ConcordeIn 1962, the British Aircraft Corporation and the major French airline company, Sud Aviation, agreed to jointly design and manufacture a 100-seat supersonic passenger airliner. Two months later, in Jan 1963, a BAC executive suggested the name "Concord" after using a thesaurus, which was adopted as Concorde, reflecting the French spelling. In May 1963, it was decided each Concorde component would be single sourced, but with two final assembly lines, one in England at Filton and one in France at Toulouse. The U.K. was to manufacture 60 per cent of the engine and 40 per cent of the airframe. Within the decade, the first Concorde had broken the sound barrier on 1 Oct 1969. Passenger flights began on 21 Jan 1976.[Image: a production Concorde being assembled at Filton in 1973] |
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