Technological exploit, commercial failure: 50 years have passed since the Concorde's first flight – 23/02/2019

50 years ago, the supersonic Franco-British Concorde aircraft, symbol of technological prowess and commercial fiasco which still arouses fascination, he made his first flight under the gaze of journalists and spectators from the south-west of la France.

The Sunday, March 2, 1969, the Concorde took off for the first time in Toulouse, with test pilot André Turcat at the helm of the "001 prototype".

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At 3:30 pm, the elegant white silhouette advances on the runway, picks up speed and rises to the sky. "Concorde is finally flying!"The announced broadcaster, Raymond Baxter, at the BBC, has visibly moved. The AFP news agency broadcast a flash: "Remove the Concorde".

This moment was waiting with impatience since December 11, 1967, the year of the presentation of the futuristic device with delta wings.

When the American Apollo Missions took the steps on the way to the Moon, the construction of a European commercial aircraft capable of doubling the speed of sound was a source of pride on both sides of the English Channel.

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The project

Born in November 1962 as a result of a bilateral agreement between the state governments United Kingdom and France, the project encountered several obstacles from the beginning.

The two partner companies, British Aircraft Corporation (now BAE Sytems) and Sud-Aviation (ancestor of Airbus) could not agree on the characteristics of the aircraft.. The first supported a long range aircraft capable of crossing the Atlantic, while the second defended a medium range aircraft in the image of its famous Caravelle.

Even the name of the project was a source of contention, between "Concord", in English, and "Concorde", in French. In 1967, the British Secretary of State for Technology, Tony Benn, settled the question by adding that an "e" of excellence, an "England", a "Europe" and a "cordial agreement" would be added at the end.

This first flight did not seek to establish a record, but "showed that the plane flew" and "returned to the ground", explained André Turcat, at the controls, with the co-pilot Jacques Guignard, the mechanic Michel Rétif and the engineer Henri Perrier.

The "roar" of the four powerful engines and the silhouette of the ship did not go unnoticed in the Garonne Valley, then counted the agency AFP. "Traffic has stopped on the RN 113 towards Bordeaux […]. Thousands of people scattered across the countryside, hand in hand, attended the first air maneuver "de la Concorde.

Upon contact with the runway on his return to the airport, the tires gave off "thick smoke" and at the back, the safety parachute was open to stop the 112 tonnes of badpit. At the edge of the runway, the applause sounded. The flight lasted 27 minutes.

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"We see that the machine is extraordinary," said André Turcat during his first impressions after the landing. "This first flight is not a success, it's the beginning of our work," said the commander to the press, alternating French and English.

It took another seven years, until January 21, 1976, and 5,500 hours of test flights for the Concorde to be allowed to start its operation. Joint commercial service between Air France and British Airways, with the first flights Paris-Rio de Janeiro and London-Bahrain.

Accident and decline

With a maximum cruising speed of around 2,500 km / h, the Concorde is able to Paris and New York in 3 ½ hours, compared to almost 8 hours of flights in progress. The Recent flights that made this trip, in May 2003they had a cost of 8,100 euros.

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On 25 July 2000, an Air France Concorde crashed a few minutes after taking off from Roissy-Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris, killing 113 people.

The accident, caused by a kerosene leak after the explosion of a tire, accelerated the withdrawal of the Concorde, of which only 14 machines were operated between 1976 and 2003, compared to the one hundred machines initially planned by the consortium.

The last commercial flight operated by the French company was made between New York and Paris on May 31, 2003., as the British made their last flights London-New York in October of the same year.

AFP

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