In 1962, engineers in Britain and France were
convinced they could build an airliner that
travelled at supersonic speeds or faster than the speed of sound.
BAC (British Aircraft Corporation) and Sud Aviation (now British
Aerospace and Aerospatiale) teamed to develop Concorde, which was
intended to cross from London to New York in under three and a half hours
. In 1965, the Russian design bureau Tupolev revealed it had also started
development of a supersonic transport, the Tu-144. Dubbed "Concordski"
because of its outward similarity to the Anglo-French aircraft, the
Tu-144 first flew on December 31, 1968, beating Concorde by several
months.
Despite its lead, the Tu-144 was not a success and a prototype
catastrophically broke up in midair at the Paris Air Show in 1971.
Concorde entered commercial service with British Airways and Air France
in 1976. Although hailed as a technical success, less than 20 were built
because most airlines thought it was too limited in range and size.
Concorde's turbojet engines were powerful but very noisy and generated
high levels of nitrous oxides and other exhaust gases, making them
a danger to the environment.
Concordes still fly daily across the Atlantic at Mach 2.2, but an
international development effort is projecting a replacement by 2010, for
the noisy and dangerous machine.
Concorde is unique among civil transports because of its performance.
Traveling at twice the speed of sound, it routinely flies from London
and Paris to New York and Washington in around three hours, or half the
time taken by conventional airliners. Concordes are often chartered for
special trips to specific points. Some 19 Concordes have flown and 13 of
these are used for airline service with Air France and British Airways.
The Concorde's success has recently led to a European decision to explore
the possibility of developing a next generation of supersonic transport.
The United States is also researching technologies needed to build a
supersonic airliner that is twice as large as Concorde but flies at
nearly the same speed.