Why did Concorde stop flying and how fast did it fly?
CONCORDE was the supersonic passenger jet considered the ultimate luxury in air travel.
Here's all you need to know about the legendary plane, which was retired after 50,000 flights.
When was Concorde retired?
Air France and British Airways announced they would be retiring their fleet of Concorde planes on April 10, 2003.
Later that year, in October, the supersonic passenger airplane had its final flight.
The plane had its first commercial flight on January 21, 1976, so was retired after 27 years of service.
Concorde was developed jointly by the British and French governments and was considered a major achievement in aviation technology.
Why was Concorde retired?
Several reasons led to the decision to retire Concorde.
Air France and British Airways cited low passenger numbers and high maintenance costs.
By the early noughties, the planes were outdated and expensive to run, despite being incredibly advanced when they were first introduced almost three decades previously.
The 9/11 terrorist attack in 2001 majorly impacted passenger numbers, as people opted not to fly.
Passenger numbers also fell after an Air France Concorde crashed just minutes after taking off from Paris in July 2000.
The disaster killed all 109 people on board and four others on the ground.
The plane ran over a small piece of metal on the runway, which burst a tyre and caused an engine to ignite.
It was also the only aircraft in the British Airways fleet that required a flight engineer.
How fast could it fly?
The aircraft was known for its incredible speed, and was able to reach a maximum speed more than twice the speed of sound — hence supersonic.
This is about 1,354 mph, and means a trip from New York to London in around three and a half hours.
Concorde's fastest recorded flight between the two cities was on February 7, 1996, when British Airways flew Concorde from New York's JFK airport to London Heathrow in only two hours, 52 minutes, and 59 seconds.
This transatlantic flight usually takes about eight hours.
The plane covered 6,035 km (3,750 miles) at an astonishing average speed of 2,010 km/h (1,250 mph).
When was Concorde's last flight?
Concorde's final commercial flight was on November 26, 2003.
The flight's destination was Bristol, and the plane tipped its wing to the iconic Clifton Suspension Bridge on its way into the city.
The final flight lasted only an hour and thirty minutes.
But crowds gathered to watch the final passenger-carrying service from New York JFK to London Heathrow was on October 24, 2003.
Spectators greeted the plane’s arrival in London, which coincided with two other final Concorde flights from Edinburgh and the Bay of Biscay.
In August 2023, Concorde made its first flight in 20 years, over the Hudson River in New York.
Where are the retired Concorde aircraft?
Several planes went to museums all around the world, and others were dismantled, with some parts auctioned off to collectors.
The last Concorde built, number 216, and the last to fly went on display in October 2017 at the £19 million Aerospace Bristol Museum.
The plane was towed across Filton Airfield and up a ramp into the new purpose-built hangar.
Filton was where half the Concordes were constructed, the other half was built in Toulouse, France.
Six other retired Concorde planes are displayed at Heathrow Airport, Manchester Airport, Barbados Airport, the National Museum of Flight near Edinburgh, the Museum of Flight in Seattle, and New York's Intrepid Sea-Air-Space Museum.
Air France also had seven service jets but one crashed and another was broken up for spares.
The five still intact are on show at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum at Washington DC's Dulles Airport, the Sinsheim Auto & Technik Museum in Germany, the Airbus factory in Toulouse, the Air and Space Museum at Le Bourget, and Charles de Gaulle airport near Paris.
two original prototype aircraft, 001 and 002, are displayed at the French Museum of Air and Space at Le Bourget and the Fleet Air Arm Museum at Yeovilton.
Two pre-production aircraft, 101 and 102, are now at the Imperial War Museum, Duxford, and Orly Airport in Paris.
Two development aircraft built for testing, numbers 201 and 202, can be seen at the Airbus factory in Toulouse, and the Brooklands Museum in Weybridge.
Were there attempts to save Concorde?
Sir Richard Branson said that Virgin Atlantic was interested in buying the fleet in 2003.
Branson went on to write that Virgin Atlantic had wanted to continue running the fleet for many years to come, but no agreement was reached.
In November 2021, a GoFundMe page was set up to try to salvage the Concorde plane from a "slow death" at Heathrow Airport, putting it on display on a specially made platform on the River Thames, near the London Eye.
What's the future of supersonic flight?
NASA revealed new updates on its supersonic hydrogen plane in 2023, that aims to be twice as fast as Concorde.
The US Space Agency has been researching a possible Mach 4 passenger jet that takes just 1.5 hours to reach London from New York.
NASA said: "Flying from New York City to London up to four times faster than what’s currently possible may sound like a far-off dream, but NASA is exploring whether the commercial market could support travel at such speeds."