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CONCORDE

THE PLANE THAT WOULD

ARRIVE BEFORE IT HAD LEFT

History stopped speed when the Concorde stopped flying.

But its myth has remained alive in the memory of those

who had the privilege of boarding it and also of those who

would always have liked to do so, but did not make it in time.

2023 marked 20 years since its retirement in called Concorde – a name given to it by General
October 2003. But even though it has not been used Charles De Gaulle in 1963 – because the only
for two decades now, the myth of the Concorde, a commercial companies to use it were Air France
masterpiece of aerospace engineering that made and British Airways. Manufacturing, in fact, took
it possible to cover the distance between Europe place in both Toulouse and Bristol, the respective
and the United States of America in just three headquarters of the two companies, and the
and a half hours of flight time, effectively halving aircraft’s name itself was a tribute to the ‘concord’
the travel time compared to other aircrafts, between the two companies.
remains unchanged. It was such a fast aircraft Conceived in the 1960s, it officially saw the BY CHIARA DALLA TOMASINA
(reaching 2,179 km/h) that it was said to “arrive light – and the first flight made by the prototype
before it even took off”: given the time difference, – on 2 March 1969. The following year, on 4
travellers would land in the Big Apple before the November 1970, Concorde reached Mach 2 speed
departure time from the French capital. for the first time, becoming – after the Soviet
It connected two continents, but was an all– Tupolev Tu–144 – the second commercial aircraft
European project: it was decided that it would be to fly at this speed.

20 Heritage Protagonist