enough to be able to justify the environmental impact just across the atlantic in three hours instead of eight it doesn't make sense to me anymore good morning today you fly from germany to australia with a space liner the supersonic flight takes only 90 minutes engineers at the german aerospace center dlr imagine a flight that takes them around the world in 90 minutes in the most environmentally friendly way possible the space liner would be ahead of our time just like concorde once was up to 50 passengers sit in a shuttle and take off on a rocket heading for space the rocket is powered by a mixture of hydrogen and oxygen after a short flight time the passenger plane decouples and glides back to earth at several times the speed of sound europe to australia in 90 minutes science fiction or a look into the year 2050. [Music] when the first drafts for concord were created nobody would have believed that 14 years later it would take passengers across the atlantic concord captivated old and young and inspired a whole generation you could spend your whole life imagining what it would be like to fly with her just once you

Channel: DW Documentary

Views: 348,694

Rating: 4.8638554 out of 5

Keywords: Documentary, Documentaries, documentaries, DW documentary, full documentary, DW, documentary 2021, documentary, Concorde, supersonic jet, air travel, plane crashes, airplane, legend

Id: apWRJgEFe3U

Length: 42min 25sec (2545 seconds)

Published: Sat Mar 27 2021

Reddit Comments

[u/DonDellilo]

It wasn't so much a fall as the French government wanting any reason to stop operating them because they couldn't make a profit (the British Airways ones did).