For more than 30 years, it was a plane that captured the imagination of the entire world. From Africa to South America, from Asia to Europe, from London to New York City. The aircraft simply known as Concord, galvanized the globe. It's sleek. Aerodynamic structure and supersonic speed brought passengers to a whole new level in transportation. In Britain and France, the plane became a symbol of national pride. During the Cold War, where every technological breakthrough seemed to come from either America or the Soviet Union, the Concorde proved that Europe still mattered. And while this supersonic transport became synonymous with patriotism, it's also remembered as a plane that turned into an economic disaster. It's skyrocketing development costs and a hefty price tag for admission. When it finally debuted, only the rich and powerful were able to fly the Concord. And in an era of heightened environmental awareness, the aircraft was denied the most lucrative routes across the Atlantic Ocean. If not for the endless sums of government money and may have never seen the light of day. In the end, the plane was a two edged sword. Hated by the economists, yet loved by the people. Concord after nearly three decades in service, became one of the most recognizable aircraft in the world. During a time when faster meant better it soared over its competition. Symbolizing the absolute best in European engineering and aerodynamics. On October the 14th, 1947, aviation enters a new and uncertain era when Bells Rocket powered X-1, launched from a B-29 super fortress, becomes the first aircraft to break the sound barrier, flying at over 800 mph. At Mach 1.06. This breakthrough, along with the introduction of jet technology, causes countries to pour enormous resources into finding ways to go faster and faster. During the Cold War, with both America and the Soviet Union possessing the atomic bomb, the requirement that airplanes go supersonic is a must. This leads to a revolution in aeronautical design. Straight winged aircraft unable to achieve faster speeds are replaced by swept wing planes. Most noticeably during the Korean conflict as American F-86 Sabres battle Soviet Union MiG 15s. Bombers like the B-29 and the B-36 Peacemaker evolved into the swept wing B-47 Stratojet and the B-52 Stratofortress. With the two superpowers investing gigantic sums of money into aircraft design, the nations of Britain and France are forced to play catch up. In England, where the Gloster meteor symbolized London's place at the vanguard of aviation technology. During the Cold War a trifecta of planes known as the V bombers are unveiled as a deterrent force against the Soviet Union. The third in this trilogy, Avro's Vulcan supersonic bomber equipped with four turbojets, incorporates a new delta wing design, giving the aircraft increased speed over the swept wing. Across the English Channel, where aviation was born, the nation of France also experiments with supersonic aircraft. Dassault's Mirage lll a plane incorporating the delta wing design, flies at over Mach 2.2 in 1958. In addition, the Durandel is also tested during this time as an experimental supersonic plane, but despite their respective legacies of being at the forefront of aviation technology after the Second World War, with both England and France's economies shattered, it appears their best days are behind them. In the realm of military aircraft, there seems to be no way to compete with the vast resources of the United States. However, there is one area where if England and France pool together their resources, a formidable challenge can be issued against America and the Soviets. This comes in the form of a proposed supersonic transport airliner. Mr. De Gaulle was President of France at the time and French prestige was sort of important. The French were very, very concerned, as were the British and other Europeans, about the loss of technology prowess in the aviation industry. There was a feeling in Europe at that time that the Concorde project could be a vehicle, a catalyst to jumpstart the European aviation industry after decline. With only military planes capable of breaking the sound barrier, there's much talk about having this technology crossover into the civilian transport market. With jets replacing propeller driven aircraft as the preferred mode of flying, conventional wisdom leads many to speculate that the next logical step for passenger travel is the ability to fly faster than the speed of sound. In America the undisputed champion of aircraft design, it appears inevitable that they will build an SST. The Soviets not wanting to be outdone by their rivals are no doubt going to follow suit. This took place during the height of the Cold War. The Cold War was taking place. You have to remember there was competition in the aerospace defense. We had announced the Apollo program at the end of 1961, which was in effect a Cold War program. I think that the the attraction of the supersonic airplane was like the attraction of much of the space age prestige. The national honor that you had to be, you were if you didn't demonstrate that you could do this, you weren't in the in the front ranks. This leaves the powers of Europe with an important decision to make. Will they build their own SST and compete on an international scale? The answer is given on November the 28th, 1962, when representatives from the English and French governments sign a treaty creating a powerful new consortium between the British Aircraft Corporation and SUD Aviation. Airliner of the future. This is a model of a supersonic jet which Britain and France hope will dominate transatlantic travel. Flying at twice the speed of sound, it will hop the ocean in three hours. Representatives of the two countries sign an agreement to share the $300 million dollar cost and hope to have the plane operational by 1968. The delta wing craft will carry 100 passengers and crews at 1400 miles an hour. Engineers say it can use present runways and fly so high there will be no Sonic shock when it breaks the sound barrier. The world grows smaller. The two companies agreed to build a supersonic transport with no cancellation clause, causing numerous airlines to immediately place orders, including America's Pan Am Airways. Pan American World announced it has ordered six new Concord Supersonic Jet transport which flies in the United States two and a half hours. "You can tell him he's giving me the best argument for not having one airline represent the United States that I've ever heard and I'm going to spend the next time I'm here really giving a screwing to Pan America because that's that sticks it right to us. How can we possibly go ahead now with our program to which we're going to spend an awful lot of money, which was very important to the United States, which affected the balance of payments and hundreds of millions of dollars. And I'm going to put all this out and then go ahead about 24 hours before we're about to make our announcement". Across the Atlantic Ocean, this treaty causes President Kennedy to act swiftly. And in June of 1963, at the Air Force Academy's graduation, he announces the United States own SST program. 30,000 spectators packed the stadium at the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs for ceremonies that will graduate cadets into officer ranks, the year President Kennedy called for a partnership of government and business. To develop a supersonic passenger plane to hold the U.S. lead in commercial aviation. They have been under some pressure to announce this project, Vice President Johnson formed the Little Committee to look at the SST in the spring of that year and he recommended vigorously that we go ahead with an SST. The Anglo French had announced the Concord project in 62' and that also created pressure for Kennedy to do something. There was also some pressure from the aerospace industry people to respond to what was taking place both in Britain and France and also Russia, which had its own SST program. In the Soviet Union, work begins on their supersonic Tupolev TU-144, with each plane now in a race to the finish line. Beginning in 1965, two prototypes are built, known as (001) in Toulouse and (002) in Bristol. Luckily for Britain, it's aerospace industry has a huge jump on the competition. Having built numerous experimental aircraft proving vital in the research and development of the Concorde. The Bristol 221 incorporating A variation of the Delta design known as the OG wing, is tested in order to determine the SST's range and payload. The TSR-2 bomber, an airplane cancelled due to the budget cuts of the 1950s, provides invaluable information about the Concorde's most daunting obstacle. It's power plants. Using Bristol's Olympus engines. The TSR-2's testing sheds new light on the challenges supersonic planes face In the air. In the laboratories of the British Aircraft Corporation and SUD Aviation, rigorous examinations are carried out investigating hundreds of materials and the effect heating has on them. Building the Concorde required new materials, and they had concerns about heating, which would never been a a sustained problem in people that encountered heating and in certain instances and and brief encounters of supersonic flight. But if you're going to cruise at supersonic flight, then you've got a totally different heat dissipation problem. For a period of 18 months straight round the clock, 24 hour trials are conducting. At its peak over 600 subcontractors are brought in to work on the Concorde, employing over two hundred thousand people. Filton Concorde Double 002 stands like a great bird in a massive cage at the British Aircraft Corporations Plant near Bristol. But never has there been such an expensive bird before, nor one that has been so reluctant to fly. When she's ready to fly, she'll fly. Nothing must be left to chance. Concorde is unlike any other aircraft. Everything about her is new. In the wind tunnels, the OG wing passes with flying colors. Full scale mockups are constructed in order to show all of this SST's components. The drooping nose, a distinct feature of the Concorde, is built in order to balance pilot's visibility with its incredible aerodynamic structure. And using a converted Vulcan bomber, the Olympus 593 power plant is tested in the skies. For Concord's team of designers, its engines proved to be the most important obstacle to overcome. The airframe was in advance of the engines and advance of the fuels of the time had had you had ten year advanced engines to put in it and you might have possibly made it a more sustainable airplane, but as it was, it was a prestige airplane. For the 593's jets to work properly, air needs to enter at subsonic speeds, a huge roadblock considering the Concorde is built to fly at twice the speed of sound. Fortunately, over a period of four years, the complex system of inlet doors and ducts are installed in order for this SST to travel at Mach 2. By April of 1966, the final assembly of (001) and (002) begins. With each country producing different parts of the Concorde they're shipped across the channel in order to make sure both prototypes are ready at the same time. Massive transport aircraft are used to ship some of the biggest pieces of this giant jigsaw puzzle. For the people of Toulouse and Bristol, seeing specially designed trailers hauling different parts of the plane are not uncommon during this time. And by December of 1967 Concord 001 makes its first appearance in Toulouse. It's mesmerizing design stuns the entire world as aviation enters a new high speed age. Toulouse The giant hangar at SUD Aviation's headquarters was the focal point of the entire world, for inside was the most exciting new thing in the world of aviation, Concord 001. At last, the Anglo French brainchild, born out of the technical and very sensible collaboration of two nations, could be shown to an envious world. While Concord is being set up for its first Test flight in Moscow, the Communists are able to beat the Europeans, debuting Tupolev 144 on New Year's Eve 1968. Being almost identical to the Anglo French design, it's nicknamed "Concordski" around the world. Unfortunately for the Soviets, it's nowhere near the Concord in terms of structure and quality being put together so hastily. And the Russians ran into even worse problems with their version of it, because their engines were comparatively far less efficient than than the Rolls Royce and the French engines. In America, delays and uncertainties about their SST program continue. A competition between Boeing's swing wing and Lockheed's fixed wing design causes the selection committee to debate endlessly the advantages and disadvantages between the two. It turned out that this that the swing wing didn't work, so they went with a fixed wing. Then it turned out that this plane was going to be too heavy anyway. So they tried to lighten it, but it could never really.. it The only way it could pay for itself is it couldn't really carry that many people. But secondly, because it was so heavy, it would have to charge a lot of premium on the ticket and that meant that made that the economics go haywire. When the decision is finally made in the winter of 1966 to award the contract to Boeing, the Concorde already has a two year jump on its transatlantic competition. For the Europeans, a far more important threat to the aircraft survival comes in the form of a jumbo jet. Boeing's 747 a subsonic airliner capable of flying passengers across the ocean far more cheaply than the Concorde as those in Britain and France worried. And in a sense, the Boeing Company and airline companies as well understood that this was the real vehicle for leadership in commercial aviation. The jumbo jet, the 747, efficient subsonic jets, of a variety of kinds. These were the vehicles that were going to keep America, keep leadership in America in commercial aviation, not the American SST project. This fear is amplified when the British Overseas Aircraft Corporation decides to purchase the 747. Perhaps faster does not necessarily mean better. Despite these outside threats, as well as concerns about its growing costs, Concord 001 is cleared for its first Test flight in March of 1969. Toulouse, the great supersonic jetliner was going to fly. A year late, millions of pounds over the estimated cost, and still a very big question mark. But on this day, a lot of those question marks would be answered. For Concord 001, this was the chance to prove she was the Super Bird everyone had hoped and worked for. Its maiden voyage is flawless, encountering no technical problems. For testing purposes, it's undercarriage is kept down. In France they can breathe a sigh of relief. One month later, across the Channel 002 takes off, making another perfect flight. You had to have really the true professionals here. There's there's no point in the flight in which a any kind of a crew error couldn't have caused a disaster. So it was a great leap forward. We didn't have the advanced electronics that we had later and so for its day it was really an advanced machine. Concorde 002 is clear to takeoff and good luck gentleman. For the next two years a series of grueling tests are done. Studying the impact that intense heat has on the nose and body of the aircraft. In the sky, Concorde proves easy to maneuver. As the two prototypes exceed both the speed of sound and Mach 2 during this time. Every detail is checked and double checked with nothing being left to chance. In America, with growing protests over the environmental impact of these planes, including the effects of the Sonic boom. In 1971 The United States Senate votes to cut off all funding for Boeing's SST. Good evening, the Senate has voted 51 to 46 to cut off money for building the supersonic transport, as a house had done before. Unless private financing is forthcoming, the controversial airplane appears doomed. With this catastrophic decision, Concord's most fierce competition is eliminated, clearing the way for it to dominate the global marketplace. In Britain, the plane becomes a symbol of pride. It was a proud sight. This was the day when the traditional and the modern were brought together. The British Concord, that masterpiece of technology, came to London to be seen by the Queen, her family and the millions who looked up with excitement for a first glimpse of this great plane. Then in 1973 at the Paris Air Show, a Soviet Tupolev 144 crashes for the entire world to see. This disaster raises great doubts about the communist concoctions feasibility. It appears Concord has all but won the race to build the first fully functioning SST. Now, will anybody want to buy the plane? After nearly a decade in development, the Anglo French Concorde flies to the African nation of Senegal to begin its worldwide promotional tour. The ultimate goal of this exercise is to convince the world's airlines that speed means business. And with the right dose of public relations, executives will be convinced to buy these planes from a marketing standpoint. The tour is an outstanding success. For years, people across the globe hear stories about this new high speed plane that takes passengers to their destination in half the time. It's unorthodox aerodynamic design brings in crowds from Rio de Janeiro to Beijing, from Tehran to Sydney, from Fairbanks, Alaska to Mexico City. And with America canceling their SST program in 1971 and the Soviet TU-144 in shambles, the Anglo French Concorde is destined to dominate the marketplace. Unfortunately, with the 1970s being defined by an oil crisis and economic unrest, the enthusiasm for a supersonic transport is a far cry from the previous decade, when anything seemed possible. The question now is, can this aircraft defy the odds by flying passengers around the globe in record time while remaining economically viable? This becomes the Concorde's greatest challenge. Across the globe, Concorde is ready to galvanize the people. Wherever it flies the crowds are huge. Anxious to see the plane they've heard about for years. During the year 1972 this SST tours Iran, India, China, Japan and Australia, with each country's airlines showing interest in the aircraft. Kings and Queens, prime ministers and presidents, rich and poor, all want to take a tour inside this remarkable supersonic jet. Unfortunately, during the 1970s, with each Concorde costing a record $31 million dollars per plane, only the very wealthy are able to board this aircraft. Ironically, its biggest supporters are the masses who could never afford to fly supersonic. As a result, although there's a fascination with the Concorde, the big airlines are hesitant to pull out their checkbooks. Chinese and the Iranians flirt with the idea of buying them but are unwilling to sign on the dotted line in the United States, where the most lucrative destinations are to be had. President Richard Nixon tours the aircraft. His country's decision to cancel their own SST is the result of a growing environmental movement, warning Americans about the ecological disasters these planes will have on their neighborhoods and communities. A big drawback is the Sonic Boom. When a plane exceeds the speed of sound, a large noise capable of breaking windows and glass erupts. When scientists study the effects of this boom in Oklahoma City during the year 1964, they conclude this noise will cause a public revolt. It turns out that the Sonic Boom in fact bothered lots of people. And this was clear very early on when they started to do research on the Sonic Boom in Oklahoma City and a report came out in 1964 which showed which showed that a huge majority of the people quote "could not live with the Sonic Boom" un quote. And the people who live with it are becoming more aroused, becoming more sensitive to this form of pollution, as they are to so many others. The nation's priorities are changing rapidly, and the FAA may find that the general public has a different timetable in mind for the reduction of noise pollution. David Calhane, CBS News, New York. It's such a hot button issue that the United States government places a ban on all SST's traveling coast to coast. With this decision, Concord is limited to only the east and West coasts in America as destinations. As a result of this policy, no American airline wants to touch the plane. Once that killed the New York to LA route, the Miami to Seattle routes, the Boston to San Francisco routes, the Washington to LA routes. Once it killed those routes, it killed about a of the market for the whole aircraft and therefore therefore you you didn't have as much chance to recover your costs. People in the United States reacted to the sound barrier as a means of going against the idea of an American supersonic transport, and it of course affected the issue of the concord flying in the United States, but I don't think it was a defining decision. And I also think it was a bit of a red herring. I think it was put up mainly because people who were smart enough to see there was no way to make any money out of the Concorde. Building it, tthe manufacturer was going to lose, the government was going to lose. I think it was perhaps overinflated just so that we wouldn't do it. We wouldn't have an American contender. As environmental groups gain strength pickets and protests against the SST's Sonic boom against its unhealthy fuel consumption and against noise pollution in general take place. Rumors begin that any passenger who boards the plane will become violently ill. This bad publicity sours the Concord's reputation. Thankfully, the two countries who built the aircraft come to its rescue. When British Airways and Air France order nine planes for service, they save the entire project from economic collapse. Unfortunately, the overseas buyers needed to make this a worthwhile government investment never materialize. What began as a European project is confined only to Europe. Despite these roadblocks, Concord continues its worldwide Tour de force. To prove it can fly in the most brutal weather conditions, the aircraft stops in America's arctic outpost, Alaska. Demonstrating that this SST can excel even in the bitter cold. Next is a flight to the polar opposite Mexico City, where thousands of people wait for hours to see Concord's grand entrance. With orders placed, the employees of BAC and Aerospacial begin building more SSTs, improving the quality from the original prototypes. The Bristol 593 engines gain strength, reducing the black smoke emitted, and in 1975 Concorde receives its certificate of airworthiness. When agents are first allowed to book passengers demand sky rockets. A beautiful airplane that performed well. I was lucky enough to fly on it on one occasion and it was, it was the way to travel, there's no question about it. It arrived in London and in what seemed like a you know, a couple of hours and feeling excellent. Although 20% more expensive than subsonic travel during the early years, with all the hype and fascination surrounding this plane, the people cannot resist the opportunity to fly supersonic. One year later, the first two concords carrying paying customers depart from London and Paris simultaneously. Almost a decade after its first Test flight in 1969, the dreams of this SST are finally realized. Concord is given a boost when it's only competitor, the Soviet TU- 144 fails miserably. It's crude design and enormous fuel consumption fades quickly. Only a few months of novelty flights take place clearing the way for the Anglo French. despite this early success, the road ahead for this powerful new plane is going to be a bumpy one. in America the Boeing 747 jumbo jet proves to be Concord's greatest competitor, carrying more than twice the passengers at a fraction of the cost. In the Big Apple, where the most profitable route of London to New York is crucial, because of noise pollution, a judge rules that the supersonic airliner cannot land in the city. Over in Britain and France, many speculate that because the United States could not get its SST up in the air, sour grapes causes America to punish Concorde as a result. Only after a Supreme Court ruling is the aircraft allowed to land at JFK International Airport in 1977. Almost 20 years later, it would set the world record for transatlantic flight, traveling from London to New York in less than three hours. By this time, however, with rapid inflation and oil crisis and growing environmental concerns, people begin speculating that this plane's time in the sun has passed. People would pay the additional cost to fly faster than the speed of sound. Whatever, however you valued your time. One times the value of your time, 1.5 times the value of your time. That's what people thought. It turned out, in fact, that this was a very questionable assumption. The whole idea that there would be a market for people paying a premium to go faster than the speed of sound on commercial aviation, in fact, was a facade. It turned out to be a facade. It was not true. It was a mirage. During dire economic times, Concorde is viewed as a plane only for the Super rich. The clientele was superb. I mean, there were really, really rich people flew and I can recall on the one flight that I made, there's a group of about five or six kids all in one family and who were making their 15th or 16th Concorde flight and we're totally blase about it. So it taught me that, you know, the Concorde was for rich guys. The novelty effect has worn off. The enthusiasm of the 1960s, when it was first built, is replaced by the cynicism of the 1970s. Each year it's in service, Concord fails financially, unable to turn a profit. As the 1980s begin, many feel this technological marvels days are numbered. However, it's miraculously saved when British Airways decides to buy its planes from the government outright. With this decision, a new marketing campaign is launched to bring Concorde back to life. Discovering that it's rich clientele are willing to pay more to fly, supersonic prices go up exponentially, making it a vehicle exclusively for the Super wealthy. As a result, it's marketed as such. And for the next two decades, the plane stays afloat. Then, after more than 30 years, Concorde flight 4590 crashes, raising doubts on the safety of supersonic flight, with the terrorist attacks of September the 11th 2001 and the decline in air travel that follows, both British Airways and Air France decide to cancel service of the Concorde. In the end, the aircraft became a mixed blessing. I think that the Anglo French Concord project may have been a model that showed the Europeans that they could collaborate in aviation. And while the Concord itself was not successful, it may have been an impetus toward forming Airbus, which has been relatively successful in building aircraft and becoming a formidable competitor to Boeing. So in some ways, although the Concord itself was not successful, maybe it was a catalyst or vehicle to create a successful larger enterprise called Airbus. Without question, its ability to travel at twice the speed of sound made the plane a First Class attraction wherever it landed. Over a period of several years, Europe's finest produced a true technological marvel, epitomizing the very best in engineering and aerodynamics. For those reasons, Concorde goes down in the history books as one of the greatest aircraft ever. In Britain and France, it was more than just a plane. It came to symbolize a time when they, and not the Americans, were at the top of the mountain. Just as England had ruled the seas with their dreadnoughts, they would rule over the skies with their Concorde. But with all its state-of-the-art capabilities, it became out of reach for the average man, woman and child who ironically became the Concorde's biggest supporters. With the dim realities of the 1970s, the plane's biggest obstacles were not in its jet engines, nor in its payload. But with a skeptical public who grew cynical at the idea of government and big business teaming up to produce a plane that only the privileged and powerful could fly on. It was a beautiful airplane. Still is a beautiful airplane. And it's it's just a shame that perhaps it's a sumptuary. Maybe you don't need to go supersonically, and obviously not not enough people need to go supersonically to justify the market. Now with the ability to communicate in a matter of microseconds through the use of computers, the Concorde symbolizes a much different time when the best technology available to see each other in person was the airplane. In this era, faster meant better, and in getting people to their destination, no aircraft has been able to surpass the speed of the Concorde. A plane designed to fly faster and higher than any of its rivals, the Boeing 2707. This is the story of Kennedy's dream, an aircraft at the cutting edge of technology. In the summer of 1963, President John F Kennedy announces a major new aerospace program. I'm announcing today that the United States will commit itself to an important new program in civilian aviation. He calls for America to build and fly a supersonic airline that will cruise at over 3000 kilometers per hour. One of John Kennedy's heroes was John Glenn, the first American in space. But Glenn was also the first man to fly America coast to coast at supersonic speed in the year 1957, ever since that flight. Kennedy had dreamed of building an American supersonic transport. Others had that same dream. The British began their supersonic aircraft program in 1943, midway through the war. It was a it was a design that obviously at that stage, which called for an aircraft to be capable of Mac 1.5. That's one and a half the speed of sound, or about 1000 miles an hour. The British had several projects. Among these were the Miles M.52 and the de Havilland DH-1O8 "swallow", but Britain was beaten to the prize by Chuck Yeager flying the American Bell X-1. To tell you the truth, I was hopping mad because I realized we could have done it and we'd missed the boat by cancellation. Not for the DH-1O8, but with the Miles M.52. I was to be the pilot of the Miles M.52, so I'd followed this carefully and we were 80% ready for the first flight when without any warning, without any consultation, the aircraft was cancelled. On October the 14th, 1947, the rocket powered Bell X-1 became the first aircraft to fly faster than sound. The British were really upset that the Americans have been first through the sound barrier because British technology was ahead of the Americans. The British just fluffed it like the guts to do it. The reason the British gave for canceling the Miles 52 was lack of knowledge surrounding what happens to an aircraft as it approaches the sound barrier. When an aircraft approaches the speed of sound, several things happen the the most disturbing of which for the occupants of the aircraft is the aircraft begins to shake and rumble depending on how rapidly or how slow you approach the speed of sound. But in aerodynamic terms, a wave builds up an area of compressibility builds up a shockwave. And what that does is that that causes increased drag and increased heating on the aircraft such that as you approach the speed of sound as the shockwave passes over the flying surfaces what that does it it causes the wings to lose lift both above and below the wing, and that has a downward effect on the aircraft. So the aircraft starts will start to dive if you don't do anything else about it. You'll first start to notice. The the problem of of approaching the the transonic area approaching the speed of sound from about .9, so 9/10ths of the speed of sound at sea level. And they will begin to experience a buffet as the shockwave begins to build up. And as you approach the speed of sound the closer you get to speed the speed of sound, the greater that buffet will be until that moment when you pop through the other side and that shockwave is then traveling behind the aircraft. You then punch through into an area of far more stable air, an area of almost quietness if you like. By the mid 1950s, military aircraft were routinely flying beyond the sound barrier, but they did so only for short periods. Sustained supersonic flight was a much bigger problem than just punching a hole in the sound barrier. Supersonic flight for passengers is actually very different from supersonic flight in the military context. If you're going to fly passengers at supersonic speed, you have to fly them for a long, long time at high speed, whereas military operations tend to be a quick dash. Only one country decided to tackle the challenge. Defeated in the race through the sound barrier, the British now embarked on the design and development of a supersonic airliner. It was to signal the start of a race that would transform the world of aviation. On March the 10th 1956, the British reentered the supersonic stakes with a vengeance. When the experimental Fairey Delta II captured the world absolute speed record at 1820 kilometers per hour, the Fairey Delta II introduced a series of revolutionary features. A long, narrow Delta perfect for cruising beyond the sound barrier and a drooping nose to allow the pilot a better view on takeoff and landing. Inspired by the success of the Fairey Delta, the British established a committee to coordinate the development of a supersonic airliner. The most interesting aspect of the Fairey Delta II that we see on today's concord was the drooping nose. Now what that is, is it. It is simply that you see in Concord and nose that kinks. One of the problems with the Delta winged aircraft and aircraft that is is designed for going supersonic speed is that in order to fly very fast obviously you need something that is as aerodynamic as possible. The problem is they are very, very difficult to fly at low speeds. So when they come in to land they have a very high angle of attack. Very, very difficult then for the pilots to see what they're doing. So they then put this kink in the nose, if you like to have this cantilevered nose such that in takeoff and landing to give the pilots better visibility. They they put this design feature in which we see today. In March 1959, the preliminary design work had progressed to a point where the Supersonic transport committee was able to report its broad recommendations. There were two main recommendations. The first was for a small, fairly simple aircraft to carry around 100 passengers and do about Mac 1.2. The second design was for 150 seater that should have been capable of Mac 1.8, which was considerably bigger and considerably faster. By 1959, the British thinking had crystallized into two projects. Medium range supersonic airliner which had a rather crazy M shaped wing. Very difficult to build and the other project was the classic. What's now the classic long thin delta for a supersonic airliner that could fly across the Atlantic. Now would emerge a decision that would shape the whole future of the race to build a supersonic airliner. The Designs study contract In 1960 the British made it a condition to BAC, who who got the contract that they should seek international collaboration for the building of the supersonic transporter. The first country BAC approached was the United States, but in 1960 there was little interest shown in the USA for collaboration, so the British turned to France as a potential ally. Essentially decided to cooperate because the supersonic airliner project was just too big for either of them to do on their own. It was helped by the fact that the two different design teams in France and in England had more or less come to the same conclusion about what the aircraft should look like. The aircraft was to be a delta wings design. It was to be called Concorde, a word common to both languages, which means agreement or harmony, but to become credible Concorde needed customers in the airlines. In June 1963, Concorde received the major airline order that meant it would fly, and the order came not from Europe but from America's own leading airline, PAN AM. Such a good customer that they could go in and play one aircraft factory leader against another And and and Trip didn't mind going in threatening and saying, look, if you don't do this, I'm going to get somebody else to do it. And if I have to go to Europe, I'm going to Europe. Trip was a overpowering figure in the industry effect. Panamerican Airways began operations on October the 28th, 1927 with the first scheduled international flight by a United States airline. A Fokker Tri motor in a plane loaded with mail flew from Key West, Florida and landed one hour and 10 minutes later in Havana, Cuba, a distance of 135 kilometers. Panam's 28 year old founder was the legendary Guam Terry Trip. It was Trip's original bright idea that planes carrying mail can just as easily transport people. Voting seats in the back of each plane, he charged $100 dollars to fly to Havana. Trip was determined, but Pan Am would always be the number one U.S airline. In the Post War world in the 1960s, Pan American Airlines was one of the big, big names. Most American Airlines tend to fly inside America, but Pan Am had built his reputation on flying all around the world and. They did that by always buying the latest and best aircraft. On October the 26th, 1958, Pan Am became the first U.S. airline to operate a jet passenger plane. A Boeing 707 Christened "Clipper America". It flew from New York to Paris Halfing the normal flight time. One trip was also determined Pan Am would be the first airline to go Super Sonic. If you joined Pan Am as a pilot in the late 1950s or 1960s, the first thing they told you was you hang in there guys, because you are going to fly supersonic. Pan Am saw that being the first to be with the supersonic airliner as as as you know the the thing that would brand the company as the place ago. But the Pan Am decision was to trigger an American response within days of the announcement on June the 5th, 1963. Visitant John F Kennedy proclaimed his government's intention to support the American aircraft industry in developing and building a supersonic transport with American Airlines like Pan Am could try. When Kennedy heard the Pan American were going to buy the European Concorde, he was apoplectic. He was furious, and he phones up ahead of Pan Am Juan Trip and just gives him bawling out and Trip says, well, you know, the alternative is you give me an American supersonic airliner. So from that moment on, Kennedy decides he is going to get a hold of the American aircraft companies and he's going to make them build a supersonic airliner faster and higher and performance than the European rival. And so the race, began. The immediate result of Kennedy's intervention in the race to build a Supersonic Transporter was the appropriation of $100 million dollars worth of funding from Congress, which in 1963 was a serious amount of money. Concord now had an American rival. The question then became, who was going to build it? One obvious candidate was Douglas, the major builder of civil airliners, from the fabled DC-3 to the jet DC-8. But Douglas was too strapped for cash to compete. Other candidates were North American who were already working on a big supersonic bomber, the B-70 Valkyrie, and Lockheed, which had major experience of supersonic craft such as the secret SR-71 Blackbird. There was also Boeing, the manufacturer of the mighty B-52 bomber and the well established 707 airliner series. Of all the American aircraft companies, paradoxically, Boeing was the one that had the most trouble in getting into the supersonic airline business. Boeing hadn't actually delivered a supersonic aircraft to anybody. Its founder was William Boeing, the son of a wealthy lumberman. In 1903, Boeing dropped out of Yale University and headed for Washington State to make his fortune in the timber industry. In 1910, William Boeing went to Los Angeles for the first American Air Meet. He tried to get a ride in one of the airplanes, but not one of the dozen pilots participating in the event would oblige. Boeing came back to Seattle determined to build and fly his own planes. Bill Boeing was some people think he was an inventor. But Bill Boeing was an innovator of the highest order. I think he has very few patents perhaps, if any, but he would look at a product and he could see where he could make it better. On July the 15th, 1960, Boeing incorporated his airplane manufacturing business in Seattle in an old boat yard. He hired boat builders. Whose skills in carpentry were ideal for the new aviation industry. The early Boeing Company prospered building seaplanes for the U.S. Navy, then pursuit planes for the Army. But it was World WarII that brought Boeing to the peak of success. The war was starting in Europe and Wright Field put out a order for bids. For and this and at this time most of the airplanes were two engine, we were still two engine. Douglas was doing a engine bomber and another company was doing a engine bomber and Boeing went in to Wright field and said would this "would this procurement cover a four engine bomber?" And everybody just went berserk because nobody ever conceived of a four engine bomber. This was the XB-50 The four engine aircraft with a wingspan of 45 meters. It was so big you could tunnel out through the wing and you could come into the nacelle and you could make repairs in flight. A smaller version of this giant would become famous, the B-17 Flying Fortress that would fill the skies during World War II. I think they ordered 13 or 14, what they call test airplanes, and that led to the Flying Fortress. I don't remember exactly how many were built, was around 13,000, and that airplane then went through the A series, B series, C series all the way to H as I recall. I'd say the story of the B-17 was it was such a versatile airplane was able to to keep carrying more and more bombs, more turrets. As American men went to war, women built airplanes. Thousands of women took up the slack in the workforce and helped boost production at Boeing from 60 planes per month in 1942 to an astounding 362 planes per month by March 1944. The B-17 was followed in 1942 by the B-29 Super Fortress. In Wichita. Farm hands, housewives and shopkeepers built B-29s on 10 hour shifts, day and night. During what later became known as the Battle of Kansas. World War II transformed the fortunes of the Boeing Company. Before that, it was a serious manufacturer, but planes were built in small numbers. World War II meant Boeing was producing vast numbers of giant bombers on huge assembly lines. After World War II came the B-47, America's first jet bomber. And on April the 15th, 1952 Boeing test pilot Tex Johnston made the first flight with the B-52, which was to dominate the skies for the next 50 years. Then Boeing took a gamble. In 1950s Boeing was doing quite well in military contracts for the B-47 and the B-52 bombers. But no aircraft company, you know, can afford not to look ahead because it takes a long while to develop aircraft. And so they took a bold decision. They decided, well, let's take some of the profits from the bombers, some of that technology, and see if we could mix that into an aircraft that passengers would want to use, that the airlines will want to buy. We had all the knowledge of the B-47, the B-52, so it wasn't too big a job in the wind tunnel to develop a low wing airplane that could be used as a tanker. And we we we we we knew they needed a tanker. So that had to be a tanker and we hoped it could be a passenger airplane, although we weren't really sure that that that was the case. So that's why the Dash 80 was born. The Dash 80 took to the air under the control of Tex Johnston, who had thrown the B-52. Johnston was determined to show Boeing had built a great plane. So he barrel rolled the Dash 80 over the Seafair hydroplane course on Lake Washington on August the 2nd, 1955, a maneuver that only nimble fighter aircraft usually do. Boeing's president, William Allen, was there to witness it. And Allen turned completely white, looked over at these at his his technical advisor, Ronald Mcbeall? and said "did we authorize that?" and and then just before you could turn around here he came back again and did it once more. Boeing's gamble paid off. The Dash 80 became the prototype for the KC-135, the first jet aerial tanker. And that turned into the Model 707, the first in a long line of Boeing commercial jet airline. Boeing had done something clever with the 707, using about 110th of the fuel, could carry as many transatlantic passengers a year as the $30 million dollars Queen Mary ocean liner. Boeing had created a market and killed the passenger liner. In 1958, with the 707 entering service with Pan Am, Boeing set up a small group to concentrate on developing A supersonic passenger aircraft. In 1960, the company was spending over $1,000,000 dollars annually on the project. The design was designated the Boeing Model 733. Boeing actually started work on supersonic passenger airliners very early on, right at the beginning of the 1950s, but in a kind of research way. Is this possible? Where is, where are the engines going? Where is the metallurgy going? But what you begin to see is by the end of the 1950s, they're starting to get quite serious about it. They're beginning to think this can be done. With Kennedy score for America to actually build the SST. The Model 733 could become reality at last. Throughout late 1963, the three contenders for the prize of building the American SST, Boeing, Lockheed and North American, worked in secret on their designs. Could the late American competitor still capture the market? in late 1963 Metal for the first Concorde was already being cut. Would America catch up? There was a recent precedent. The British Comet had been the first jet airliner in service in the 1950s. But a series of fatal crashes revealed serious design flaws that had resulted from the Comet being rushed into airline operation to beat the Americans. As a result. The Boeing 707 came from nowhere to dominate the skies of the 1950s and 1960s. The Americans came late to the supersonic race. They wanted to leapfrog the Europeans and so they decided to go faster. The Europeans were going for Mark 2.2, which meant they could build Concorde out of existing materials using existing technology. The Americans decided to go way up to Mach 3 through the so-called heat barrier, which meant that because of the stresses on the plane at those speeds and the heat that would build up on the fuselage they'd had to find, they had to use new materials. The Americans were were going for a technological breakthrough to try and get ahead of the Europeans and bury the competition. To beat the competition both at home and in Europe, Boeing proposed a plane that was far bigger than Concord. It was designated The 2707. Boeing realized that if they were going to beat the Anglo French Concorde, they would have to be bigger, better and faster. So their design was for a faster aircraft and for one that would carry two and a half times the number of passengers as Concorde. So instead of 120, we're looking at 277 passengers on board. To help design its new 2707, Boeing built an amazing life-size mock up. The aircraft was 93 meters long, a third bigger than Concorde. There were 277 seats, 30 first class and 247 tourists, two and a half times the number of passengers the small Concorde was designed to carry. The seating layout in the 2707 was revolutionary till then. Seating in planes was two cramped seats on either side of a single aisle, which made planes seem very claustrophobic. Boeing decided that in order to entice people into this new aircraft with these fancy speeds, they'd have to offer a bit of something else, and so they made the fuselage bigger so they could get more seating in. Today we are very used to to three, three sets of seats, two aisles. But this was the first time when Boeing was developing the supersonic airliner that they decided to introduce that into an aircraft. By comparison, the Concorde has a very narrow fuselage and the old fashioned two abrest single aisle layout. The 2707 would be powered by four massive turbojets, each capable of generating nearly three tons of thrust. At takeoff the 2707 would weigh over 300 tons. Boeing 2707 had two other very interesting features. The first was a drooping nose now unlike we see on Concord today, to allow the pilots much better visibility and take off and landing and then to be flicked up for that needle like high speed flight. The second design feature was also to do with the differences between low speeds for approaching landing landing in high speeds in supersonic and that was the swing wing. The wing was able to pivot for those slow speed areas, making it easier and safe to fly when taking off and landing. But then when it was up above the Atlantic or Pacific or wherever it was going to go and approaching its speeds of Mach 2, you could sweep the wing back, wings back and get a very similar effect to the Delta. The wings on the mock up of the Boeing 2707 could be moved manually from fully aft with a 72 degree sweep to fully extend it with a 30 degree sweep. The Boeing supersonic airliner was really pushing the boundaries of aviation technology. They were going to go faster. They were going to go faster for longer, which meant new materials, new kinds of engines, new kinds of avionics. It was a it was a risk. One group will sort that with the Lockheed Company, who were busy with their rival SST, the Lockheed L2000. The lockheed, designed for a supersonic airliner, was simple, elegant, beautiful. No complex moving parts like a swing wing. They'd adopted the narrow delta that everyone knew was was going to work. It was within the boundaries of what was possible. They were minimizing the risks and that's why it was it was a serious competitor. As the time for submitting final design entries drew closer, Boeing was still threatening to outdo the competition. As the design process went on, it became obvious that the the the Boeing entry was gonna be terribly complex, terribly expensive. That made the airlines who are going to have to buy and use the thing frightened. So Boeing started adding on more and more passengers in the hope that it could make a profit that would make up for the escalating costs of the aircraft in the first place. Size does help you a little bit on efficiency at least it has on the other airplanes and so obviously you can get, you can go overboard and be too fast but too big. But I think that we felt the concord was was was too small to be a successful system. It was the last day of 1966 when the final design winner was announced. It was the revolutionary Boeing design. I think it was a very, very tough competition. The reason we won the configuration was not necessarily that the airlines liked our configuration any better. My personal opinion is that I think that they felt that they would rather have Boeing build their commercial airplane than the other two manufacturers. Because so we were in the process of building commercial airplanes at that time and been working with the airlines and my personal opinion is that we were picked as a company, not as a design. It was a surprise that Boeing won because they had so little experience in building working supersonic aircraft. I mean, they were famous for the B-52 bomber, which is subsonic. Everyone else, I mean Convair, Lockheed, had built large and fairly successful supersonic aircraft. So this was this was the new guy on the block suddenly been been given the job and everyone thought can they do it? Boeing predicted that if design and construction of prototypes began early in 1967, the first flight could be made in early 1970. The first aircraft could then be ready for airline service in mid 1974. They were talking nonsense. They have no idea of the problems they were about to face. The main problem in designing the Boeing Supersonic airliner can be summed up in one word, the weight. This thing just got fat. It got heavier and heavier. It wasn't going to make money. They had to then strip out weight. And in the end, the biggest weight penalty was going to be the mechanism to make the wings swing. As we got beyond the preliminary design stage to build it the weight got too heavy. The empty weight got too heavy. That was the main problem. The weight just got out of hand and we couldn't meet the weight statement that we'd estimated for the for the configuration at the start. The project slammed to a halt for a year as Boeing considered alternatives. In October 1968, Boeing emerged with what was virtually a complete redesign. There was only one way to solve the weight penalty problem. That was to take the swing wing out. Boeing swing wing disappeared because mostly because of the extra weight that that that huge hinge in there was very very heavy. The 2707 was also reduced in size. Seating was reduced to 234 passengers, though that was still bigger than Concorde. And now a new problem appeared to haunt the project and eventually kill it. The Sonic boom. We knew it existed, but frankly I didn't think it was that bad. The Sonic boom that the airplanes we were talking about was like Thunder and lightning, where the thunder hits about two miles away. And I guess I just didn't figure it was that bad. In order to explore the effects of the Sonic boom on, for example, urban areas, the American Air Force conducted an experiment in 1964. Which is something I don't think you would ever contemplate doing today. And what they wanted to do is see what effect it had on an urban area. So they tried to they flew supersonic bombers over Oklahoma City with Sonic booms or waves of shocked air passing all the time. The result was that in a very short period of time they had around 8,000 very vocal complaints and around 5,000 complaints for for claims for damages. In 1967, immediately after Boeing had been selected to build the 2707 Doctor, William Shirtliff, a scientist at Harvard University, organized the Citizens League against the Sonic Boom. Actually, there were so many technical and economic hurdles that had to be addressed for an airplane like this, not the least of which was the sound reaching the sound barrier always created shockwave over populated areas. Well, that era was a... That era was a miserable era for for for me. Because here I was, an engineer trying to do things and you had these idiots back there making it was a political situation and he just dumped on it. This guy. Shurcliff. I never met him. I don't know what his problem was. I know the the, the the British. were were taken by surprise on it they they were they were completely amazed at the problems we were getting. Other scientists hypothesized that the exhaust from SST's expelled into the atmosphere at high altitude would start a self perpetuating chemical reaction that would ultimately deplete a radiation absorbing layer of ozone in the stratosphere and bring on an increase in skin cancer. I think there were other environmental concerns, perhaps not substantiated technically about the ozone layer, about the contamination of the upper atmosphere. There were all sorts of boogeymen shoved into the front of the table having to do with so-called environmental problems. But public opinion was turning against the SST and as resistance grew. Congress itself began to express doubts about the play in response. President Richard Nixon, shortly after he was elected in 1968, appointed a 12 member committee to report on the project. Nixon was a was a firm believer in the SST when he came to power, like Presidents Johnson and Kennedy before him, and and he felt that the the SST was essential to American prestige. And in order to underline the case for the SST, he appointed a committee to. To his great surprise, I think in consternation, the committee came out against the SST and decided it was completely unviable. Apart from the Sonic boom, the Boeing SST was encountering other problems. When he set the goal for the American SST, President Kennedy had decreed that it would fly faster than its European rival. At Mach 3, but at that speed an aircraft skin becomes red hot. You have to make it of expensive materials that will not melt or crack at those temperatures. To reach the speed that the 2707 was going to go at, you had to find new materials to deal with the buildup of heat. The most effective material would be titanium. And at that time Titanium was really really complex to machine, very expensive to get a hold of. It was going to make the whole project uncommercial. It's a it's it's tough top environment and temperatures are main is a is a is a real big problem whether you can ever design the structure to meet all this and still have enough left over to make any money with is not too clear at this point. The British had long since decided that these problems were too difficult and expensive to bother solving. Concord would fly at less than 2000 kilometers per hour, where the heating problems were much reduced. Concord could therefore be built out of standard metal alloys to keep the manufacturing costs down. You went much faster than Mach 2. Where you got too hot for aluminum. I don't know aluminum I I can't tell you exactly but you couldn't you wouldn't want to go too much beyond two to to to get to with aluminum. So you needed a better material and titanium was quite capable. It was a good material and we felt that it would be. So we part of the program was learning how to manufacture. As Boeing's engineers grappled with the problems, the 2707 program suffered delay after delay while costs skyrocketed. We spent several million dollars of our own company money and working titanium on the side of the outside of the contract on the SST, but maybe we were too ambitious, it might have worked at 2 and a half Mach number, but I think that you go 3 and that's that's 400 degrees. That's too hot. On May the 18th, 1971, the United States Senate met to vote on the motion to end funding the SST project. President Nixon had worked hard to persuade the Senators to keep on with the project, but without success. The Senate voted 58 to 37 to kill the Boeing 2707. I think that Kennedy's decree that the SST should be bigger, better and faster. than the European rival did cause major problems for Boeing and for the whole project right throughout it, because they were always aiming for this, this kind of Kennedy standard of Mach 3 and all the problems that are associated with flying at Mach 3. I think that was too hot. It just wasn't practical. I think we could go faster than the than the 2. I think 2 and half would have probably been okay from a temperature standpoint. But certainly any higher than that would have probably not been practical. Europe looked like it had won the technological race. In 1973, only 80 months after the Boeing SST project was cancelled, Concord made its first visit to the USA to attend the inauguration of the new Dallas Fort Worth Airport. During its four day stay in Texas, Concorde made supersonic demonstration flights over the Gulf of Mexico and proved to be the outstanding attraction in the flying displays which formed part of the airport dedication ceremonies. But it would soon become clear that Concorde's victory was no victory at all. British Airways flew its first ever regular supersonic flight between London and Bahrain in the Persian Gulf on the 21st of January 1976. Unfortunate the route was mainly over land, forcing Concorde to fly at subsonic speeds on large portions of the flight. Next came the introduction of a service to Singapore that on the 13th of December 1977 after only three return flights, service was suspended because of complaints from the Malaysian government about the supersonic boom over the streaks of Malacca on the West Coast of Malaysia. Ultimately, Concord though it made it into passenger service, it suffered the Sonic boom problem that had dogged the early Boeing project. When the Americans banned supersonic flight over the continental United States, some people said that was in retaliation. Whether it was or wasn't is neither here nor there, it meant that Concord could only fly supersonic over the Atlantic. It couldn't meet any of the requirements that we couldn't meet. They don't meet the Sonic boom and they don't meet the takeoff noise, and I guess they're probably only a half a dozen or so flying in each airline. Concord will never be profitable in the sense of making back the money that it cost to buy or to develop. As far as the airlines are concerned, well, Concorde makes money on an individual flight by flight basis because it can charge very high tickets to the kind of luxury passengers that are there. The system exists now because it's unique and it's a high cost and it's one-of-a-kind. And if you want to make a splash, you go around the Concorde, OK, Betsy and I were on it, well we went over. Take off from Washington about 4:30 in the Yeah, we took off from Washington about 4:30 in the afternoon in the hotel room in London 9:00. O'clock. It's great. But there is one aspect of the Boeing 2707 story that has never been told, a development that was to usher in the age of airline travel for everyone. On December the 22nd, 1965 Boeing's chairman William Allen and Juan Trip of Panamerican Airways signed a letter of intent, which committed Pan Am to purchasing 25 of a new cargo plane. Unlike the 2707 that was dominating Boeing's attention, the new plane was almost an afterthought. Boeing kept it simple. The design was just a scaled up 707. They called it the Model 747. The world would call it the Jumbo Jet. The The 747 is an amazing story and it started back right after the Vietnam War where the government said we need to move a lot of material and a lot of people around the world in a hurry. The 747 was actually developed in tandem with the Boeing supersonic project. And the aim was to put in the 747 what you couldn't get in the supersonic aircraft, which was freight. It was which is meant to be a big cargo plane in the first place. The Boeing Company in 1965 decided to scale up The 707 I think is a freighter originally, but soon realized you could pack so many people into these aircraft and fly them at high subsonic speeds that it's very, very commercially viable. Made great sense. When the dream of supersonic passenger flight died, there was only one plate to step into the breach, the 747. The first 747 entered service with Pan Am in 1970 and started a true revolution in flying. Suddenly the cost of long distance air travel was within the budget of the ordinary family. The age of mass air transport was born. I think the 747 will still be flying in 20 years. It's one of the major developments of this century in aerospace. Curiously, there's one hangover from the old supersonic project that ended up in 747, and that was seating arrangement. When they transformed the, the 747, the jumbo jet into a passenger plane, because it was wide body, they could put in a couple of rows. You get a lot more seats. And that was the original dream that the supersonic transport had been born with. But Boeing's interest in supersonic passenger flight did not end with the 2707. In Russia. NASA found a muff board example of the Soviet SST, the TU-144, nicknamed the "Concordski". The Russian SST actually flew just a few months before Concord and when people saw it, they said gosh, that looks like Concord. And that's because of course the Russians had stolen line for line, page for page the plans of the Concorde and built it themselves. But the "Concordeski" never entered international service. Soviet technical know how was not up to the challenge of building a supersonic airliner, not even with the help of stolen plans. The plane proved difficult to fly and fundamentally on the same it's last outing was as a flying laboratory. To try and solve the environmental problems that had plagued the old 2707, engineers from NASA and Boeing envisioned a new supersonic jet that could fly 300 passengers at more than 2400 kilometers per hour and cross the Pacific from Los Angeles to Tokyo in a mere four and a half hours. But that was precisely the specification. The old 2707 cancelled nearly 20 years early. The main thing that's happened is you've gone to high bypass ratio engines and the engine cycles changed and the and the noise problem isn't as bad as it used to be with a pure jet. 20 years had brought more knowledge about building and flying complex supersonic machines, but the same old problems still stood in the way. A big supersonic craft designed to fly beyond the heat barrier would be incredibly costly to build, fly and maintain, and there would still be pollution and noise. There is no technology anywhere that I'm aware of that says that you can bypass overpass whatever the supersonic barrier, it's there. The boom just has to be there. There's so much energy involved when you go through that barrier. The dream of supersonic transport was an engineer's dream. It was a politician's dream. It was Kennedy's dream. The passengers wanted something different. They wanted cheaptickets. They wanted reliable service. They wanted comfort. And that will always be the future of the airline business. Now, as a matter of fact, if somebody were to ask me today, will there ever be a supersonic airplane in the U.S. built by the U.S? I would say first you got to define what you mean by supersonic. They may very well be on a more advanced Mach 2 airplane, larger, more economical and so forth in the Concord they may very well be. I don't know that. But we are still today not ready in materials to go to Mach 3. We just don't have the the wherewithal to do it. But the dream lives on even today. Boeing are still working on designs to push the frontiers of speed for passenger aircraft. The Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird flies at Mach 3. It is made of titanium at metallurgy and materials technology are advancing all the time. Will the 21st century see the dream come true? This is the challenge and the true legacy of the Boeing 2707. well here we are in the Concord hangar at Heathrow behind me aircraft golf Bravo Oscar Alpha Delta the fourth of the British Airways Concords and very shortly this airplane will be pushed back and will be towed to the gate at terminal four ready for a very special Journey this is not simply a scheduled flight to New York or even Barbados this airplane is ready for its trip around the world [Music] since 1976 Concord has flown from London and Paris to New York's John F Kennedy Airport up to three times a day applying the Atlantic Ocean in just over three hours at twice the speed of sound but rarely has this evocative aircraft ventured Beyond these Shores in 1999 however history was made and speed records broken as Concord undertook the ultimate trip a full circumnavigation of the globe in October 1999 80 specially invited wealthy American Travelers boarded this ba Concorde for what was to become a 22-day never to be repeated record-breaking flight into the history books this is the start of our around the world Charter 17 days away for us where we have a bonding with the passengers so one October one off we have to be able to blend together work under pressure and to get on with everybody passengers through everybody alive foreign [Applause] this is just the first leg of our Abercrombie and Kent Around the World Tour by Concord flying from New York over to Vancouver I'm Jeff mustard the pr on this particular flight and taking the opportunity to come back and have a work with the passengers and my job really is to make sure that they are informed of what's going on in the flight take some of the load off the flight deck crew we're going supersonic Overland which is most unusual for Concord and they've got to navigate very accurately to stick to the flight plan that's been agreed with the Canadian authorities so what we've done is come north from New York towards Montreal and started a supersonic acceleration 300 miles north of Montreal and that's taken us right up over Hudson Bay and ground north of Churchill and then we're going to come all the way to the west down by Peace River and Alberta down in towards Vancouver getting about an hour and a half of SuperSonic flight time very few areas in the world where we can do this so we're always quite excited to do these Overland supersonic segments we've climbed up now to 55 000 feet and for some people this is the first time they beat supersonic so it's a great deal for them as well the excitement in the air was also matched on the ground as last minute preparations took place for the imminent arrival of this rare supersonic visitor Concord is about to arrive in uh well roughly 10 minutes it's uh coming from Kennedy Airport actually flying out of its way to go supersonic across the top of Canada and uh stop here for about an hour 45 and then it carries on to Kona a big island of Hawaii [Music] [Music] first time it came here was July of 1986. and Maggie Thatcher came on it to open a British week at Expo 86. it was here once last year so this is actually the third time it's arrived in Vancouver [Music] foreign staff that are very interested in an airplane that you don't see in this area very often [Music] with the vast Pacific Crossing still ahead Vancouver was to prove the most strategic link on the route this was the most westerly crude ba outpost on the journey and thus such successful planning at this stage was to be absolutely critical to the overall success of the entire round-the-world flight from here on Concord was for all intents and purposes on their own spare parts such as tires had to be loaded into the rear cabin and specially trained london-based ground Engineers flown up to check every part of the aircraft in fine detail before permission would be granted to allow the flight to depart for three thousand miles to Hawaii in addition to highly qualified Concord Engineers traveled aboard in case of problems one of concord's limitations is range in hot conditions with each additional kilo of weight reducing distance passengers all three weeks worth of luggage and some heavy spare parts Captain Jeff mustard had to make some careful calculations not just for this section but for the following two as well the most worrying problem for the crew and ground Engineers was the second nag at the Pacific Crossing from Hawaii to Fiji which fell at the very limit of concord's range [Music] as the new cabin crew flown out especially from London prepared for their own trip of a lifetime the flurry of activity on the ground continued as the minutes ticked away prior to departure [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] with the first leg of this trans-pacific crossing over in just over two and a half hours the volcanic and it has to be said somewhat featureless island of Hawaii played hostaco on Alpha Delta its passengers approved for the next three days having left the cold and down from the Vancouver October afternoon in the 150 minutes earlier the warm evening sunshine of Hawaii was a welcome boost for all with the workload over for a day or two the flight deck and cabin crew chartered a private yacht for a day's snorkeling in the warm Pacific Waters foreign with concord's regular root structure largely limited to New York the Temptation amongst the crew to soak up the relaxed atmosphere of the Pacific was a welcome change from the hustle and bustle of Midtown Manhattan on the and would prove too much to resist Hawaii's Kona Airport must be one of the most laid back in America with open-air departure lounges and an abundance of colorful flowers that made for a pleasant and relaxing atmosphere as passengers waiting to depart the um with the volcanic lava surrounding the runway's fast disappearing Concord was to head off for its longest and trickiest Pacific sector 3200 miles of nothing but ocean there aren't very many spare airfields to go to on the longest segments and of course you begin to realize how enormous the Pacific is we're doing a thousand miles an hour and yet it takes us maybe two and a half hours to get from one island chain to another until we get right over to the Western Pacific absolutely I think we noticed a bit more when people in Hawaii who invent earlier spoke about taking six or seven hours from the West Coast when it took us two and a half hours yes what is also quite interesting is our rate of climb here I mean because we're closer to the Equator in fact the air is colder at the upper up there isn't it very much so obviously the lower air is warmer and then we go through the Tropicals when the temperature shears off very quickly and once we start getting through that the temperature goes down then of course the aircraft starts climbing uh really well again about a thousand feet a minute and we're getting up to about 60 000 feet on these sectors yeah so of course this is something that would really happen on a New York run I mean to get to 58 000 feet I think it all the time I've been on Concord I think I've only got to sixty thousand I think three times over the Atlantic and convert it's odd because the the upper air is very cold over the tropics and not over the poles it's just the height of the Tropicals right and what about operationid dealing uh with air traffic control I mean they're not used to these block altitudes that we're playing I mean does that pose its own problems um we take quite a lot of trouble to get this set up in advance and certain areas we have to get the permission and get the permits once we've got that then things seem to work pretty smoothly and once we've cleared 40 000 feet they're delighted because we've got no other conflicting traffic at all as we get down towards Fiji of course we have got some Island chains and about 500 Miles off to the east we've got the Gilbert and Ellis Islands as we cross the Equator but also if you went way off to uh the East you'd have Tahiti and so on just had a competition to check the time over the International Date Line and the price for that was somebody come up for the landing into Sydney and the newest person got within eight seconds at the right time which was pretty good we gave them a guide of between one and a half and three hours so we thought they did pretty well but of course it's slightly odd because the Dateline doesn't go straight down 108 degrees east west it actually comes down then peels off towards the east so nobody could really cheat on that one because they didn't know where we were going to cross it from the flight deck side window the view of fiji's main island coming into view was a welcome sight the imminent arrival of this rare visitor the cause of curiosity for the local population some of whom went to extraordinary lengths to get him out of view thank you [Music] [Music] [Music] thank you with sadly only just over an hour to refuel the aircraft the onboard Engineers having to check all the systems we're continuing to function properly there was little time to explore this diverse chain of islands nestled in the beautiful South Seas as the minutes ticked away and the final preparations were being made for the last leg across the Pacific to Sydney the passengers were serenaded Fiji Style with a dual rendition of the John Denver number on a Jet Plane [Music] [Music] talking with me [Music] [Music] bye [Music] foreign [Music] foreign of Australia's most famous city only two hours away the crossing of the world's largest ocean of Mach 2 was rapidly becoming part of aviation history having crossed half the world in record-breaking time realization of what we'd achieved starting to set in [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] foreign as the passengers continued to enjoy the buzz of Sydney having covered a staggering 11 447 miles since departing New York Concord Alpha Delta was well due for a service whilst down under there was no shortage of Qantas Engineers volunteering for the task under the watchful eye of Ba's own Concourse technicians the supersonic jet receiving a thorough check with a warning light indicating a possible fault earlier with one of the aircraft's national navigation system boxes a new replacement was flown in especially from London ready for concord's departure later in the day seven days into the trip and four sectors behind them back in town the passengers checked out of their luxury hotel for the 20-minute drive back to the departure gate at Sydney's main Kingsford Smith Airport foreign freeways the crew were already on the tarmac waiting for conquer Alpha Delta's arrival the hangar as the aircraft was slowly towed along the web of airport taxiways towards the gate with with parcha only an hour away the Race Against Time to fully prepare the supersonic jet for departure was to foreign [Music] [Music] um to add to the complications of the late arrival of the aircraft on the gate the crew were busy putting the finishing touches to the re-root but would add two hours to the journey time originally we were going to be flying supersonically right across the center of Australia at Mark II but because of the situation in East Timor we're not now flying to Bali we're flying to Bangkok and it's just beyond the range of the aircraft so we're actually going to be flying supersonically up the Gold Coast past the Great Barrier Reef to the Pacific island of Guam there we will refuel and then make a left turnout crossing the north of the Philippines before landing in Bangkok today is going to be a very long sector as you can see from this map as we fly all the way to the north here before making this left-hand turn to Bangkok with 7186 Miles and the refueling stop in Guam ahead this sector was to prove the most testing yet for the crew both in the cabin and on the flight deck my first round the world speed record line of October 12th to 1382 then go on Bangkok in three hours zero minutes and 39 seconds we got permission to former Mel demarcus's Hometown a place called tackle about the Philippines uh we can't do that again we're going to go around the northern tip of the Philippines so that's three hours and 16 minutes also asked me why we're taking such a circuitous routing the Concord has a problem with rough runways and where they've had to measure the runways corrupting where it goes after a gourmet lunch at the highest and fastest restaurant on the planet a view of the Great Barrier Reef was just visible as we flew on the edges of the stratosphere 59 000 feet up 12 miles above the Earth in the last half an hour also we have been just touching 60 000 feet which is the highest altitude of which Concourse and high which is the first time we've done it on this uh because of the very cold air over the equatorial area we've now started our deceleration into Guam where we should be landing in 25 minutes quite a warm sticky day there uh fresh winds temperature is 31 degrees Celsius and that is 88 degrees Fahrenheit thank you [Music] [Music] foreign by the time the passengers have reboarded the aircraft the warm early evening sunshine had given way to Darkness and the only non-daylight sector will begin passengers began to doze enthusiasm showed no signs of waning in the back this has been my first trip on Concord it's an opportunity that I would never ever have dreamed of having and the exit the tape or the takeoff was absolutely exhilarating you know you just the noise and the sheer power was just unbelievable I'd do it again again and again over and over as Concord flies faster than the Earth rotates in effect the plane flies back in time a remarkable effect of departing in darkness shortly after Sunset is that Concord actually catches the Sun up resulting in a Westerly Sunrise shortly after the sun has already set that day Concord was the only civil aircraft in the world but was able to give witness to this extraordinary phenomenon this is the first time I've ever been on Concord obviously I fly to 747-400 which I've had a commander for the last 10 years it's a built aircraft but this thing is just another Quantum Leap ahead the performance was incredible that's the only way you can describe it it looks very very sensitive the pilots tell me it's very nice to fly the systems are good of course it's older technology but it seems to work extremely well and it really gets up and goes I've never seen an accelerator like it with a liftoff speed of some 195 knots that's typically about 40 knots faster than the 747 and a climb out speed of about 220 knots that's a lot faster than we go as well the acceleration from here is just the incredible right through the transonic region as you can probably see we're cruising just on Mark 2.0 now and uh that compares to the 747 of the Mach number of around about 0.85 so it's a lot faster uh on The Descent uh the approach uh it does fly faster again it handles very well watching the way the pilots fly and really from a pilot's point of view it's just an awesome piece of Machinery uh I guess what I'm really saying is uh I'd love to fight as Concord descended and decelerated to subsonic speeds over the Philippines a new day awaited and a new culture dawned as the magic of the Orient came into view foreign Capital Bangkok was a truly exciting diverse City hotels unsurpassed luxury the busy rivers and canals to the traditions and cultures of the Old Siam which have been passed on from generation to generation [Music] thank you [Music] all is just a short ride away from two of bangkok's most famous sites the American Explorer Jim Thompson's traditional wooden house and The Sensational Golden Palace [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] the next day back at bangkok's International Airport Concord took her places alongside more conventional subsonic Jets prior to heading west over the Bay of Bengal to Madras in Southern India as was always the case when Concord flew into unsupersonically charted territory careful additional calculations were made to take into account the weight of the fully loaded aircraft temperature on the ground and emergency alternate airfields in case of problems on this trip nothing was left a chance well we're on the Move now just popped back from our gate here at Bangkok and we're taxing out towards the runway it's a mere one hour and 30 minutes across the Bay of Bengal from here to Madras in Southern India well Bangkok has been seen as a city of huge contrasts but I wonder what our passengers are going to make of our next destination foreign [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] thank you foreign even before landing the heat is clearly visible and the bouncing Final Approach was a clear indication of the weather outside was to be hot and steamy 200 feet 100 feet 15 14 13 20 15. pretty Shadow is landed zero seven taxi via foxtrot column stand 3-0 follow me British Airways 9095 Charlie follow me deep is terminating following service follow martial arts your departure this time oh yeah [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] if anywhere in the world was chosen to depict living examples of different centuries it was India in the sprawling Southern Metropolis in Madras it was easy to find vehicles of the 1950s [Music] together with modes of transport of a truly bygone area [Music] with no direct normal traffic between India and East Africa the Indian authorities refused to give permission to allow a direct Westerly route after departure posing a massive heading for the crew with the authorities insisting that conquered First Flight South to Sri Lanka before turning west across the Indian Ocean the fuel range was to become critical I can agree to take off this with nowhere to refuel along the Route the only way the aircraft could stay the course of this unwelcome longer Journey was to depart early in the morning for the day limited to take off with a full load of passengers and fuel we keep the tropical throttles at the start of the takeoff role on these sectors and they stay there until we start our deceleration so we're using maximum power all the time except for when we use the afterburners and when we reach Mark 2 it will continue to climb until the rate of climb stops and then our climb is determined by burning the fuel reduction of the weight that's probably gradually climbed usually it's about 50 or 60 feet a minute until we hit 60 000 feet if indeed we get there before we start to slow down we'll expect to see The Climb continue throughout the night thank you with some fantastic views of Southern Sri Lanka out of the window rarely seen from the air let alone at twice the speed of sound Concord this sector was to prove not just one of the most challenging for the crew but one of the most interesting for the passengers the normal route between the Indian subcontinent and East Africa is long and torturous and normally involves a change in the Middle East to travel between these two very different worlds and a little over three hours was to be a memorable experience well we're now on our sector across the Indian Ocean yes left Madras in Southern India about two hours ago two and a half hours ago we're now starting our deceleration into Nairobi yes indeed it's been interesting hasn't it but of course we've been ducking and Diving Islands yes we did a straight acceleration out of bedras which meant going off the coast of India but then staying down the east coast of India going right down the east coast of Sri Lanka turning right round there and then heading off across the Indian Ocean that's quite a fun time oh it was yeah it's got a lovely view of Sri Lanka today yes and then of course we had to make a passage between uh some of the islands and the Maldives and then we've come north of Seychelles towards the African coast and we're just slowing down now but it's been supersonic since 11 minutes after takeoff and of course we're pretty well covered all the ocean through the Atlantic yet to do of course there's the last leg fall we've done the Pacific been across Indian Ocean Bay of Bengal and got a couple of lovely supersonic segments to come one up the Red Sea which we haven't done before and another one up the Adriatic to Venice which is a route we used to do years ago before the Bosnian crisis but we're going to do that one and then of course we've got the final one across the Atlantic so as Mount Kenya loomed out of the clouds high above the African plain the engines were throttled back and the grasslands around the suburbs of Nairobi came into view approach the Kenyan Capital ahead of schedule [Music] with Applause from the passengers as the aircraft landed the crew had been aboard since Vancouver with the exception of Captain Jeff mustard prepared to leave the aircraft for the last time their trip of a lifetime having come to an end [Music] just about a minute told you he takes over Commander the airplane and flies you for the rest of the round the world trip and your new CSV cabinet service director will be Jackie Sayers the new lady in the cabin team just remains for the team that are getting off and leaving you here to wish you a very pleasant time here and a pleasant rest of your tour around the world I do wish you a nice time and some to see you about another Concord until then the great time is we from the doctor and the camera keep leaving you say goodbye Julie we've reached an herobu two-thirds of the way around the world it's been quite an amazing trip hasn't it it's been fantastic passengers have been lovely the crew have all got on really well we've enjoyed going that extra mile and doing all the special things that you can do on a trip like this it's completely different to a scheduled New York trip what struck me is the sort of the enthusiasm of the passengers is it versus the New York where people are really just doing it because it's a business tool you get into New York quickly the attitude's different as soon as they get on board they're just here to enjoy themselves and they've all been really nice it's a great time it's been so different because um of the type of Passenger that we've encountered they've been so enthused themselves about wanting to come away and you know visit you know various cities from all over the world and of course for somebody like you commutes to them from New York on Concord all the time coming to these long all destinations is a yeah quite unusual oh yeah it's been great coming to some of these fantastic islands that we've we've seen Sydney was probably the Highlight we were invited to the Opera and we've just had a fantastic time from the flight crew all the way you know down to the cabin crew we've felt a unique bondness in fact not just among ourselves but also with you know our passengers that we've looked after so it's that Bond and that closest and that relatingness that we've built up as a unit of people over the period of the last two weeks or so um that's yeah it's one of the highlights as well having exchanged the leather glad seeds of Concord for something a bit more down to earth the awe-inspiring Maasai Mara game Park was to prove Kenya's highlight thank you although out in the bush the passengers were far from being dry the unique game launcher kichua Tembo was to offer a unique mix of Fine Food and wines in basic yet comfortable and certainly unique accommodation this was environmental tourism that needed no PR spin to sell it thank you [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] six days later on a rainy morning Concord Alpha Delta prepared for departure as a sister B.A jumbo taxied into position after a long overnight flight from London [Music] after takeoff for Jordan and having taken in eight vastly differing cultures around the world in just over two weeks the passengers had got used to the unexpected however they could be forgiven for not second guessing what was about to be thrown at them here is your trivia question as we're flying over Djibouti Djibouti is one of only three countries in the world does not contain any of the letters from the word mackerel what are the other two countries first correct answer to the limey tour guide will win a prize well this is certainly one of the more interesting sectors of the flight we're presently flying between Nairobi and Akbar up the Red Sea at Mark II at sixty thousand feet the highest the aircraft can fly it's a particularly precise bit of flying this because if we Veer off course slightly to the left or the right there's a danger that Masonic boom can be heard either by Sudan on the left-hand side of the aircraft or by Saudi Arabia on the right so we have to ensure that playing at these speeds at this height that we keep exactly to the path foreign [Music] one second ASAP as the southern Jordanian Airport at acaba grew nearer the crew encountered a communication problem with local Air Traffic Control you read I copy sir I copy audio three seven one no three seven one with the help of the passing Saudi Airlines jumbo acting as go between the desert Runway and Akama came into view yeah you see I think it's just over there to the left of the other Road from America to the South Seas of the Pacific and onto Australia from the Far East of Asia to India and onto the open grasslands of East Africa it was now time to enter a different world that of Arabia the court the place [Music] Jordan is a fascinating Arabian Kingdom with a Barren yet beautiful mountainous landscape [Music] [Music] after two days of soaking up Desert Sun King The Jewel and the Arabian Crown a breathtaking example of ancient design from the surrounding Sandstone mountains the treasury at Petra foreign [Music] [Music] after two days it was time to Bid Farewell to this beautiful desert landscape and head back to acaba airport where our small team of dedicated Engineers were giving Concord a thorough checkover before the last few sectors on this historic last ever throughout the world flight thank you [Music] [Music] just come through the gap between Greece on the East and the tour of Italy on the west side near brindisi and that requires some quite accurate navigation and we've been doing that with our inertial system which has been making the turns and we've had that updated from some ground AIDS done it very nicely we're now heading up the Adriatic and we're up at uh oh 56 000 feet at the moment it's particularly interesting for this uh route really because we haven't flown it for some time and this aircraft used to fly quite often because it was in the Singapore Airlines colors and was the only aircraft to be painted dust and it used to come down here all the time of course just over a load of weather which is always nice to see from above rather than from the side and we're actually heading directly towards Venice Last Stop on this extraordinary tour was this beautiful Italian city where better to reflect is the end of such a magical journey grew near than in one of the world's most romantic vacations [Music] Venice was to prove a memorable Last Stop on this trip with its historic architecture canals and famous hand-blown marama glass [Music] now thank you [Music] [Music] as the three days of crisp winter Sunshine gave way to wind and rain last minute preparations were being made as the passengers boarding Concord Alpha Delta for the final leg of this amazing supersonic journey across the med and Atlantic back to New York foreign over 32 000 miles in record-breaking time taking in a huge range of diverse locations and cultures overall we'd sampled the very best that the planet can offer in a trip that truly made history breaking 10 world speed records in all a trip surely hard to beat as Alpha Delta climbed away into the gloomy November sky for the lucky passengers aboard the memories of this extraordinary trip remain Vivid and bright with Concord now sadly confined to history short of traveling into space that can never be a match to this one-off special trip of a lifetime foreign [Music] trip because we have an opportunity to spend a lot more time with each other guys in the cabin crew and also having a ground engineer with us all the way Barry's been kept pretty busy doing all sorts of checks on the ground comes in covered in oil but Marine tanks a great sense of humor and he's been a real credit to the flight and I think everyone appreciates that it's been a real team effort I think it's the last time I'll be doing a trip like this is I've only got a few months left to fly but the last 13 years have been tremendous fun and particularly when we've done these sorts of trips particularly with this where you're saying with the passengers for quite a few days and you get to know them and they tend to look on the aircraft as a little bit of home and I can well identify with that it's become very much a part of one's life which would be sorry to leave but had no regrets this has been a wonderful few years foreign [Applause] foreign [Music] [Music] [Music] hello and welcome from the maintenance hangar here at London's Heathrow Airport today we're going to be taking you on a journey a journey for the imagination [Music] thank you [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] s in the world can conjure up such a sense of War as Concord into her third decade in service she still turns heads and in terms of speed and endurance can outperform any other aircraft in the world either civil or military in this program we'll be following Ba's Fleet of seven Concords to various destinations around the world to New York and Barbados the two regular scheduled destinations but we also go on tour with some of the special Charter operations to places as culturally and climatically diverse as the Arctic Circle in the Middle East indeed Concord has visited more places than the rest of Ba's entire scheduled Fleet put together well with me now is Captain Mike Bannister the Concord Chief pilot Mike a fantastic Beast very beautiful what's she like to fly oh she's absolutely marvelous Adrian but way before that there are many things that go on in the background behind the scenes for each of us Pilots there are 15 people working on the ground doing all sorts of important things so why don't we go and have a look at some of that foreign [Music] so here we are standing in front of one of the British Airways seven Concords this one gbo AC Concords are listed from AA through to AG or alpha alpha to Alpha golf and gboac or Alpha Charlie as we call her is if you like the flagship of the flagships because she's got the letters of our four runner Airline boec and I'm standing right next to a spare Olympus 593 engine a Rolls-Royce necma engine and this is one of the three key technical things about this wonderful airplane there's many people that make her fly and many wonderful technical aspects but three key things that I'd just like to take you through as we prepare for that flight to New York this is one of them the Olympus engine used on many other different things around the world but this particular version has reheat or afterburner and we use that for takeoff and acceleration through the sound barrier to take Concord supersonic at takeoff it has 38 1000 pounds of thrust about the say in the six thousand family cars and can accelerators from a standstill to 250 miles an hour in around 40 seconds or when we're at lightweight even faster than a Formula One race car that's the airplane that's the engine that enables us to Get Up and Away set off faster even than a subsonic jet on our way towards the point where we start accelerating to supersonic speeds so right here just behind concord's main wheels are the engine intakes that little engine sits behind this enormous intake there's a pair of engines behind this intake pack here and these are very special because as we travel along at twice the speed of sound 1 350 miles an hour we've got to slow the air down to a mere 500 miles an hour in just 11 feet that's the speed that the engines can accept that air and to do that we move these panels that are marked to Danger up above us up and down to create shock waves inside the intake and slow the air down and the positioning of those panels is absolutely crucial it's accomplished by computers designed by a British company way back in the 60s and the computers that were devised to do that were a real breakthrough in aviation if there's one thing that made Concord successful where the American and the Russian versions weren't it was the computer that positions those intakes enables us to fly supersonically for up to three hours at a stretch and the third and final really important element is the wing the very special features on the wing that keep our center of gravity in just the right place apart from the ability to store fuel concord's Wing is totally different from a conventional airplane and so are the flying controls but ordinary aircraft has ailerons or Rudder and elevators Concord has a Rudder but the ailerons in the elevator combined into what we call an elevon to give pitch and roll control they're right at the back of the wing they're droop down right now because there's no power on the airplane but when she's powered up their smooth flush and in total alignment streamlining Concord for high-speed flight also the wing gives it some very interesting shapes not only for supersonic flight and for the aerodynamics we need but also to give us the ability to control the balance of Concord to keep her in trim we Pump Fuel from a tank right at the front of the airplane to a tank right at the back to balance the movement of lift as we go faster and faster but the very clever shape of the Wing Stops that lift moving too much without it we wouldn't be able to balance Concord and keep her in trim and we wouldn't be able to fly supersonically so those are the three things that are really important technically the three things that enable her to fly day in and day out to New York just like she's going to do right now with Captain Chris Norris in command of today's daily morning flight to New York 86 passengers sit back in comfort as aircraft golf Bravo Oscar Alpha foxtrot taxis towards the departure Runway with flight va001 well here at the end of the runway at Heathrow zero nine right some three miles behind me Concord is getting ready to line up every day at this time half past 10 she takes off from the world's busiest International Airport thank you with the throttles fully forward concord's performance is staggering Rolls Royce Olympus engine completely After Burner or reheat springing into life producing an almost rocket-like performance down the runway [Music] foreign feet per minute the crew prepared to undertake the noise abatement procedure [Music] entails reducing the aircraft's power by around 15 and cutting out the four reheats to reduce the engine noise for people on the ground with the reheat cut and the power reduced it's time to turn Concord right through 180 degrees so that she heads West towards the Bristol Channel hello ladies and gentlemen Captain Chris Norris uh cruising along now 26 000 feet are just under the speed of sound we're estimating arrival in New York touching down around 10 minutes past nine just over three hours from now the time in New York five past six once cleared the coastline planting Chris Norris engages full power throttles to the maximum position while flight engineer Derek Jackman applies the reheats in pairs firstly the inboard pair of air on who and three by the outboard pair on engines one and four at this point everybody on board will have noticed two sight nudges in the back of their seats as the extra power kicks in Concord edges slowly towards the speed of sound at mark one [Music] as we pass through the speed of sound the shock wave off the nose of the aircraft is picked up by an instrument just to the right of the Artificial Horizon here it is dancing a little jiggers alpha fox drop passes through mark one just off the coast of South Wales the mark meter confirms the aircraft's speed with the crews scanning the instruments to ensure that everything is set correctly for the supersonic Cruise the pleasure of this being a job of work that we do is that I think we all without question enjoy coming to work to fly this airplane I'm not sure that all Airline crew could say that we certainly all very much enjoy flying the airplane we we look upon it as being paid to enjoy ourselves although don't tell British Airways though foreign [Music] foreign [Music] I think that is one of the things about the airplane but it is the only machine in the world where people can travel at this sort of speed in this sort of comfort if you travel in a fighter airplane at this speed you'll be sitting in a pressure suit breathing through an oxygen mask whereas our passenger sitting back there drinking champagne flying at more than twice the speed of other airplanes nearly two and a half times the speed of other airplanes considerably higher up than other airplanes and it is again unique it's the only airplane capable of such performance until recently we weren't quite the highest people on the planet because there was the mere station which had astronauts up in space but now that that is no longer there the people on this airplane today are actually the people furthest above the planet and every time we fly the airplane because that is the case our position at the moment is that we're at 45 degrees north and 57 degrees west that means that we are to the south of Newfoundland and Nova Scotia in Canada we obviously choose a routine that keeps us over the sea because that means we can stay supersonic all the way to our final descent into New York the routing that we've done to achieve that is to take over to London and fly subsonically towards the Bristol Channel and then when we get to the south of Wales we become clear of the coastline we can accelerate the airplane and climb it up we have two set routings which take us to New York well one that takes us to New York and one that brings us back again there's no need to vary the tracks on a day-to-day basis because the winds up here are almost insignificant compared with our speed so we always use the same routings we fly along that routine we have the height from 50 to 60 000 feet to ourselves so we do what's called a cruise climb and at the moment the airplane is actually climbing very slowly 56 200 um because there is nobody else up here to get in our way so we just leave the engines on full Cruise power and allow the airplane to gradually climb up as it gets lighter it's hard to believe that in a little over two hours in Flight we have already reached Canada we'll be staying southeast of the U.S coastline in order to stay Supersonic and avoid creating a Sonic Boom on land the only small area of land visible is Sable Island along narrow sandspit used by the Canadian Coast Guard to warm ships flying in North Atlantic while ships might be days away from New York at a rate of 23 miles every minute it's already time for our crew to prepare for the deceleration the Restriction coming into New York is that we have to be subsonic before we cross the coast but we in fact choose to do a routing that keeps us off the coast right until we get to Kennedy Airport so we can stay supersonic right up until the point where we have to start slowing down in order to make our landing at Kennedy Airport and the way we slow down is whatever height we've got to on the Atlantic Crossing we hold that height bring the speed back to about one and a half times the speed of sound and then we start descending and also continue slowing up back to the Realms of subsonic flight where we mix in with the other Sonic airplanes and become just like any other airplane landing at Kennedy Airport controlled by air traffic in New York as we prepare for our arrival at New York the controllers have been passed by details by Boston control who have practiced down the Northeast U.S Coast although counting for less than one percent of JFK's annual aircraft movements Air Traffic Control staff hardly bat an eyelid when Concord comes in to land in fact without France's two Concord flights a day in addition to Ba's four JFK sees more Concord movements than any other airport in the world in order to give the pilots a better view of the approaching Airfield senior first Officer Rick Reynolds lowers the nose and visor 10 miles out from the airport in order to ensure good visibility of the surrounding traffic in the meantime sister aircraft golf Bravo Oscar alpha bravo departs JFK for London for our arrival on the opposite Runway while the tar controllers hands over Alpha Bravo's details to New York departure who will then give the permission for Alpha Bravo's supersonic acceleration Chris Norris reduces the power and positions Alpha foxtrot to the west of the Airfield out of Jamaica Bay ready for the approach of Runway one three left to avoid noise sensitive areas to the northwest of Kennedy Airport all aircraft making the approach from the parallel runways one three left and right have to undertake a spectacular right hand sweep known as the Canarsie approach rolling out onto finals at the last minute [Music] um so as we touch down Chris Norris engages the reverse thrust and applies the brakes bringing Concord from the touchdown speed of around 180 miles an hour to a mere walking pace in a matter of around 30 seconds one awesome I thought I was wrong with it robbed of a perfect Landing only by a last-minute crosswind the crew now have the Manhattan streets to contend with [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign well in as much as New York is a city of contrast so too can be the weather after weeks of sunshine the next morning brings with it wind and torrential rain testing conditions for one of air France's Concords landing on Runway zero four right in near zero visibility after its scheduled morning flight from Paris shot of gold thank you but in conditions like this airport staff are out and forced to check that nothing blows onto runways or taxiways across four left today it's the turn of Walter Vaughan an old hand at JFK meanwhile Captain Ron Weidner and his co-pilot Gary Mitchell check the impending weather charts at the British Airways operations center at Kennedy Airport they are waiting to work golf Bravo Oscar alpha alpha the first of the seven Concords on a private Charter to Toronto the 48000 K indicates the fuel load in kilograms meanwhile captain from stories in his crew are already on the way for London that departure from 31 left at New York is spectacular in those conditions but it's really very very exciting in any condition perhaps the most complicated procedure that any civil aircraft flies as a departure that's because we want to be good neighbors in New York New York is the busiest airport for Concord and we want to make sure that we're environmentally friendly and to do that just as soon as we're able we turn out over Jamaica Bay and we climb up to cross over the bridges there with our power cut back put a bit more power on cross over the rockaways with the power back again before we start accelerating out towards supersonic speeds that's not something that ordinary line Pilots can do straight away so they come here to the simulator at Bristol the manufacturers of the airplane are based here to learn how to fly that particular procedure it's part of the conversion course and we do it regularly on our chat routines that every pilot and flight engineer go through every six months so here we are in the simulator a perfect view of New York of course that's computer generated but the simulator is identical to the airplane and we're going to show you just the sort of things we do to be good neighbors at New York so get yourself strapped in here we are sitting on the end of the runway maximum takeoff weight of 182 tons a beautiful day and we're going to set off for London but first the noise abatement procedure so off come the brakes three two one now we open the throttles up and slam them open it's just a computer input the reheats light up the airplane starts to accelerate at 182 tons acceleration is already better than probably your motor car we're traveling at 75 miles an hour starting to increase speed towards the point where we're going to check the engines are functioning correctly that's 100 knots power checked so we continue to go on up towards the speed where we make a decision to commit to the takeoff that's called V1 here we are coming up to that speed now V1 and approaching the speed where we'll rotate the airplane to the climb out attitude as rotates called I pull back on the control column pitching Concord up to about 13 degrees shortly after that we're Airborne positive climb Gear Up Turn roll on 25 degrees at bank you get an excellent view out of the left hand side of the aircraft right here as we turn out over the Jamaica Bay sometimes seeing even the little fishing boats accelerating up to 250 knots as we approach the noise time three two one noise reduce the power and switch off the reheats cross over the bridge and there we are tippy-toeing out of New York being really friendly and good neighbors the busiest time of day for flights in and out of JFK is normally in the afternoon and evening Concord it's in the morning with over 40 Concord flights in and out of the airport each week 28 of those tend to arrive in the park between 8 and 9 30 a.m these roughly two-thirds of the aircraft with the remainder belonging to Air France the ba terminal with champagne on Ice smokes salmon and caviar loaded the ba002 is almost ready for our passengers back for the departure to London [Music] meanwhile air France's Paris van Concord departure is already negotiating the web of complex taxiways at Kennedy which will lead her towards 3-1 left parchment Runway this morning the number of subsonic flights waiting to depart from Runway zero four left increases thanks to noise restrictions both the ba and Air France Concords have been allocated the mt-31 left Runway ensuring a right-time departure when everybody else is having to line up at last it's the term of an American Airlines Boeing 767 departure for London a journey that will take over six hours meanwhile Ba's Concord passengers are settling back in their seats on flight 002 which will touch down if he throws three hours earlier than the American 767 which is already departed and it is nearly halfway across the Atlantic [Applause] [Music] with the nose and visor down the crew undertake a complex checklist checking everything from electrical systems to the Flying controls meanwhile the passengers aboard the neighboring VA jumbo also shortly took apart from London can only look on with Envy at Concord slick lines as she Glides past majestically via to a supersonic Soiree across the Atlantic in a fraction over time it takes everybody else meanwhile with two departing Concords to Paris and London getting ready the third is touching down in the form of golf Bravo Oscar Alpha Delta on the ba1 from London Landing just after the inbound Air France 002 from Paris which she has followed all the way across the Atlantic at Mark II with only 13 concords in the world it's a strange thought that a third of the worldwide Fleet of this extraordinary aircraft are underpower at the same time at the same airport every day of the year JFK produces many an opportunity to see both Airlines Fleet at the same time foreign with the prevailing wind from the north departing traffic is taking off from Runway zero four left yeah alpha alpha waits for a departing TWA aircraft across its path for controller's temporary Hall 04 left traffic to let Concord cross 31 left after a series of left-hand turns she will commence her supersonic acceleration out to sea not see land again until she passes the southern coast of Ireland near Shannon meanwhile back in London sister aircraft Alpha Delta prepares for a special training flight to the southern Irish town twice a year Concord flies to either chateuru in France or in this case Shannon for a week of training with no hostesses on board senior training Captain Les Brodie finds himself in unfamiliar territory in the forward Galley much to the amusement of his colleagues having been offered either chicken or fish at the shop end the training crew consisting of flight engineer Ian fellows Freeman Captain Jeff musset and colleague Andy Barnwell preparing for this short flight to Shannon back of the passenger cabin five newcomers to the fleet take their seats on the aircraft for the first time by the end of the ensuing week they will be hoping to swap the leather pad passenger seats at the back for the coveted prize a seat at the controls with the runway in sight excitement builds amongst the new recruits embarking on this supersonic conversion course with their days of flying rather ordinary 757s and lumbering jumbos hopefully soon over foreign sporty lightweight takeoff more akin to his space shuttle in Cape Canaveral a commercial airliner at Heathrow the enthusiasm amongst the new recruits resembles a class of over-excited school children on an end of term special outing rather than a group of Highly professional Pilots keeping the speed back to allegedly 95 of the speed of sound it's not long before Alpha Delta enters Irish airspace it's time for Ian fellows Freeman to start balancing the aircraft by pumping fuel from one tank to another as Andy Barnwell steadily Maneuvers the aircraft down the Glide slope Shannon's ground crew prepare for the imminent arrival of this VIP visitor Shannon will be Alpha Delta's home for the next four days as the new recruits take to the skies buying circuits practicing those all-important Landings which can't be simulated to the Fidelity required on the simulator in Bristol foreign [Music] [Music] let's start off in the ground school learning all about the Technical Systems of the aircraft which is vital for further understanding for when they get on the simulator and we're spending time with them down in Bristol so we get to know them quite well thrilling part of course is when you actually get onto the aircraft for the first time which is what we're doing at the moment we call this base flying and both the pilots and the flight engineers flyer on the aircraft for the first time but without passengers and to see their enthusiasm really rubs off on us so I think we're all pretty excited by the time we get here it's the moment we've been looking forward to for for a very long time well it put it it puts into real life things that you've just been studying in the classroom you've never sat in the airplane you've never sat in the seat before and to look at it and feel at home just reflects how good the course is you understand the systems you've flown the simulator and you you know you sit in the seat you know where to go for the seed catchers feels familiar but then of course when you start the engines and the thing that actually gets underway you get all the sensors that you're not used to the noise and the acceleration that the simulator can't actually show you the passenger sits there in comfort and is aware certainly of the noises on take on which I think they still feel that as much as we did but very soon as far as they're concerned it's now an airline and it's just trogging along and they're sitting there in Comfort reading the papers for us it's a fast jet front an airliner main cabin and that that's the really unique thing about it they make something was not only fast and powerful and Furious but it's also extremely beautiful to look at as well I think the an image everybody holds in their minds of Concord has conquered on the approach great big sort of um Manta Stickman to sort of uh image there's this thing coming down with a long long nose out of the front bent down and here we're going now it's a tremendous sound just hear the roar it's fantastic isn't it it's really powerful [Music] foreign absolutely stunning I think it's fair to say that we do interact enthusiasts I think people they've got to want to fly the aircraft the course is very long uh route regular route destinations are fairly Limited but that doesn't seem to matter if you're enthusiastic because you basically want to fly the airplane so perhaps it's not everyone's cup of tea but the nice thing is that we do get people coming on the course who have probably wanted to do it for a long time and that is a very strong motivational force and when they actually get on the aircraft flying regularly and they've got the confidence it's probably even outstripped their ideas of what it was going to be like the first impression is a very valuable moment that I think all of us will cherish because it's fortunately quite a lightweight takeoff so there's a lot of spare thrust a lot of Excess power and it certainly accelerates extremely fast and I'll always be left for that memory of the first takeoff a lot of vibration a lot of noise a lot of very rapid acceleration and and very rapid climb up to 250 knots in a very short space of time now to compare that with with military aircraft over the lifetime in the past it's on a par with a lot of them actually um yes if we get a military fast jet at very lightweight it's probably more sprightly than this but a heavyweight It's On a par with the tornadoes and jaguars and areas have flown in the past and it reminded me very much of those as well the vibrations that you get through the airframe the smell of hot metal that you get from the reheat system uh all those things are just like the fast jets that I've flown before and it I really felt at home I thought yes I've come back to to a fast jet given the enormity of the task ahead of them these new recruits could be forgiven for missing the beautiful scenery below pipes at the local and a dinner banquet at the historic 13th century bunratty Castle we'll have to wait until the real work is over [Music] flying Concord in tight circuits Time After Time requires skill and immense concentration what the pilot does is lower the landing gear downwind and when that's down lower the nose to the landing position so all the way around onto Final Approach the visibility would be set for the landing phase once established on the Final Approach then the power will be in the high power setting which will enable the aircraft to counter all the drag which is coming from the big delta wing and then the pilots is concentrating on going towards the aiming point of the runway and to do that he must concentrate on looking at the far end of the runway to get the correct perspective that should be set by a couple of miles out but as it comes down towards the runway to around 100 feet and passing over the end of the runway he's then got to think of the actual Landing itself but things could happen quite quickly at that phase it doesn't matter how much you talk about it it's actually doing it and trying to synchronize the movements of the control column and the throttle and looking in the right place that just make it a little interesting sometimes now as the pilot gets close to the runway he's going to enter in what we call ground effect which you can imagine as a cushioning of air beneath this very large wing so as he comes down into ground effect he's going to just check his rate of descent and then about 15 feet from the runway close the throttles and just maintain the attitude by applying increasing back pressure slightly unusually on this aircraft once the main wheels are on the ground we've select the reverse thrust and then we have to lower the nose wheel onto the runway bearing in mind with that attitude the nose was actually quite high so you have to assist it onto the runway and then once the nose wheel's on the runway we can select the reverse thrust so the first landing is always very exciting usually it's very good but after about two seconds we'll just say go and that means that they've got to again apply my full power but this time without the reheat and then of course the aircraft wants to accelerate again very shortly after that we'll say rotate so again they pull back on the control column and back into the air [Music] [Music] Shannon is well suited to this sort of training with a long Runway limited housing nearby and lots of spare capacity the international airport is a favorite for this sort of operation during this week in August with up to 40 Touch and Go Landings a day air traffic controllers in the Shannon tar see more of Concord than London Paris New York all put together tracking Ba's Alpha Delta on her Final Approach on radar as well as out of the window the controllers must have an unrivaled View [Music] for a small group of Aviation Buffs sitting at the end of the runway concord's unadvertised arrival must have meant Christmas had come early foreign [Music] [Music] [Music] airplanes means that we're a bit like a flying Club within the airline and everybody who goes onto the fleet is very enthusiastic about the airplane you know Elite is not a good word to use but I think the fact is that you're working with an airplane that you love with people who are enthusiastic it's a great working environment and it's a very small team and that is uh quite quite unique in a big Airline like ours yeah such a small team and that is very nice um it's almost like the the old military Squadron so after the pilots and flight Engineers have finished base training at Shannon they're two-thirds of the way through their conversion course just two months to go flying the line with real passengers backwards and forwards to New York our Prime destination the bread and butter if you like of Concord operation or should I say the champagne and caviar that's where they learned the last parts of their training and then after that they can fly the line either to New York to Barbados or perhaps one of those special flights that takes us to the really exciting places around the world we've been to 250 destinations all over the globe 72 of those in the United States and over 20 in the Middle East including Riyadh Cairo Bahrain perhaps some of the most exciting are in Jordan back in the 1970s Concord flew a regular service to Singapore by Bahrain today the aircraft rarely flies to the Middle East except on one of Goodwood travel's special flights to either Egypt or Jordan every Autumn Concord lands in the southern Jordanian town of Akbar a short drive along Jordan's Southern Highway leads us to Wadi Rum an ancient dried up riverbed surrounded by towering pink-colored Sandstone mountains seen at the Epic film Lawrence of Arabia [Music] today Jeeps play the ancient dirt track through this lunar-like Valley where the views are spectacular Just Before Sunset continuing our journey northwards we reach the ancient Village of tebat Zaman with a dwindling population in crumbling buildings and needed some basic repair Jordan's Queen Noor recently supported the transformation of this remote Hamlet into a tourist Resort keeping its traditional charm the whole village was painstakingly restored to its former glory preserving the spirit of the past foreign as soon as you enter you feel as though you've stepped back a few centuries guests they in individual Stone houses which outside look as though little has changed over the centuries inside the smell of History abounds traditional Furniture alongside the odd 21st century touch such as satellite television an Eclectic mix of all the new all-encapsulated and a Time Warp of immense charm five miles down the road we reach what is undoubtedly the jewel in Jordan's Crown it's a historic City of Petra the old city is situated at the bottom of a long deep and spectacular Gorge accessible only on foot all by awesome top Petra was built in the 6th Century BC by the nabataeans the nomadic Arab group who held onto it until 100 A.D despite successive attempts by amongst others the Romans to capture the city at the bottom of the gorge The View everybody has been waiting for the treasury this amazing structure literally hewned from the Rock by the nabataeans in the first century BC its name the treasury owes more to the fact that later generations ignorant of its true history thought that the tomb housed Treasures from the ancient pharaohs of Egypt classical style complete with Majestic columns capitals and elaborate freeze owes much to the nabataean's love of Greek mythology in ancient civilization first thing in the morning when the treasury is in full sunlight the view is simply breathtaking by midday the heat of the sun is too much for even the locals and so it's time to return to Tibet Zaman in the evening the Terrace offers a spectacular view over the rugged mountains of central Jordan as the sun sets on this Jordanian trip another special flight is just about to land in neighboring Egypt concord's second floor to the Middle East in less than a week sees an arrival at the Egyptian Capital Cairo in the nick of time before we were told the cameras were not welcome at Egyptian airports golf Bravo Oscar alpha alpha touches down on this desert Runway what Petra is to Jordan the pyramids are to Egypt and understandably prove a popular highlight on the tour one of the Seven Wonders of the World the pyramids are the only surviving monuments of the ancient world built by the Pharaohs they took a hundred thousand laborers 20 years to build and still stand majestically against the Desert Sun adding to this incredible spectacle as the Sphinx standing 66 feet tall and 240 feet long representing the Sun God as he rises a dawn [Music] to add entertainment to this first-hand look of these true Wonders of the Ancient World guests swap for wheels for four legs as they head off across the desert in a long camel train after a 15-minute trip they arrive at a large bit of intent for a banquet serenaded across the desert by a band needing perhaps just that little bit of fine-tuning [Music] [Applause] as everyone prepares to enter the huge pneumatic tent entertainment takes the form of the traditional formed by the Contemporary in a dazzling spectacle heading the afternoon's lineup of entertainment [Music] [Music] thank you the start of this memorable Extravaganza in the desert is accompanied by a feast of gastronomic proportions after locally flavored brass bands and belly dance are on a huge lunch it's time for these colorful traditional Egyptian dancers to take their turn or is it a spin twirling around the pneumatic tent like a human spinning top brings to a close and memorable day in the desert in view of one of the world's most spectacular sights incredibly just a few miles out to the bustling Capital Cairo so as we return from Cairo that marks the end of one of our special flights and those flights make up about 10 percent of British Airways concord business 89 is our regular scheduled flights between London New York and Barbados the remaining one percent is made up of flights in concord's Flagship role doing things that we otherwise would never do carrying various special people like a Majesty the queen and all the senior members of the royal family and of course many celebrities some of whom who chartered the entire airplane but we also get used for some very special events that European Rider Cup team visiting Boston that particular trip was interesting because Boston which we fly past every day is not one of our regular destinations a lot of effort and energy went into persuading the Boston authorities to allow Concord to land there to bring the team in carrying the Ryder Cup and of course we hoping they'd be carrying it home as well concord's performance in Boston was a pleasure to us all and the authorities there were delighted to see us and perhaps they'll welcome us again one day in the future we also use Concord for special occasions like the 1999 State opening of the Scottish Parliament on that occasion we flew down Princess Street in accompaniment with a red arrows a spectacular site for everyone [Music] right over the top of the Queen's presentation stand then on over Glasgow routing back down over the fourth bridge and back up towards the north the second occasion that Concord had flown in formation with the Red Arrows these sort of flights are really special and it's in concord's Flagship role that perhaps we get the opportunity to show off the airplane that we love so much for many of concord's passengers every flight is a special flight AS winter draws in the Barbados schedule gets into full swing sometimes as many as three Concord Services a week link cold Winters Britain with this warm Caribbean island in only four hours today the ba-273 is flown by John Thai whilst whilst acting as his co-pilot Max Robinson pops back for a track for the passengers after the onboard Oak Cuisine passengers wait for the opportunity to visit the flight deck although officially a scheduled flight the atmosphere on board could not be further from a rather serious quiet nature of a New York run where more mineral water is drunk in Champaign flying at Mark II as we head south towards the tropics and the air warms at lower altitudes so the reverse happens in the stratosphere assisting Concord to increase her rate of climb shortly before The Descent of the Barbados Alpha foxtrot levels off at sixty thousand feet conquered maximum altitude as John Thai dials up the initial descent level behind him one of the most experienced flight engineers in Kirby better known as brains within ba checks the fuel situation [Music] after lowering the visor and selecting the nose to its initial landing position during The Descent we pass over the Northeast Coast of the island shortly after foxtrot turned South along the west coast 1500 feet above the Caribbean Sea passing a chain of luxury hotels scattered along its popular sandy beaches thank you happy birthday to London q a 1016 millibars the surface went to zero eight five at one two knots remember Concord 273 weekly to land on Runway zero nine [Music] within 30 minutes of touchdown a number of passengers aboard the arriving Concord flight have been met by limousine and taken direct to their hotel door [Music] The Colony Club is one such Hotel capitalizing on this Market it's Airy spacious surroundings of outside bars Lush landscape Gardens and refreshing pools prove irresistible to today's arriving passengers for whom many will have treated themselves to a once in a lifetime trip while it might be tempting to chill out local style under a coconut tree and take advantage of the many relaxing features offered by the vast number of the Island's West Coast luxury hotels there is more to Barbados than meets the eye a short trip Inland from the warm and inviting Caribbean Sea lies another side to this versatile Island in the Northern District of Saint Peter a long mahogany Lion Country Road leads to the historics of Nicholas Abbey the oldest Jacobian house in all the Americas still inhabited by the same family this sugarcane estate provides an interesting insight into the Barbados traditional way of life a drive down the little frequented Atlantic East Coast can be a lot more tranquil with mile upon mile of virtually empty beaches whilst in the capital Bridge Town the laid-back pace of Life gears up a notch or two as locals and tourists mingle in the crowded streets this small City not much larger than an average British or American country town is where many bayesians come to work prayed or simply to meet friends and wire away a few lazy hours in the afternoon it seems as though everybody is either socializing or relaxing with a bottle look at the islands grunt the Adams International Airport the returning passengers many of whom have flown out subsonic on the jumbo are looking forward to their Journeys home as they check in for two of the three Flight Deck crew it's all in a day's work already today's Captain Roger Mills is busy checking load sheets and passenger lists in the ba office prior to the 4 000 mile drive home thank you outside it's all action as the catering is loaded at the front local ba ground Engineers give Arthur Fox Trotter routine once over with seemingly every possible member of ground staff swarming around the aircraft like bees at a Honeypot at the back the passenger's baggage is being loaded into the hole Concord operates at the very limited range between Barbados and London so fuel tanks are fully topped up for departure to reduce the need for a fuel stop meanwhile a cabin crew board to ensure that everything is neat and tidy for the passengers ground loading All The Travelers is not a good Affair as everybody seems to want to take that souvenir photograph on the tarmac before they take their seats temperature three zero the wind is zero nine zero degrees on the flight deck Roger Mills on the left senior first officer John Thai make final preparations for the flight back to Heathrow departure is from Runway zero nine in an easterly Direction up towards Barbados Southeast coastline zero degrees V1 rotate the E2 positive foreign supersonic flying across the Atlantic we continue to head along our supersonic track Northeast Woods past the Azores flying at this height and speed against the sun could cause this dark band seen through the visor of 57 000 feet it's the reflection of the Setting Sun against the stratosphere meanwhile as we head back to London during Christmas week Goodwood travel have laid on a seasonal special flight to Lapland to see Santa few hours of daylight in the Arctic Circle proved popular with young and old alike where despite the bitter cold sleigh rides raise spirits while enjoying a chilly lunch by the campfire Alpha golf approaches Robin yemi a Setting Sun providing a stunning backdrop within a couple of hours these temporary Arctic explorers will be leaving this dramatic scenery for the return to London as the temperature drops flying in and out is not without problems defrosting Alpha golf to evicting stairways that have decided that Concord is quicker than Rudolph and slay okay everybody let's go to London [Music] meanwhile Alpha foxtrot from Barbados is almost on home ground as she turns right over the River Thames on a dark cold December evening hard to believe that only a few hours ago her passengers and crew were basking in the Caribbean Sun to many Concord is an essential time machine including London and New York in a matter of only three hours but whether it's sunny beaches in the Caribbean or a winter wonderland in the Arctic Concord proves a quick and versatile means of Transport her ability to fly faster than a rifle bullet at twice the speed of sound can literally bring together seasons and continents in a matter of a few hours [Music] foreign as we touch down on this cold Winter's evening for most of the passengers this once on a lifetime experience will be truly Unforgettable foreign [Music] [Music] thank you [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] foreign foreign [Music] thank you [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] thank you [Music] thank you thank you [Music] [Music] foreign foreign [Music] thank you [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] thank you [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] foreign Exeter airport July the 16th 2000 and excitement builds amongst the spectators gathered in the surrounding lush green fields as Concord takes to the sky on this warm summer afternoon for three decades there's Paradox of today's Aviation world has been Turning Heads wherever she makes an appearance although aging gracefully arguably still the most potent symbol of anglo-french prowess she's not simply an aircraft but a symbol of Pride and affection thank you a week later in Paris a single event would change concord's history [Music] foreign [Music] crashed it was like a blow to the gut I couldn't believe it and yet I had to believe it this thing I think was that was profoundly shocking as far as I'm concerned is that I'd almost reached the rather naive position that somehow Concord was above all the normal aerodynamic laws and the airplane was Immortal that it never would crash I first heard about the accident where my wife Chris and our daughter Amy were going on holiday we'd we were going across the Atlantic on the QE2 and we'd literally checked in and our baggage was in the cabin we were walking up the gang playing for a holiday when my pager and phone went off at the same time the message was Ring British Airways operations control urgently and I did and I got the first indications of what had happened and at that stage it was only just an indication that there had been some sort of an accident there was this icon that suddenly everybody had loved and it had failed in some way it was an extraordinary moment and at the end of my wonders I said to myself I wonder if Concord will actually fly again it was obviously a most unusual sequence of events the like of which we had never either seen nor could have anticipated and it didn't alter my basic idea that the aircraft was very safe my initial reaction was to call my counterpart in Air France and see if there was anything that we could do uh and then get in the car and go straight back to the control center dropping the family off on Route and I reappeared at home 48 hours later and looked my daughter in the eye and had to apologize about the Lost holiday but I said to her you do understand don't you why I'm doing this and she said yes you're making sure it never happens again for both Air France and British Airways the sense of shock was overwhelming the flagship at the fleets was immediately grounded but within 24 hours of this terrible tragedy a different sequence of events was starting to unfold [Music] while Air France kept their remaining Fleet of five supersonic Jets firmly on the ground after exhaustive checks and canceling that evening's flight ba decided to restart London New York Services the following day for Air France the whole thing must have been utterly traumatic in a corporate sense traumatizing really and I think that explains why France felt they had to Grand the airplane if for no other reason than that they felt they needed to sort of get the trauma out of their system so to speak equally I think it explains why British Airways felt that having put certain extra checks in place like a Runway sweep before every Concord departure it was perfectly reasonable and justifiable to carry on operating the airplane the French were living at the British decision describing the timing at best as somewhat tasteless with the Anton cordial seemingly in tatters Ba's crisis management team were not only quick but bullish in justifying their position working with the accident investigators the manufacturers Air France and everybody involved we knew pretty quickly the essence of what had happened we reviewed all that we do over that night we put a lot of checks in place we did a fleet-wide check on a number of areas and we reviewed our decision to continue operating on a daily basis EA's gamble was starting to pay off despite a few high-profile cases publicly switching from supersonic to regular subsonic flights the majority of Concord passengers remain largely undaunted and continued to pay the seven thousand pound price tag to fly between the British and American Commercial capitals despite enormous press coverage the crash it seemed had done little to denk confidence although the future of the plane was in serious doubt it was a very easy matter to Grant just a handful of Concords it wasn't going to affect a huge number of air Travelers it was going to have no impact on the global Aviation scene and one's got to say that it would have been very difficult for the authorities to have for instance withdrawn the certificate of our worthiness of obeying 737 on the basis of a single crash because there are so many of them flying it was much easier in the case of Concord with only 12 examples flying for that certificate of their worthiness to be withdrawn [Music] foreign [Music] I think when the CFA was withdrawn for a very short time it was a little bit of a surprise but then immediately after that really the focus shifts from that to everything that needs to be done to get it back once more I've never had any doubt that we'd succeed in getting the certificate of our worthiness reinstated and that Concord would return to commercial flight and it was from that moment the very day that it happened that our energies were pointing forward rather than looking back prepare the airplane to regain a certificate of airwaviness after it was taken away on August the 16th 2000 last year we had to do a series of modifications and these were agreed with the manufacturers and the authorities and the airlines as the way to make the aircraft safe and what they learned from the accident happened in Paris last year I think the great thing that's happened has been there's obviously enormous cooperation between the manufacturers they awareness authorities airlines in the interim and a real determination to see the aircraft back in service and I think the reason that's come about is because basically the aircraft is very sound and very strong and people have got a belief that there was nothing basically wrong with the airplane what the accident investigators revealed was that this accident was a series of unique events firstly there was a uniquely shaped piece of metal on the runway that led to a unique Tire destruction the tire manufacturers have said I haven't seen anything like that in 40 years a large piece of Tire flew up and hit the underside of the wing and caused a massive fueling in a mechanism that had never been known before in civil aviation a large piece of wing skin was forced out from inside to out not a rupture from outside to it but from inside to out releasing a massive amount of fuel that fuel was ignited and led to the massive fire what we've done is to make sure that can't happen again by Breaking the Chain in three separate places a new tire that can't be cut or can't be destroyed in the same way and if it is damaged it releases far less energy a new wing panel inside we've got liners made of Kevlar so you can't get that type of leak again and ignition sources have been isolated so you can't get the spark and in that way in three independent ways we've ensured we can never have the fire and then therefore never have that accident again the modification in itself was just um fairly simple in nature but very complicated to execute because it meant lining the bottom of the tanks the vulnerable tanks above the main landing gear that could receive fog damage for an object damage that is if a tire should burst to achieve that all the pipe work had to be taken out of the tanks all the equipment all the pumps and gauging equipment Etc you can imagine that's quite a task plus a lot of the structure is supported within those tanks with rods that go from top to bottom to give to strength in within the wing they had to be removed so as you can see it turned into a colossal job the liners themselves had to had to be designed and that was done in Toulouse and then manufactured also in France and these liners had to be fitted in a particular spot so that meant you had to um code each liner and measure it up against the drawing and then that took a lot in itself to prepare before you even got the liner into the tank the engineers have put their heart and soul into this project and they they've been ups and downs they've seen challenges that looked almost impossible to start with but they kept with it and now thanks goes to those Engineers for their hard work because without them doing that we would not get the airplane back in the air again during the modification program one of the things we've been asked is how much longer the Concord will be in service well she's in Airplane years still very young she's done about the same number of flights as a four to five year old Boeing the same number of hours same number of takeoffs and landings and yet she's in great condition because each time we take a supersonic leash she heats up and any moisture that may have got inside evaporates away so as well as just being equivalent to four to five years old she's also bone dry inside and in great shape and with that sort of Legacy we can continue operating Concord at least until the end of this decade and probably Beyond the whole modification program was closely scrutinized by former pilot historian and author Christopher olibar who witnessed firsthand the aircraft's earlier turbulent history when Concord went into service with British Airways the management were not keen and if we wanted to get anywhere in British Airways you didn't show an interest in Concord that management soon left it was replaced by Lord King and Sir Colin Marshall as they are now the idea that Congo would be a flagship gained Force so the figures on Concord improved we negotiated with government in the early 80s to such an extent that the government was then absolved of any Financial involvement in the Concord project and as that happened the costs of maintaining Concord and maintaining a watching brief on Concord which the manufacturers have throughout the life of an aircraft switched from government Finance to Airline finance and from that point onwards we never look back the aircraft of course was designed for a particular route transatlantic between Western Europe and Northeastern the USA and that's where she excels supersonic flight for over three hours and there's nothing else in the world that can do that we have used her in the past on subsonic flights but she's not so efficient there clearly it's the supersonic route from the UK and from France to New York that's the prime route for Concord and that's where she's at her best [Music] for over 20 years now Heathrow has been the starting point for this popular Concord route up to 100 captains of industry and other well-heeled Travelers Converge on Terminal 4 for the start of their three-hour 20-minute flight there's no question it saves not just the hours of the day it saves the days of the week by making day one an effective one on the other side of the Atlantic really I suppose everybody was a businessman in one sense or another either they were businessmen in the sense that q and I would think about it or they were sports stars actors pop stars people to whom time was money then you come back on day two midday arrive 10 o'clock in the evening Europe time and go to work on day three back in Europe marvelous foreign [Music] in the early 1980s with a fleet of seven Concords available for essentially one route to New York it became clear that there was plenty of spare capacity in the fleet for new and innovative ideas to develop [Music] the aircraft's high operating costs range a ban on supersonic flights over land pretty well rendered any further economically viable scheduled routes useless in the light of these limiting factors but with spare aircraft on the ground the charter Market was born aimed at a completely differently on tile for some people it was just the flight in itself that was the be-all and end-all and for that magic hour and a half they'd be taken into another world and most of them are really thrilled by The Experience they were tremendously rewarding to fly I mean it was just wonderful to have them on board there's no doubt that chart of passengers aren't Concord almost feel as if they're going into some holy Place they've heard about conkle they've read about conkle they've seen Concord and now at last they're actually going to fly on Concord to experience this twice the speed of sound this flying to the threshold of space where the atmospheric pressure is a tenth of its value at sea level and if you look carefully you can just about see the curvature of the Earth 's hand airport is one of the more regular haunts on the original circuit Bournemouth the scene conquered charter flights to places as far afield as Pisa Venice and Tenerife as well as quick trips out over the Bay of Biscayne back in an hour and a half these flights were not only rewarding for the passengers but also proved an exciting day out for the crews more used to the confines of one regular route to New York with generally disinterested passengers I think one of my abiding memories is flying an elderly lady I think by elderly I mean seriously elderly I think she was 101 she was over a hundred anyway and she had never flown in her life before and she decided that before she died she was Jolly world going to have a flight to see what it was like and she decided that if she's going to have a flight who's going to be on Concord because that was the only way to do it and she came on this fight had a wonderful time drank lots of champagne and got off the airplane full of the joys of spring she had a absolutely superb bride foreign often we'd have to fly around to get our way down to a landing weight so under the radar the control we'd actually have a little bit of spare time to kill so we'd probably fly along off the coast of Bournemouth before we were down to Landing weight when a Concorde lands at Bournemouth the event is normally marked with a vintage fly pass from the local Jess Heritage Museum but it's not only classic aircraft that hold the South Coast association with the supersonic jet airliner just along the coast at nearby Southampton a number of Concord passengers having just arrived from London on the Orient Express continue their journey to New York on the QE2 before returning to London a week later on Concord an irresistible combination the wonderful ways of Transport in fact you can do all three to go on the art Express tour from Southampton two are from New York on the QE2 and two are from New York on the Concorde and if you want to get three all inside a week that must be the way to do it I've been lucky enough to go on all three and I would like to differentiate between them because I like all most of transport and some are just a bit quicker than others I always think the QE2 is classic it's like Concord insofar as they came from a particular generation when you built and tested things very very thoroughly the QE2 will be able to encounter and overcome anywhere that you could throw at it at sea good draw very solid built for the North Atlantic and it's the same with the Concorde it's a very robust aircraft I'd always think that they're two very very special modes of Transport specifically designed for that environment so I think when you've done the two of them you've probably experienced the ultimate in designer travel it's the ultimate tyranny that the passengers embarking on this Voyage to New York will have paid much the same amount to take six days to get there as they will have done to return in only three hours on Concord it's always appealed to everybody's sense of what an airplane should look like and there's a theory that says it appeals to both sides of the brain the scientific side and the artistic side Concord has always done that and it's funny that it's rather like some other things in life like steam trains I'm particularly keen on Railways and steam locomotives and there seems to be a link between the way that those sort of things appeal and the way that Concord Appeals foreign [Music] for those not able to afford the time or high price tag associated with an Orient Express QE2 in Concord New York tour there were always less costly Alternatives available run by the pioneers of Concord Charter travel a day trip through the garden of England to Canterbury by the Orient expressed fooled by a steam engine and returning on Concord from the nearby manston Airfield proved a popular alternative manston's particularly interesting because we usually come in off the North Sea we've taken off gone up and done a loop around the North Sea come back pass North forland Lighthouse and then approaching manston it looks very different because it's got a very wide runway some runways are shorter than the standards of 46 meters and others have wider and mentioned being an ex-military Airfield is actually considerably wider so the perspective looks very different ironically manston provides a constant reminder that in today's competitive Aviation Marketplace aircraft that have outlived their usefulness are unceremoniously put out for us [Music] with greater scrutiny being placed on Commercial viability Regional Charters that use up valuable aircraft Cycles could well prove to be a thing of the past even prior to the accident ba was privately weighing up the financial returns of such trips the key objective of preserving the fleet's life as long as possible for the Core Business route to New York ironically the month of the Paris tragedy also saw some of the busiest Regional Charter programs in the UK in the aircraft's history on the 3rd of July Glasgow played host to a private Charter from New York with a group of American golfers visiting Scotland for a week-long tour with the evening backdrop of the hills around Loch Lomond as Concord prepares to return empty to London many ba staff in Glasgow were already asking themselves whether their Airlines Flagship would ever return north of the Border foreign a week later Concord was out on another UK Regional tour this time to the Midlands and North West foreign [Music] well there's no question Concord is an aircraft which turns heads turns the heads of people who have no need to find it it's just almost a question of being part of a country which was capable of putting such a beautiful aircraft into the air [Music] thank you [Music] even on the very short one and a half hour run the Bay flights we used to get all the passengers up during the course of the flight for a quick peek at the flight deck and just to look at their faces and the sort of wonderment on their faces was was tremendously rewarding people who had always wanted to do it who now found themselves terminally ill the group of people who had the same milk and for years and years and club together to give him a ride with his wife you can go on and on with people for whom it was really something very very special [Music] it's absolutely remarkable I mean there's this airplane traveling faster than the rifle bullet on the edges of space 23 miles a minute or something it's going out when it's uh going at top speed and it feels as though you're hanging suspended in space [Music] the only thing that tells you that you're moving is that occasionally when you're flying over the subsonic airplanes you can see all these 747s 20 000 feet below you almost appearing to go backwards I mean you are going 800 miles an hour or they're about faster than they are [Music] thank you the airplane was an absolute Delight to fly it handled beautifully and remember we're talking about an airplane that was being designed in the late 1950s mid-1960s I think it's absolutely amazing and here we are now in the 21st century and it remains unique foreign after pulling in the crowds at Birmingham and Manchester the aircraft's busy summer schedule turns to the Southwest as another ba Concord prepares to drop in and an air of anticipation builds amongst the spectators with the airport laying on extra car parking in nearby fields and donating the proceeds to charity it was clear that after 30 years in the air this symbol of angler French Pride still turned heads [Music] when you're watching concord's approach everybody's out there they find a reason they must be out on duty on that day and you everybody's straining to try and see at the first landing light coming from the distance and we're lucky because we have such a clear view it's unrestricted unlike some of the major airports where it probably gets lost with a lot of buildings and other things from here you can see it and you start to build up the adrenaline and the excitement is phenomenal it's quiet and then all of a sudden the Roar of Concord the adrenaline is bursting it's amazing the amount of emotion it can give people [Applause] it reminds me of a period early in my career when I was on the vi count we used to fly around the Scottish islands down to the town islands and lots of other little airfields and I think when you go to those places it just gives you a feeling really of roots of serving communities and certain flying is interesting landing on the shorter runways and negotiating the Tighter taxiways and crowds of people there pressed up against the fence and just the enthusiasm of the staff on the ground is another thing that really struck you with the pilots obviously enjoying themselves raising and lowering the long group nose in front of an adoring audience this weekend provided an extra bonus Our God was to be outstation for the whole two days [Applause] a normal operation would see flights to the Belarus canares Greece Cyprus and we do have where class Atlantic flight to Canada but it's not the same as Concord that has something so different people talk about it forever after Concord it just means so much [Applause] the same weekend the airport was renamed Exeter International with Concord as the star guest of the show but although both local press and public were out and forced to Mark the occasion as ever it was concord's presence that made the local headlines [Applause] the following day even bigger queues have developed to try and catch a ride on the star attraction and people will even turn up for a last minute opportunity with a festival of money because they're so desperate to get on Concord when of course it's full and they've missed it but they'll have to queue up for the next year as soon as concord's been here they're already looking at next year and so on because they know that they've got an anniversary or a birthday or something or rather they want to celebrate so they're also keen and once they've seen it at Exeter it means so much more whether it's coming in or going out it has a thrill for everybody to say well I've been online I've been [Music] foreign [Music] it's only up the road that it was built so many people who traveled to see it have worked on it in the past we have a lot of people who were engineers or they did something with regard to the startup of Concord and so they have an allegiance towards it and just love to watch it come in and they've always got a story to tell when they worked on it and so they feel it's very much part of the West country although we're Southwest it's still the worst country and it's our airplane really foreign [Music] Charters represent something out of the ordinary and it's this sense of adventure that proves attractive however the window of opportunity for new pilots to sign up to this exclusive Club comes up rarely I think generally they're real enthusiasts there are a number of reasons for this partly because of the limited route structure in everyday life partly because they have to stay on the aircraft for a number of years so their career options is maybe curtailed in the meantime and I think it's pretty true to say that all the time I've been on the aircraft all the people who've come on it or wanted to come on it have been very very keen to do so they're not put off by the fact that probably three course of their trips will be to New York they just want to get on the aircraft there we were ordinary pilots flying having the luck to fly such an extraordinary aircraft such an interesting aircraft such a historic aircraft at the same time as being way ahead of its time in its time quite extraordinary it's an airplane that captures the imagination and the heart of any pilot or flight engineer but there's also that great feeling that you're amongst a small group of people by necessity because we don't need that many crews it's rather like playing regularly in a sports team you build up a good feeling of camaraderie and some general interests and enthusiasm I think the hardest thing is that every sentences are sailed by flying this airplane I think the the what we want what the simulator can't prepare you for is the noise the acceleration the the the fact that absolutely every sense is overloaded It's a Wonderful machine and it's very difficult not to sound trite it's a superlative airplane and the only words you can use to describe it as superlatives really selection brings Jubilation for the new recruits after taking control of Concord at Shannon for the first time in gaining their supersonic wings [Music] [Music] for Ba's retiring Pilots at the age of 55 leaving the Concord Fleet to the newcomers leads to mixed emotions I spent 15 years on that airplane and I never once drove up to Heathrow feeling that I wished I wasn't doing it there was always that eager anticipation that I was about to get back into the flight deck of my favorite airplane I mean I've flown well over 70 different types of airplanes including helicopters and seaplanes and all sorts of things and there is nothing that compares with Concord it comes into a very special category it's the Grand Prix racing car the Epsom Derby winner of the flying world without any doubt at all I think it was SECU Kasson the British architect who described Concord as a piece of 20th century sculpture and I think that describes it very neatly actually and it is in a sense the fusion of Art and technology in in an absolutely Sublime way how did you feel on your last flight when you landed back to Heathrow absolutely devastated awful feeling knew it was coming I mean you know you're going to be retiring but um there you go when we got out to the aircraft in the morning it was a lovely New York morning as only those mornings can be fresh lovely bright blue sky and smashing flight back smooth flying conditions wonderful visibility and came back to London also on a lovely clear calm evening and I thought if you've got to finish that's the way to do it quick kick of the tires when you leave and then the realization you're not going to do it again it's a dreadful feeling that last flight I really had withdrawal symptoms for I don't know a year 18 months and eventually I sort of had to pull myself together and say come on Hutchinson there are other things to do um and another life to be got on with but you know initially for the first year or so I really was a very very grumpy old man I made a decision not to fly commercially again because I didn't feel that anything was going to be as good as the previous 13 years and it's a decision I haven't regretted for Jeff mussett retirement was perfectly timed just after flying the ultimate route on the ultimate aircraft a trip traveling at twice the speed of sound around the world this late 1999 modern day Aviation Adventure chartered by a group of wealthy Americans is almost certainly never to be repeated being carefully groomed for this trip of a lifetime this ba Concord was backed out of the hangar at Heathrow for the start of this epic voyage after picking up the passengers in New York and flying supersonic over the Frozen wastes of Northern Canada the first stop was Vancouver to refuel as Concord approaches the first stop away from her normal London New York routine for the first time on this trip the logistic complications became apparent special engineers and ground staff had to be placed as well as a resident on board engineer who traveled with spanner in hand at the back of the plane [Music] [Music] problem with an aircraft like Concorde is that unlike a 747 we don't maintain stocks of spares around the world we have to take Engineers as spares with us but contrary to that because one stops for two or three days everywhere in the world is Within Reach of getting a spare to the aircraft in our own Canadian soil Concord heads for Hawaii to cross the Pacific at Mach 2 is hugely deceptive with the vast tracks of ocean gobbled up in a matter of only a few hours [Music] destinations ahead including Fiji Sydney Bangkok Madras Nairobi petro and Venice in a matter of three weeks staying in the world's most luxurious hotels the holiday makers on this flight would not spend eighty thousand dollars per person to travel on anything less than Concord board the service was exemplary I think the beauty of Around the World trip like that is that you started sensible time in the morning so you've had breakfast you have a pleasant lunch and then by the time that's cleared away You're landing and you still feel fresh and you've covered three and a half thousand miles these Sun drenched beaches are about as far from Heathrow as you can get Fiji was fascinating because again crossed a large segment of the Pacific Ocean in a short time and gone from American culture down into the South Seas and it must have been wonderful to have seen the aircraft arrive against the backdrop of the beaches and the palm trees and flying in of course we got exactly the reverse in so far as we were looking out from our little world down onto this Palm Fringe Paradise come on [Music] we'll go to this unique trip broke several world speed records back home at Heathrow the ba policy was shifting no longer would the charteries be given cop blast to hire the aircraft as preservation became the new priority in order to protect the airframes for the core New York service for as long as possible extensive maintenance was being undertaken on the entire fleet to keep them in perfect order following the Paris crash and the subsequent grounding of both Airlines fleets both ba and Air France had the perfect excuse to retire the entire fleet of aircraft on the grounds of cost but to the surprise of some while record-breaking trips around the world are confined to the record books the future for this 1960s needle-nosed aircraft was looking up anybody who's in business knows that you have to keep reviewing your business plans and at some time rather like all of us with an old car perhaps you decide that the time has come to buy a new one or to undertake the major capital expenditure to put a new engine or whatever you want to do with it and I think that had been an ongoing process this obviously refocused it the aircraft is expensive to maintain and keep running it requires a lot of engineering man hours and that argument was probably finely balanced and obviously the decision was made to actually go ahead which I think is a great rate of confidence because I think it was a hard notes decision I don't think it was done out of sentiment I think the belief was there that they could continue to make money if it came back in service during all the time that Concords have been on the ground we've kept in close contact with our regular customers and what they're continuing to tell us is they really miss the ability to buy back time to travel across the Atlantic and do in one day what would otherwise take two or three and in two days what would otherwise take three or four to really gain Time by arriving before you leave we've also asked them how the traged tragic events in New York will affect them and three of the key messages coming back are they want to get to and from New York very quickly they know most of the people on board and we know them all and they're now having to do perhaps even more work than before and so for those three reasons we have a great level of confidence that the market is there and will continue wishing to fly Concord on into the future a huge amount of time had passed with the entire Concord Fleet grounded at Heathrow their future uncertain for the regular passengers it had been a long haul across the Atlantic on ordinal jumbos so in the first Concord took to the air kitted out with Kevlar fuel tank Linings new tires and even new seats on a test flight there was a sense of anticipation mixed with Jubilation for the hundreds of Staff who had worked to get this Flagship back in the skies foreign of course Concord really enjoys like all airplanes being in the air and over the last 15 months or so she's not really been doing that nevertheless we've been looking after in a very thorough special care and maintenance program regular engine runs regular checks of systems taxing around making sure that they're in Tip-Top condition and before each aircraft is returned into service we take them up for a handling flight just to make sure everything's functioning as it should be and that way we've kept Concord in Prime condition ready and waiting to go back where she belongs on the other side of the channel on the 3rd of February 2001 and Air France Concord returns to Paris Sharda goal seen at the terrible accident following tests at a military air base of Eastern near Marseille by this time Air France had gained special permission from the civil aviation authorities to fly a series of one-off test flights to test the new Michelin tires designed to withstand impacts at high speed by the early part of 2001 the an Air France had put their differences behind them and decided to pool their resources and worked in close cooperation while ba concentrated on testing the Kevlar fitted fuel tanks Air France was busy testing their new tires made of rubber and pebbler three months later after successful initial trials the test aircraft flew the short distance from Charles de Gaulle to all the airport for maintenance I must like giving the pilot an opportunity to brush up those flying skills within days this same aircraft was almost unrecognizable completely covered in masking tape ready for a respray prior to re-entering commercial service in November foreign trials at East and with the certificate of airworthiness regained Air France now had the clearance to retrain their pilots on the fleet chataru in the Loire region on September the 14th was chosen because of its long Runway and uncongested airspace a perfect environment to Perfect Touch and Go Landings in a central part of the retraining process foreign [Applause] ERS the priority was to get the New York service back in the air by the 7th of November for which a minimum of three aircraft were required with the first test flight deemed a success the priority now was to get the other two back in the air and refresh the crews Roar of the Olympus engines a disturbing return for some of the locals raising near the end of the runway since we've started flying again it's a delight to see the welcome from other Pilots air traffic control and from the public in general to see people looking up again when Concord flies the ground Engineers have been working around the clock to get the Concord Fleet back in the air and there's a thank you for the chance to check the modified aircraft with a full passenger load a special flight was arranged to take them halfway across the Atlantic and back to Heathrow meanwhile back at base the last of the three refitted Concords was about to take to the skies for a technical assessment flight we normally start off from base which is just here just outside the window here and we're hooked up to a tug that's got a ground power unit on that gives us the power supply to run all our systems while we get our checks done before starting the main engines and we're towed across just at the end here's the perimeter road that goes around the airport and there is a Crossing there and we're towed across that Crossing by the tug we have to get air traffic control clearance but in fact we don't as Pilots do that the tank driver does it himself and we monitor that on our radio the idea of the flight was to check all the normal systems out and also some of the standby systems just so we can make sure that everything was fit for normal flight when it does go to New York carrying passengers for the first time having traversed what must be the most unusual Crossroads in the world the youngest of the Concord Fleet known as Alpha golf taxis out for her first flight in 15 months we get towed across until they bring the aircraft to a hawk they tell us to the park and then we get the ground supplies start all four engines of course and then we taxi away from there doing our taxi Trails which involves the normal systems the brakes and steering and the standby systems the success of this flight would determine the immediate future but the crews eagerly awaiting the green light to be given for Commercial Services to resume to New York a couple of weeks later we shared a flying out the best we can although I had to be the commander of the flight as a test pilot I was able to give the takeoff and landings Captain Stuart Bates and he did that flight on Alpha Gulf as this three-hour test flight to halfway across the Atlantic and back takes to the air the next major Milestone across the Atlantic to New York was just around the corner foreign with the quartet of Olympus engines in full cry a Fanfare of car alarms holds return within days the first of the newly modified Concords reached JFK heralding the start of the new era for supersonic travel I was the last Captain to fly Concord away from New York last year a British Airways concord that was and the first Captain to fly back in so about to carry on the professional job with deep emotion inside as well absolutely elated so come on stand and I saw the faces that saw me off last year or at that stage looking for lawn and sad but this year happy smiling faces lots of waving and kisses from the ladies being blown through the air is rather nice the great news is the airplanes back flying again it's flying with new tires designed by Michelin it's flying with armor plated wiring for the brake fan areas around the undercarriage the airplane basically is safer than it's ever been before and I cannot wait for another flight on Concord myself I think I'll have to go and buy myself a ticket and I'm really looking forward to seeing her flying for the next 15 years foreign foreign [Music] foreign [Music] to go and see where the future lay in terms of what people want because it seems now increasingly unlikely that there'll be another supersonic capacity liner probably in my lifetime and certainly within the next generation and so this opportunity is only going to exist for a few more years so people who haven't done it probably better get on and do it [Music]
