The Story of Concorde

Not all that long ago, we had a civilian passenger aircraft that was capable of flying from New York to London in just 3 hours. With the advent of supersonic aircraft and in the form of the Concorde, two European nations had created one of the most incredible engineering marvels of the century. But then, it all came to an end in the early 2000's. Today I'm going to find out why and tell the story of the most ambitious civilian aircraft ever put into service.

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BrightSunFilms 2022

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[itsjoel]

The thing people don’t seem to appreciate, is that Concorde was literally a time travelling machine. If you flew from London to New York, you would arrive before you left. You could leave London after an early lunch, and arrive in New York for a late breakfast…

[JustinHEMI]

The most impressive thing, to me, is how relatively soon after humans first took to the air we were flying people around at supersonic speeds.

[wwe]

I remember my dad taking me to the airport nearby our house to watch it take off, most unreal experience of my life to this day... the sound it made to takeoff was breathtaking...

[joevinski]

My mom actually flew on the concord in the late 90s from new york to Paris, rod steward on the plane - she said it was absolutely amazing experience when they got to altitude they took the passengers to the cockpit so that you could see the curvature of the horizon, the pictures that she has are amazing

[Glynstantinople]

The fact that they placed a 2707 prototype inside of a church is possibly one of the most strangest locations for a prototype aircraft.

[JagoHazzard]

Seeing Bright Sun Films covering the Concorde is an instant click from me.

[davidmcgill]

Worst part was that the aircraft really weren't at fault. They worked fine. That crash was caused by debris from another aircraft which could've happened to anyone. But time marched on and it never got improved.

[TheTardis]

The fact that the Concorde can hit over mach 2 makes it faster than most aircraft ever produced. Still wish they could update, digitize its controls, and update the engines. It's still a fantastic airframe. It will forever be my personal favorite aircraft.

[DeLorean]

A friend of mine worked at Charles de Gaulle airport when the Concorde was in service. He said the windows would vibrate and items on his desk would move around whenever one of them was taking off. When it came to landings, they'd typically be very low on fuel by the end of their journey, and would be given high priority.

[microsoftpain]

I think it's absolutely insane that a little piece of debris led to such a large tragedy.
Also that cutaway from the sponsor segment was pretty funny.

[AaronOfMpls]

Thanks for your take on the Concorde! Excellent as ever! ❤

As others have pointed out, one thing about the Concorde's speed was that it could literally fly faster than the Earth rotates. And a bunch of astronomers once took advantage of that.

In 1973, they chartered a Concorde prototype (no. 001), and flew across the Sahara to chase a solar eclipse. By flying along the eclipse track at _juuuust_ the right speed, they stretched the 7 minutes of totality out to _74_ minutes, giving them a _ton_ more time to observe the Sun's atmosphere than they usually would. To this day, it's the longest anyone has made a total eclipse last on Earth. They even got permission to add observing ports in the roof, since that prototype was at the end of its flight testing.

These days, there's no scientific need for such a flight. Specialized spacecraft (like SOHO) can observe the Sun's atmosphere at any time by "eclipsing" the sun with a round piece of metal in front of their camera/telescope (a _coronagraph_ ). In the vacuum of space -- with no air or ground to scatter sunlight -- it works just as well as the Moon does.

...Though in 1999, a few Concorde tourist flights _did_ briefly follow an eclipse near Europe.


(For more details, search for "concorde eclipse". There are a bunch of articles online about the flight and what the astronomers were observing.)

[MikeHarris]

I was 18 when the final flight of the Concord took place. I wish it was still around today. I would pay extra to fly supersonic in a heartbeat. Anyone who experienced this, is an extremely lucky person.

[GRosa]

The Concorde fleet logged more hours of supersonic flight time than all of the world’s militaries combined.

[IbakonFerba]

I have both a Concorde and a Tu144 relatively closeby at a museum. They are propped up on the roof in takeof/landing position and configuration, and you can actually go inside. I was absolutely fascinated by them as a kid and I am still to this day, I built models of both and tons of photos :D

Edit: The Tu144 showm from behind in the 'on display' section is the one I mean!

[Luke_Go]

I remember when a Concorde landed at my local airport for a celebration. Tens of thousands of people showed up!
The one thing I remember most, was the incredible noise the Concorde made.

[nmmechanic]

Great video Jake! Love learning about the Concorde, it was such a cool engineering marvel that we won’t be able to experience. Amazing content as always, thanks for posting!

[LSK_]

This one has touched my heart personally, i used to listen to them test the Concorde engines daily at 4 in the afternoon ! there is one final Concorde sat in Bristol UK that is now a museum piece my grandfather took the final flight i remember the day well.
she was graceful yet so wonderfully loud and so very unique.
thankyou for sharing x

[KannikCat]

Such a graceful bird it was. Thanks for the reminiscence!

[kencarp]

Wonderful video! Concorde was finished off by economics, lack of engine efficiency, fuel costs, skyrocketing maintenance costs, lack of trained pilots, etc. as you pointed out.
She was from a unique, heady era in aviation - and she was absolutely the most beautiful bird EVER!

[LoneTiger]

18:10 During the 90s I remember this happening, a Concorde was chartered to follow a major solar eclipse, can't recall the exact year but was on the news how it flew through the eclipse totality path.
Price per ticket was insane, and I think the plane was full.