Supersonic - 27 years of Concorde on DVD

A white slim bird with huge wings in a blue sky… You are so lucky if you have seen this beautifully slim aircraft racing above your head in reality. 16 Concordes, that attracted so many people all round the world completed their dramatic history after 27 years of acting as the fastest and most luxurious passenger planes ever. This beautiful aircraft developed by both the United Kingdom and France in partnership took only 3 hours and 45 mins to fly from Paris to New York (opposed to the standard dull 8 hours). When they finally stopped flying in 2003, a whole era came to an end. Now, together with the current Concorde exhibition at the Design Museum in London, the beautiful DVD called “Concorde - 27 Years of Supersonic Flight” just came out in Japanese! Join us today for a few moments of memory - going back to the glamour and the tragedy, the good and bad days of this special supersonic flying object.

Written by Chiemi

When the U.K. and France realized, that they were both doing research and development on supersonic transport, they decided to collaborate in 1962. 7 years later they succeeded the first flight of the prototype, and in January 1976 they finally started regular flights. (In Japan, JVC announced the release of the VHS video recorder in the same year - just to give you a little “time-feeling”.)

Overall - unnecessary to say, that they completely underestimated the costs in the beginning and spent way more than the originally planned £170 million. Well - high-end-technology-prestige is priceless, I guess!

While a Jumbo Jet can fly at Mach 0.92 (Mach 1 is 340m/sec, 1225km/h), the Concorde’s maximum speed was Mach 2.02. That is not only twice as fast as Jumbo - that is also faster than sound.

But that didn’t result in passengers crushed inside a tiny space wearing oxygen masks! Delicious food cooked by the best chefs in the world accompanied with tasty wine from selected wine cellars was being served. The interior designed by Terence Conran made it even more special. If you belonged to the few who could afford the ticket, flying in a Concorde was simply it! Films like “AIRPORT ‘79” starring French actor Alain Delon showed maximum prestige with a setting inside a Concorde - who did not want to see, what these giant birds actually look like from inside!?

But even after people got used to the Concorde - it kept its fascination! Wolfgang Tillmans dedicated a whole book to the Concorde in 1997 and some of these photos even won him the Turner prize in 2000 - before they started cancelling Concordes altogether!

89% of the whole flights of the British Concordes were regular flights between London and New York or between London and Barbados. 10% were special flights, and 1% were charter flights for important people such as the Queen or the rest of the royal family.

A London - New York round-trip Concorde ticket cost about $15000, however, the Concorde had some great patrons including politicians and actors who needed to travel between these two cities frequently. Paul McCartney did a private gig on a flight once and Phil Collins used the super-fast connection to perform at the Live Aid concert in 1985 in Britain first and then rushed to the States to play at the continuing Live Aid event happening there. Almost sounds like a promotional act for BA!

Those special flights, also called Flights of Fantasy - beemed passengers from freezing cold Europe to tropical countries within seconds (almost!). Places like Jiddah, Riyad, Cairo, Bahrain and Jordan were popular destinations. Fantastic!

However, after glamour follows tragedy!

On the 25th of July in 2000, one of the Concordes of Air France had a huge accident where it crashed into a hotel in Gonesse, France. 114 people including passengers, cabin crew and people on the ground lost their lives.

This accident changed the future of the Concorde. Not only Air France, but also British Airways cancelled all Concorde flights and when they finally tried to relaunche again on September 11th - they really picked the wrong date!

International travel went way down and the Concorde struggled financially. High maintenance costs and not enough demand forced BA and Air France to completely withdraw the Concorde from service by the end of 2003.

If you still fancy seeing a Concorde in the sky, here is your chance: the DVD “Concorde - 27 Years of Supersonic Flight”

27 years later after the launch of their regular flights, the world’s fastest passenger aircraft era came to an end.

Now, no Concorde can be seen in the sky, but you can still see some of them at museums: Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum in Washington DC, Air and Space Museum Le Bourget in France, Sinsheim Museum in Germany and the Intrepid Sea-Air-Space Museum in New York - just to name a few.

If you want to indulge a little more in history and a nice documentation - we recommend to go and get that DVD!

7 Comments

1. its not an end

   Posted by: x-noise on August 31st, 2006 at 12:12 pm

2. There is also a Concorde at the Museum of Flight in Seattle. Tiny seats!

   http://www.museumofflight.org/Display.asp?Page=Concorde

   Posted by: Mike on August 31st, 2006 at 12:41 pm

3. My very first toy model airplane that I had built was a Concorde that my godmother had given to me as a birthday gift.

   I was hoping when I grew up, I’d get to fly in a Concorde one day.

   I guess I still need to grow up…

   Posted by: G on August 31st, 2006 at 3:05 pm

4. het is een stom vliegtuig er in niet veel ruimte

   Posted by: hello on November 11th, 2007 at 2:43 am

5. there is also one in Barbados… right next to Grantley Adams international airport… its cheesy, but hey, you get to see the Concorde

   Posted by: blob on April 7th, 2008 at 9:10 am

6. I think the concorde was one of the greatest of aircrafts as, regardless of the disastrous outcomes from its huge speeds and perfomance… the peolpe involved with it should just go back to the drawing board… well done!!!

   Posted by: Caswell Nofuma on April 18th, 2008 at 7:34 am

7. concorde great fly

   Posted by: halı yıkama on January 11th, 2009 at 7:58 am

• Similar Articles
• » How to ‘edit’ exhibitions
• » Han-long Chen (JP) insane
• » Rene Kurita (JP) German language instructor
• » Maddie Chapman (USA) age two and a half
• » Stefi Sornig (GER) teacher

• Share and Enjoy:
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

• Taku Anekawa: Hauling Up The Invisible ThreadsCategory: Arts & Crafts Events & Exhibitions Features Japan Worldwide
  August 23, 2006
• Staying in James Turrell’s House of LightCategory: Architecture Features Japan
  August 21, 2006
• How to ‘edit’ exhibitionsCategory: Events & Exhibitions Features Japan Worldwide
  August 18, 2006

As of December 31, 2008, PingMag and sister site PingMag MAKE are both on extended hiatus, and will not be updated for the foreseeable future. We are eternally grateful for your fantastic support over the years.