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When was Concorde’s last flight?
RETIRED aircraft Concorde wowed customers with its incredible speed during its nearly three-decade run.
The plane was the first supersonic airliner to enter service and flew thousands of passengers across the Atlantic before it was discontinued.
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When was Concorde's last flight?
In April 2003 both Air France and British Airways announced they would be retiring their Concorde fleet.
Air France made its final Concorde flight on June 27 that year.
This was then followed by British Airways' final Concorde tour, which concluded with the aircraft's last commercial flight on October 24, 2003.
Concorde had been in service for 27 years, having made its first commercial flight on January 21, 1976.
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It was jointly developed by the British and French governments and was seen as a significant achievement in aviation technology.
The aircraft could hit a maximum speed that was more than twice as fast as sound - translating to about 1,354 mph.
The sleek jet could make a trip from New York to London in around three and a half hours, making it a symbol of luxury.
The fastest ever trip between the two cities fell on February 7, 1996, when British Airways flew Concorde from New York JFK to London Heathrow in two hours, 52 minutes, and 59 seconds.
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Who flew the last Concorde flight?
The final Concorde flight was operated by British Airways and saw the aircraft flown from JFK to Heathrow.
Prior to the last flight, Concorde visited Birmingham (October 20), Belfast (October 21), Manchester (October 22), Cardiff (October 23) and Edinburgh (October 24) as part of a farewell tour.
Video of 'last Concorde' being moved to Bristol Aerospace Museum hangar
Mike Bannister was the pilot for the aircraft's final journey.
Why did they stop flying the Concorde?
Air France and British Airways blamed low passenger numbers and rising maintenance costs for discontinuing Concorde flights.
Passenger numbers fell after an Air France Concorde crashed minutes after taking off from Paris in July 2000, killing all 109 people on board and four on the ground.
The plane ran over a piece of metal on the runway, bursting a tyre and causing the fuel tank to ignite as it was taking off.
The 9/11 attacks in 2001 also had a severe impact on the number of people choosing to fly.
Rising maintenance costs were also blamed for the Concorde's downfall.
Although advanced when it was launched, the planes became outdated and expensive to run and byy the time Concorde was retired it was the only aircraft in the British Airways fleet that required a flight engineer.
In 2003 Sir Richard Branson announced that Virgin Atlantic was interested in buying the fleet but no agreement was ever reached.
The last Concorde built and the last to fly went on display in October 2017 at the Aerospace Bristol museum, a £19m centre in Filton.
Filton was where half the Concordes were constructed, while the others were built in Toulouse, France.
Six other retired BA service planes are on display 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 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.
In 2023 it was reported that a "son of Concorde", set to fly from New York to London in 1.5 hours, was close to take-off.
Space agency Nasa stated that their X-59 quiet supersonic aircraft, the Overture, had been moved to the Lockheed Martin Skunk Works’ facility in Palmdale to get ready for its first flight.
Former US naval aviator Bill "Doc" Shoemaker was named as the pane's test pilot.
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He said in 2023: "Along with the entire XB-1 team, we are focused on completing the necessary ground testing to get XB-1 and the flight test team ready for a safe first flight."
The first Overture is expected to be unveiled in 2025, with flights available in 2030.
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