![]() ![]() The group met for the first time in February 1954 and delivered their first report in April 1955. 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 a committee to study the supersonic transport (SST) concept. Foremost besides it's incredible speed, it flew far higher than any other commercial aircraft to around 60,000ft, used a delta wing configuration, and was one of the few aircraft to use afterburners in commercial service. Both American SST projects in the Boeing 2707 and the Lockheed L-2000 never got past their concept stages.įor the definition of unique, even iconic then the Aérospatiale/BAC Concorde aircraft was different in every way. But the real and only commercial supersonic jet aircraft was the Aérospatiale/BAC Concorde, slightly late in every aspect, but the aircraft delivered in time the only real commercial supersonic services, and for a brief few decades the world had the option of using supersonic transport in a regular transportation capacity. In the race to go supersonic it was again a race between two countries, this time with Russia that flew the first supersonic aircraft in the Tupolev Tu-144 that first went supersonic on 5th June 1969. ![]() This highly restricted operations to being only over water, and being regulated to only subsonic speeds over the land. Supersonic speeds had however one major flaw, the sound barrier or the shock wave that is created when an aircraft goes supersonic. 3½ hours over the Atlantic, and 8 hour's approx to reach Singapore and 17 hours to Australia (including refueling) would today be even possible, but at point in the past it was actually quite possible and even accomplished by an aircraft carrying commercial passengers. But in the 60's the line between them was lineball with the expectations that "Supersonic" transport was the future of aviation, and what if that world had come to pass. History tells us now that capacity won, cheap tickets and space on aircraft far bettered shorter flight times. The two aircraft at the forefront of this race was the Boeing 747 (Jumbo Jet) and The Aérospatiale/BAC Concorde. This race was in the commercial airliner world between capacity and speed, again the United States, but this time against Europe. But there was another aviation "race" in the 60's that was just as frantic and daring. The 1960's was all about races, the most famous was the "Space Race" between the United States and Russia. But a few have even gone higher in this aspect. In the narrative of aviation history, there have been aircraft that have been uniquely iconic. Aircraft Review : Concorde FXP v2 by Colimata ![]()
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