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Thursday it was exactly 45 years ago that the Concorde was put into service.
On January 21, 1976, both British Airways and Air France made the first
commercial flights with the supersonic passenger jet.
 
Flying supersonic (faster than sound) was seen as the future in the 1960s. The
Concorde, developed jointly by British BAC and French Sud Aviation, could fly
over 2,000 kilometers per hour and took only 3.5 hours to travel from London
to New York, twice as fast as a "normal" plane.
 
From the first flight in 1969, it took until 1976 until the first Concordes
were put into service. The time saved did not seem to outweigh the high fuel
and maintenance costs of the Concorde. The aircraft consumed three times as
much kerosene per passenger as the Boeing 747, which also first flew in 1969.
 
Sixteen airlines placed orders for the Concorde, but ultimately only Air
France and British Airways put the plane into service. They called it quits in
2003, when the aviation industry deteriorated as a result of 9/11 and Airbus
discontinued maintenance support.
 
From July 2000 to November 2001, the fleet was grounded due to the crash of an
Air France Concorde shortly after departure from Paris Charles de Gaulle.

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