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
Anti-Concorde Project route restrictions aside, the BOAC and Air France maintained plans to fly supersonic over "sparsely populated" regions such as the deserts of Africa, Saudi Arabia and Australia. Restricting supersonic flight to over water meant that when Concorde entered service in January 1976, the only routes it flew were London - Bahrain, Paris - Rio and Paris - Caracas. Despite the ban, in May 1976 flights were allowed into Washington Dulles International Airport. When the Federal ban was lifted at John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK), Carol Berman and the Emergency Coalition to Stop the SST, with help from Wiggs, organized