Concorde: Chasing a dream

In the aftermath of World War II, this dream seemed unattainable. How can fighter jet technology be adapted to luxurious commercial flight?  In other words: how do you comfortably transport 100 people at more than 2,000 km/h at an altitude of 18,000 meters? In the race to build a supersonic aircraft, a Franco-British alliance -- the European equivalent of the American Apollo program -- beat the United States and the USSR.

They did it by reinventing practically everything. The neo-Gothic wing, four afterburner turbojets, heat-resistant alloy, and futuristic cabin design enabled this extraordinary aircraft to dash between Paris and New York in a mere three hours and 30 minutes at more than Mach 2, still an airliner record.

The Concorde’s innovations led to technological leaps now seen on all modern aircraft: autopilot, fully electric and analogue flight controls, and anti-skid braking with carbon discs.        

But it was also the aircraft of excess: Guzzling almost 450 litres of fuel per minute during its screaming, 199-decibel takeoff and producing a sonic boom that barred it from flying over populated areas. Not only did the Concorde require five times more maintenance than conventional aircraft, it was also the most expensive civil aircraft program at the time. As luck would have it, the oil crisis of the 1970s made it a commercial failure.

On 26 November 2003, the Concorde took its final flight, completing its audacious adventure. The end was signaled three years earlier when Flight 4590 crashed two minutes after takeoff in Paris, killing all 109 passengers and crew.

Now, through interviews with former pilots, engineers, and experts, first-rate archival materials, and original, never-before-seen 3D reconstructions, we will recapture the glamour -- and the bittersweet destiny -- of the Concorde.