Take A Rare Look Inside the Supersonic Concorde and Learn Why It Was Retired

The Concorde was the first supersonic commercial airplane, built by aircraft-makers in France and the UK. Its first transatlantic flight was in 1973 and it's last was in 2003. Only 14 were ever in service.

Posted by TikTok user @thegalacticgal, the below video gives us a brief but fascinating history of the aircraft and takes us inside to see how passengers lived it up over the Atlantic while traveling at Mach 2, or twice the speed of sound.

WATCH VIDEO HERE

So why was the Concorde retired? 

According to britannica.com, "The Concorde’s retirement was due to a number of factors. The supersonic aircraft was noisy and extremely expensive to operate, which restricted flight availability. The operating costs required fare pricing that was prohibitively high for many consumers. The resulting financial losses led both British Airways and Air France to make New York City their only regular flight destination. Finally, in 2000 an Air France Concorde’s engine failure and subsequent crash killed all 109 people on board and 4 people on the ground. Many believe this event accelerated the retirement of the Concorde in 2003."

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