What was the Concorde like inside?

Inside, the Concorde was surprisingly small. The fuselage, designed to fly at Mach 2, measured just 2.63 m wide inside and 1.96 m high, less than a current regional jet, and the windows were little bigger than a hand to limit depressurization if one broke at 18,000 m. The 100 seats were split between two cabins, of 40 and 60 seats, in 2-2 rows with a single aisle and no classes: the entire aircraft was a single category, pricier than a 747's first class. The seats were comparable to today's narrow business class, and the interior, in gray and blue tones, was deliberately understated.

On the forward bulkheads of each cabin there was a digital display showing speed in Mach, altitude, and outside temperature; watching Mach 2.00 appear at 17,000-18,300 m (55,000-60,000 ft) was part of the ritual. At that speed, friction heated the nose to 127°C and the fuselage stretched about 20 cm. Service was provided over roughly three and a half hours of transatlantic flight, with narrow custom-designed trolleys, and the cabin noise was higher than on a subsonic aircraft, especially in the rear cabin, close to the four Olympus 593 engines.

The cockpit held three crew members: two pilots and a flight engineer with a side panel that managed fuel, pressurization, and the transfer of kerosene between tanks to shift the center of gravity when going supersonic. The instruments were analog, from the 1960s, and the droop nose was lowered on approach to see the runway with the aircraft pitched up steeply. Today, complete cockpits can be visited at Aerospace Bristol, Le Bourget, or Brooklands.