Western Daily Press (Saturday)
CONCORDE – THE TIMELINE
Making sure every tiny particle of metal dust was removed from the airframe
Late 1950s: Bristol Aeroplane Company, which is absorbed into British Aircraft Corporation in 1959, is working on Type 223, a design for a supersonic aircraft. At the same time Sud Aviation in France is developing a similar design, the Super Caravelle.
1962, November: An AngloFrench agreement – an international treaty rather than a commercial contract – is signed between Britain and France for the joint design, development and manufacture of a supersonic passenger aircraft. It is to be called ‘Concorde’.
1963: British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan changes name to less French-looking ‘Concord’ as a swipe at our partners following a dispute with France’s President de Gaulle.
1965: Construction of both prototypes begins.
1966: Final assembly of prototype 002 begins at Filton.
1967: Concorde 001 rolls out at Toulouse. British Minister for Technology and Bristol East MP Tony Benn announces that the
‘e’ is to be restored. The e at the end of the name stands for “excellence, England, Europe and Entente,” he says.
1968: Soviet supersonic airliner the Tupolev Tu-144 flies two months before the first Concorde flight. It bears a striking resemblance to Concorde and is said to have been designed with the help of Soviet spies at both Filton and Toulouse. Some veterans of the Concorde project are sceptical about this, saying that British and Soviet aircraft designers talked openly to one another about what they were working on.
1969, March 2: Concorde 001 makes maiden flight from Toulouse, piloted by André Turcat.
1969, April: Concorde 002 is rolled out of its hangar for the first time at Filton.
1969, April 9: Test pilots Brian Trubshaw and John Cochrane, above, take Concorde 002 on her maiden flight from Filton to RAF Fairford. Thousands turn out to see her off.
1969, June 8: Both prototypes appear at the Paris Air Show.
1971, September 4: Concorde 001 makes first transatlantic crossing on a promotional tour.
1972: BOAC orders five Concordes, as does Air France.
1973: A Soviet Tu-144 crashes at the Paris Air Show
1974: Double Atlantic crossing in one day. By now, interest from airlines is diminishing among fears about noise on take-off, sonic booms and the rising price of fuel. Production is limited to just 16 aircraft.
Cabin crew members in their uniforms
1976, January 15: The official handover ceremony to British Airways of its first Concorde takes place at Heathrow Airport.
1976, January 21: Concorde scheduled flights begin on London–Bahrain and Paris–Rio routes.
1976, July: Concorde 002 makes her final flight, below, into RNAS Yeovilton to become a permanent exhibit at the Fleet Air Arm Museum. She’s still there.
1983: A Concorde crosses the Atlantic in just under three hours.
1983: British Airways buys its Concorde fleet outright from the British government and reportedly starts making a profit on flights for the first time by charging premium prices.
1988: First British Airways round the world charter.
1992, October 12: To mark the 500th anniversary of Columbus landing in the new world, an Air France Concorde circumnavigates the world in 32 hours 49 minutes and 3 seconds, from Lisbon, with six refuelling stops.
1996, February 7: A BA Concorde makes a recordbreaking transatlantic flight from Heathrow to New York JFK in 2 hours, 52 minutes, 59 seconds.
2000: Air France Flight 4590 crashes after taking off from Paris Charles de Gaulle airport, killing all 109 passengers and crew and four people on the ground.
2003, April 10: BA and Air France announce that due to falling passenger revenues and rising maintenance costs, their Concorde fleets are to be retired.
2003, June 27: Final Air France Concorde flight as F-BVFC is retired to Toulouse.
2003, November 26: Last ever Concorde flight lands at Filton. The aircraft is then put on display there for some years.
2017, October: Aerospace Bristol, the museum of the city’s aviation and space heritage, opens, with Concorde as the star attraction.