Concorde Concorde The Aérospatiale/BAC Concorde () is a British-French turbojet-powered supersonic passenger airliner that was operated from 1976 until 2003. It had a maximum speed over twice the speed of sound at Mach 2.04 ( at cruise altitude), with seating for 92 to 128 passengers. First flown in 1969, Concorde entered service in 1976 and continued flying for the next 27 years. It is one of only two supersonic transports to have been operated commercially; the other is the Soviet-built Tupolev Tu-144, which operated in passenger service from 1977 to 1978. Concorde was jointly developed and manufactured by Sud Aviation (later
Concorde aims to buy the Concorde currently on display at Le Bourget airport. A tentative date of 2019 has been put forward for the return to flight—50 years after its maiden journey. However, due to regulatory and technical hurdles, some of the aviation community are highly skeptical of the plan, including former Concorde captain and Club Concorde co-founder William "Jock" Lowe, who was quoted in June 2016 saying: On 25 July 2000, Air France Flight 4590, registration F-BTSC, crashed in Gonesse, France after departing from Paris-Charles de Gaulle en route to John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City, killing