Flying Supersonic: CONCORDE, The Aviation Marvel. Full Documentary & Flight Experience

Video from the channel DroneScapes about Concorde, linked on its Above Ten Thousand entry. Duration: 11:55:00. Language: English. Video type: Documentary.

A compilation of several documentaries about the Concorde, with some segments repeated more than once. It tells the story of the aircraft and of its American rival, the Boeing 2707. It also follows the round-the-world trip British Airways organised in 1999 and the daily BA1 flight between Heathrow and JFK. It also covers pilot training in Shannon, charter flights, and the return to service after the Paris accident.

The story begins with the X-1, which reached Mach 1.06 on 14 October 1947. In November 1962, BAC and Sud Aviation signed the Anglo-French treaty. The 001 prototype was built in Toulouse and the 002 in Filton. Before that, the ogival wing had been tested on the Bristol 221 and the Olympus 593 engine on a Vulcan. The 001 was unveiled in December 1967 and flew in March 1969. The Tu-144 had beaten it to the air on 31 December 1968 and crashed at the 1973 Paris Air Show. In the United States, Kennedy announced his own supersonic transport aircraft in June 1963. Boeing won the competition on the last day of 1966 with a 277-seat mock-up and a variable-geometry wing. Its weight forced a redesign in October 1968. The Oklahoma City sonic boom tests (1964), organised opposition and fears over ozone led the Senate to cancel it in 1971. In parallel, Boeing developed the 747.

The Concorde was certified in 1975 and entered service in 1976, with the Bahrain route from 21 January. It reached JFK in 1977. The Singapore route was suspended on 13 December 1977 after complaints from Malaysia. In October 1999, G-BOAD flew around the world in 22 days with 80 passengers. It covered more than 32,000 miles and set 10 speed records. Chief pilot Mike Bannister explains the air intakes with computer-controlled ramps and the fuel transfer used for trimming. After the accident of flight 4590 in July 2000, the certificate was withdrawn on 16 August. The aircraft returned to flying with Kevlar linings in the tanks, new tyres and protected wiring, after about 15 months grounded. The Concorde was retired after 9/11.