When the former Air France chairman, Jean-Cyril Spinetta, said, “Concorde will never really stop flying because she will live on in people’s imagination”, it encapsulated everyone’s feelings. Apart from hardcore environmentalists who have maintained that an aviation world full of Concordes would simply ruin the planet (for the aircraft was a gas guzzler)[zero carbon flight was once called as big a challenge as Concorde], everyone wishes Concorde (or something that resembles it) take to the skies: NASA’s X-59 has been christened “Son of Concorde”; the first Concorde aircraft was named “a historical monument” by France; the first supersonic airliner, the Tupolev Tu-144 was called the “Soviet Concorde” (and also “Concordski”), Brian Watts, a flight engineer, onboard Concorde’s first supersonic flight was is remembered in Watts Drive in Brabazon development, and Club Concorde even hoped to to crowdfund their wishes to put the aircraft on display in the river Thames.
Photo: Eduard Marmet | Wikimedia Commons
Concorde, by no means, is the world’s fastest aircraft: the North American X-15, a hypersonic research rogram that clocked six times the speed of sound was approximately three times faster (though the X-15 was rocket-powered).
In Pictures: Aircraft Used In The North American X-15 Hypersonic Program
Concorde is not even the most aesthetically pleasing: NASA’s X-48’s blended wings concept looks more elegant (though beauty, as Shakespeare said, was in the eyes of the beholder). Concorde wasn’t the noisiest aircraft: passengers in the Tu-144 had to write notes to the fellow passengers, for they couldn’t even hear the ones seated next to them. However, Concorde had a bit of everything: the flair, the noise, a great deal of panache. And more importantly, speed. [ A passneger of Concorde put it best: “Concorde has an aesthetic that, although born from the necessities of supersonic fl ight aerodynamics, is a true work of art.” ]. But what was the aircraft’s top speed? Let’s find out.
Comparing the speed of Concorde with other (near) supersonic barriers before it
During World War II, a lot of aircraft were made- some of the most produced planes ever were from this time. British engineers were covertly working on an aircraft called Miles M.52, something that would clock 1,000 mph (1,600 kph) during level flight. After the end of the war, however, military budget cuts led to the cancellation of the M.52 project. This gave an American company called Bell Aircraft (Bell 407 helicopter manufactured by this company flies to the Mount Everest region) to come up with the Bell X-1, a rocket-powered aircraft that broke the sound barrier [reaching reached Mach 1.06 (700 mph, 1,100 kph) with U.S. Air Force test pilot Chuck Yeager at the helms] after being droplaunched from the bomb bay of the heaviest bomber aircraft used in World War II- the B-29 Superfortress. [ B-29 is also one of the must-see aircraft at the US Air Force Museum]
Top 5 Must-See Aircraft At The National Museum Of The US Air Force
And with it came other aircraft that broke the sound barrier:
- According to the US Air orce, some Me 262 and Me 163 pilots claimed to have exceeded Mach 1 in straight-down dives during the war.
- In 1948, a radio-controlled M.52 reached Mach 1.38 (1,060 mph, 1,700 kph)
- In 1954, the Fairey Delta 2 (the first British purpose-built supersonic research aircraft) touched Mach 1.5 (1,000 mph)
- Leduc 0.21, a ramjet (which is “a variant of an air-breathing jet engine that uses the engine’s forward motion to compress incoming air without an axial compressor or a centrifugal compressor”) reached a top speed of Mach 0.95 (723 mph, 1,173 kph).
- In August 1954, one Nord 1402 A Gerfaut reached a top speed of Mach 1.28 (989 mph, 1,586 kph).
- The SE 212 Durandal reached Mach 1.57 (1,200 mph, 1,940 kph) in December 1956.
- The MD.550 Mystère-Delta ( later dubbed Mirage I) reached Mach 1.6 (1,230 mph, 1,975 kph) in 1955.
- In 1958, Nord 1500 Griff on II reached a top speed of Mach 2.19 (1,680 mph, 2,700 kph).
Photo: Pierre André | Wikimedia Commons
Nations were upping their efforts to design safer supersonic planes because some aircraft such as de Havilland DH 108 “Swallow” crashed during tests. The flights needed to show some dexterity to handle flights are subsocic, transonic, and supersonic speeds, and prompted engineers to come up with innovative solutions, said author Ingo Bauernfeind in his book “Concorde: Supersonic Icon”:
“ However, in order to generate that vortex lift for safe flight operations at low speeds, the pilot had to point the aircraft’s nose significantly skyward, and was thus unable to see the runway in front of him. This posed a particular problem during landing which was solved by fitting the Fairey Delta 2 with a ‘droop nose’. It could be moved down, thus enabling the pilot to see forward and down. The concept of a ‘droop nose’ would become one of Concorde’s significant features contributing to her characteristic appearance”.
In Europe, Britain and France were leading the development of supersonic aircraft, and these two nations joined hands to develop the Concorde: the British Aircraft Corporation (BAC) and Sud Aviation (Aérospatiale as of 1970) from the aforementioned two nations, respectively, were leading the way. The word itself is based on the French word “Concorde” which has an English equivalent “Concord” meaning harmony, union, or an agreement.
British Airways Concorde G-BOAC, Heathrow, London, England, between 1980 and 1985.
Half a decade after the signing of the Anglo-French treaty to build the Concorde, the supersonic airliner was set for public display in Toulouse on 11 December 1967. 1,100 guests were present at the unveiling. Almost nine months later, on 19 September 1968, Concorde 002, a British prototype was presented at Filton in Bristol [home to the British Aircraft Corporation’s manufacturing plant]. The British were to start the services with one of the most iconic flight numbers there is: BA001.
Let’s have a look at the specifications of the Concorde:
| Length | 203ft 9ins (62.1m) |
| Wingspan | 83ft 8ins (25.5m) |
| Height | 37ft 1in (11.3m) |
| Fuselage width | 9ft 6ins (2.9m) |
| Seating Capacity | 100 passengers ( 40 in the front cabin and 60 in the rear cabin) |
| Range | 4,143 miles (6,667 kms) |
| Engines | 4 X Rolls-Royce/SNECMA Olympus 593s |
| Each Engine thrust | 38,000lbs with reheat |
| Takeoff speed | 250mph (400kph) |
| Cruising Speed | 1,350mph (2,160kph/Mach Two) up to 60,000 ft |
| Landing Speed | 187mph (300kph) |
| Fuel Capacity | 26,286 Imperial gallons (119,500 litres) |
| Fuel Consumption | 5,638 Imperial gallons (25,629 litres) per hour |
What is the top speed of the Concorde?
A cruise speed of twice the speed of sound, which is technically written as Mach 2, means that this aircraft that could break the sound barrier was faster than a rifle bullet, and could travel every 2½ seconds, completing a Marathon in less than a minute. However, the Concorde wasn’t the fastest supersonic airliner: this distinction goes to the Tupolev Tu-144, a Soviet aircraft used by then state carrier Aeroflot. It had a top speed of Mach 2.35. In its unveiling, the Tu-144 beat the Concorde by three months, much to the chagrin of the West.
One of the most astonishing achievements of the Concorde was to have recorded the longest eclipse when seven other astronomers had boarded the Concorde 001F-WTSS, the prototype of the aircraft that would later be flown by British Airways and Air France.
“Flying in the lunar shadow, which was moving at the same speed as us, the plane would remain in total darkness for 74 very long minutes, while each of the astronomers was getting busy with the instruments they had brought along to study the Sun and its corona, taking advantage of this unique opportunity to observe for such a long period of time. No man had ever seen the Sun eclipsed for such a long time, no flight crew had ever carried out such a difficult encounter so faultlessly, no plane had ever provided such a fine observatory for its team of awestruck astronomers. Forty years on, this record remains unbeaten.”
The fastest Concorde was registered G-AXDN
Concorde 01 was registered G-AXDN( later dubbed 101) was the third Concorde built. It was assembled at the British Aircraft Corporation (BAC) facility in Filton, Bristol. Compared to the two earlier prototypes, 101 had a larger airframe and more advanced systems. It introduced a redesigned nose section with a fully transparent visor
Key milestones of the fastest Concorde ever, G-AXDN
- Rolled out: 20 September 1971
- First flight: 17 December 1971 (Filton to Fairford)
- Assembly site: BAC Filton, Bristol
- Primary test base: Concorde Flight Test Centre, Fairford
One of 101’s most significant contributions to the Concorde program was in testing the engine intake control system. This system allowed the aircraft to fly efficiently at supersonic speeds without relying on afterburners. In contrast, the Tu-144 couldn’t sustain a supersonic flight in the absence of afterburners.
Let’s take a look at the performance records and test achievements of this fastest Concorde ever
- March 1974: Reached Mach 2.23 (~1,450 mph) at 63,700 ft, the highest speed recorded by any Concorde.
- November 1974: Flew from Fairford to Maine in 2 hours 56 minutes, setting a westbound transatlantic record for a commercial aircraft.
- Conducted 11 flights from Moses Lake, Washington to validate the electrical de-icing system.
- 4 December 1974: Successfully tested de-icing in required conditions.
- Returned to Fairford on 13 December 1974, matching the outbound flight time from Bangor.
- Also conducted tropical icing trials from Nairobi, Kenya, due to more severe equatorial icing conditions.
Following the conclusion of its major test role, G-AXDN continued to support the program by testing performance and range modifications for production Concordes. Its final test flight took place on 16 May 1975.
After retiring from test duties, it was used to train BAC flight crews who were responsible for preparing British Airways pilots and engineers for the launch of commercial Concorde services in January 1976. It has been said that there is only one phtograph of the Concorde at supersonic speed.
How does Concorde’s speed match up with later aircraft with incredible top speeds?
After the crash of the Concorde, an image of which is one of the most terrifying in aviation history, and amidst soaring travel costs (the prices of a flight were $20,000 in present-day equivalent), the Concorde was abandoned. The Bombardier 8000 has been dubbed the fastest aircraft since Concorde, and was able to rake up a speed of 0.94, marking what its manufacturer, Bombardier dubs “the flagship of a new era”. Compared to the Concorde’s top speed, Bombardier’s looks almost pedestrian.
Despite this, Concorde doesn’t make it to the list of the ten fastest aircraft of all time- the tenth fastest ever, the General Dynamics F-111 Aardvark had a top speed of Mach 2.5. NASA’s SR-71 was the first stealth aircraft and could fly three times the speed of sound. NASA’s X-43A, which is well-known as Hyper-X and used a tile-based thermal protection system (the same protection system used in the Space Shuttle) achieved a Mach speed of 9.68 on Nov 16, 2004- the highest speed ever for any aircraft. You can read the details of the fastest aircraft ever, in our guide below:
Concorde B- The fastest Concorde that never was
A few months after the Concorde began commercial service in 1976, Aérospatiale proposed an improved version of the Concorde called the Concorde B– a variant that optimists hoped would be produced by 1982 but never saw the light of day. Concorde B was proposed to have a better fuel capacity, more powerful, fuel-efficient engines, and an extended range of up to 500 miles.
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However, this aircraft that would have had “shape of the delta wing with leading-edge slats that could be drooped like Concorde’s nose”, which could “improve lift during takeoff and landing, and raise them for supersonic flight in order to reduce drag”, might have been faster. What would have been the top speed of this Concorde? We never know.