Concorde
Supersonic, narrow-body, four-engine commercial jet
Concorde was a supersonic passenger airliner jointly developed by France and the United Kingdom. It cruised at Mach 2.04 — twice the speed of sound — and is one of only two SSTs ever to enter commercial service. London to New York in under three hours.
Specifications
| First flight | 1969-03-02 |
|---|---|
| Entered service | 1976-01-21 |
| Status | 2003-11-26 |
| Production | 1965–1979 (20 built, including 6 prototypes/test airframes) |
| Crew | 3 (captain, first officer, flight engineer) |
| Capacity | 92–128 passengers |
| Length | 0 m |
| Wingspan | 0 m |
| Height | 0 m |
| MTOW | 0 kg |
| Max speed | 0 km/h |
| Cruise speed | 0 km/h |
| Range | 0 km |
| Service ceiling | 0 m |
| Engines | 4 × Rolls-Royce/Snecma Olympus 593 Mk 610 turbojets with afterburners (reheat) |
Fly it yourself
Which simulator handles this aircraft well, what to install, what it'll cost. Curated by an aerospace engineer who actually flies it.
Microsoft Flight Simulator
The most accessible Concorde for MSFS. Beautiful exterior and interior, simplified systems. Great for the casual sim pilot wanting to break the sound barrier.
X-Plane 12
Detailed Concorde simulation with accurate flight model and systems. Considered the gold-standard Concorde sim. Requires X-Plane 11 or 12.
PRINT Concorde
Take it home
Precision blueprint of the Concorde, drawn from primary spec data. Available as digital download (print at home) or print-on-demand.
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History
Concorde was born from the 1962 Anglo-French treaty, a unique cross-border industrial collaboration of Aérospatiale and BAC. The prototype 001 first flew from Toulouse on 2 March 1969. Commercial service began simultaneously on 21 January 1976 with British Airways and Air France — the only two airlines ever to operate Concorde commercially. The Paris crash of Air France Flight 4590 on 25 July 2000, combined with falling traffic post-9/11 and rising maintenance costs, ended commercial service in November 2003. Of the 20 airframes built, 18 survive in museums.
Design
The most distinctive features are the slender ogival delta wing — designed for low drag at supersonic speed and adequate lift at low speed via vortex lift — and the drooping nose, which rotated downward 12.5° on landing to give pilots forward visibility over the high angle of attack. Four Olympus 593 turbojets, derived from the Vulcan bomber's engines, used afterburners only for takeoff and acceleration through Mach 1. The skin warmed to ~120 °C in cruise, causing the airframe to stretch by roughly 250 mm.
Variants
- Concorde 001 / 002 (prototypes)
- Concorde pre-production (101, 102)
- Concorde production (16 commercial airframes, F-WTSA, G-BSST etc.)
Notable operators
- British Airways (7 aircraft, 1976–2003)
- Air France (7 aircraft, 1976–2003)
- Singapore Airlines (briefly leased, 1977–1980)
- Braniff International (subsonic interchange, 1979–1980)
Notable
Concorde holds the eastbound transatlantic record for a commercial flight: New York JFK to London Heathrow in 2 hours 52 minutes 59 seconds (7 February 1996). It remains, alongside the Tu-144, one of only two supersonic transports to enter commercial service. The white paint was specified to keep the airframe within thermal limits — Concorde could not be painted dark colors without modifications.
See also
Sources
Last updated: 2026-05-06