Concorde BMC Mini, the miniskirt, the Jaguar E-Type, the London Tube map and the Supermarine Spitfire. The type was retired in 2003, three years after the crash of Air France Flight 4590, in which all passengers and crew were killed. The general downturn in the commercial aviation industry after the September 11 attacks in 2001 and the end of maintenance support for Concorde by Airbus (the successor company of both Aérospatiale and BAC) also contributed. The origins of the Concorde project date to the early 1950s, when Arnold Hall, director of the Royal Aircraft Establishment (RAE) asked Morien Morgan to form
HMS Concorde (1783) to extinguish it. "Prudent" and "St Albans" came up two hours later and "Magnificent" towed "Concorde" to St. John's, Antigua. "Concorde" was bought into the navy and commissioned in the West Indies for a return to Britain later in the year, though her commander for this voyage is unknown. She arrived in Britain and was paid off in September at Chatham. With the end of the American War of Independence and the draw-down in the navy, "Concorde" was not brought into immediate service but remained laid up at Chatham until November 1790, when a great repair was begun by Wilson,