Concorde supersonic airliner
Concorde, avión supersónico de pasajeros
- Date
- 1969 · confidence high
- Place
- Toulouse, France, and Filton, Bristol, United Kingdom
- Credited to
- Sud Aviation/Aérospatiale and the British Aircraft Corporation; the Tupolev Tu-144 (USSR, 1968)
- Field
- Movement
What it is
The only commercial supersonic aircraft in long-term service, crossing the Atlantic in three and a half hours at Mach 2. It was a technical triumph and an economic failure that cemented European cooperation (Airbus).
What it led to
- Airbus and the European aerospace industry
- Lessons on noise, fuel and the limits of the luxury market
- New quiet supersonic projects (Boom, NASA X-59)
Built on
- Turbojet engine1937–1939
- Rogallo flexible wing (hang glider)1948
- Commercial jet airliner (Comet, Boeing 707)1949-1958
- jet aircraft
- military supersonic aerodynamics
Made possible
- Tu-144 (first supersonic airliner to fly)31 de diciembre de 1968
- Digital fly-by-wire airliner (Airbus A320)1987
- analogue fly-by-wire controls
- high-temperature materials