55 Years Ago Concorde Made Its First Flight
G-BOAC at Miami International Airport
Photos and story by Ken Kula
March 2, 1969 was the day the first Anglo-French Concorde SST (Super Sonic Transport) took to the sky for the first time from Toulouse, France. A total of twenty Concorde airframes were constructed, of which six were prototypes, pre-production, or unsold company-owned aircraft; the other 14 airframes went on to serve in scheduled and unscheduled service. Over half a century later, the Concorde hasn’t seen a peer emerge to top its technological successes and glamor.
Much has been written about the economic and environmental difficulties that surrounded the operation of these aircraft. Instead of looking at these subjects again, I’d like to offer a different point of view about this historic design… one of first-hand experiences I had while as an air traffic controller and as an aviation photography enthusiast.
G-BOAE departing from RAF Fairford during a Royal International Air Tattoo show.
As a frequent air traveler and photographer, I have seen Concordes at New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport, Washington D.C.’s Dulles International, Miami International, Toronto’s Pierson International, and London’s Heathrow International airports, as well as at the RAF Fairford air base (during a RIAT air show) too. Of scheduled airline services, only British Airways and Air France served these cities from their European home bases. Toronto may have been a charter flight since I couldn’t find any scheduled Concorde service from there.
Growing up in Enfield, Connecticut I remember two instances when a British Airways Concorde diverted to the nearby Bradley International Airport, due to thunderstorm-related delays in the New York City/JFK area. The first time the diversion occurred in the afternoon and we heard the news on the (AM) car radio. My father and I drove to the airport, and got caught up in the multitude of automobiles which lined up to drive up a ramp that offered a distant view of the sleek jet. We were surprised at the size of it… not a “Jumbo Jet” as was imagined.
Air France Concorde with the Pan Am Worldport in the background
Back when airline service (and the price of fuel) was relatively inexpensive, I flew to a few distant destinations each year to photograph some unfamiliar airlines and aircraft types. Seeing Concordes in Miami, Dulles and Toronto were bonuses for me. At JFK, watching from the Pan Am Worldport roof, the Air France jets were easily photographed, especially when my lens could fit in the holes of a chain link fence. British Airways jets were harder to photograph, as their gates were on the other side of the airport.
I had the privilege to control (air traffic control) both of the airlines’ JFK and Dulles Concorde flights routinely because of the geographic location of two of the Boston ARTCC (Air Route Traffic Control Center) sectors’ airspace which I was assigned to work.
Air France’s morning departure from JFK to Paris de Gaulle, from a taxiway
Arriving westbound Concordes would pass from Canada’s Moncton Area Control Center (ACC) to us in a block of altitudes, usually from FL520 to FL600 (52,000 feet to 60,000 feet). That would enable the jets to fly over the top of Warning Area 105’s 50,000 feet and below restricted airspace. The jets would still be at Mach 2.0, and as they burned fuel they were still slowly climbing. Amazingly, the four daily flights’ ground speed never varied by more than a few knots, normally around 1,400 knots (if I remember it correctly); they were well above the jet stream and its headwinds and tailwinds every day and night!
New York City to Paris in three hours!
The Dulles arrivals would still be at cruise until they got into the adjacent New York Center sectors, but we in the Boston ARTCC had to give the Speedbird flights a restriction to “Cross W-105 at or above FL520, then cross the Robbinsville (RBV) VOR at FL390”. Dulles departures heading to London would fly south of the Warning Area 105 airspace by about 15 miles, paralleling the southern boundary. Once, I saw an Air National Guard F-106 interceptor begin an ad hoc race with a Concorde flight while the fighter remained in the Warning Area’s protected airspace… the drag race was easily won by the Speedbird flight. But, I wondered if the F-106 pilot was trying to match speeds or maybe just use his IRST (Infrared Search and Track) equipment aboard the F-106 on the Concorde’s afterburners?
Call signs and flight numbers were special… British Airways flights 1 through 4 and flights 188 and 189 were always Concordes. The latter two numbers were the Dulles flights that seemed to operate at less than daily service intervals. “Speedbird” is British Airways’ radio call sign, but not because of the Concorde… the call sign was in use well before the SSTs were introduced. Air France used flight numbers 1 through 4 as well for their New York service. The cockpit crews we spoke with were quite proud of their jets, and they used the call signs “Speedbird Concorde One (or another number)” or “Air France Concorde One” to denote their flights in the special jetliners.
Eastbound flights out of JFK in New York City would be handed off to us climbing to FL290 and would level off before their flight path passed south of Nantucket (Massachusetts) Island. We’d issue the jets a climb clearance before they’d pass abeam Nantucket; I’d give them “Climb at your discretion to the block FL550 through FL590”. That way they could begin their climb to match their flight profile… as I didn’t need them to climb immediately. They would kick in the afterburners and accelerate as they climbed. On occasion during the summertime, we’d hear of sonic boom complaints – most likely because of the high air density of the muggy summertime on Nantucket Island. The Concordes would delay their speed and altitude changes for a few moments and this took care of the complaints (and the booming at Nantucket).
Speedbird Concorde at the gate in JFK, this is the first of three color schemes the Concorde wore during its service with British Airways
Fuel burn was critical to the flight crews, a delay in a climb would burn more fuel (they were more efficient at their highest altitudes) than planned. Once an Air Force U-2 jet was operating east of Nantucket at or above FL600, we restricted the Speedbird Concorde’s climb to stop at or below FL560 (We needed a 4000 foot buffer for vertical separation). The pilot pushed back that he couldn’t accept any delay to his climb or they might have to divert later in the flight. The controller I was watching repeated the clearance, adding that the traffic was a U-2 at FL600. Sure enough, the two jets passed close enough for the passenger jet’s pilot to call “traffic in sight”, and ultimately the Concord never had to level off before receiving his final cruising altitude. Normally, the Concorde’s routine cruising altitudes above 50,000 feet wouldn’t have any competition.
The routes developed for the Concorde flights usually kept them above and far away from those of the subsonic jetliners arriving at the same airport. Sub-sonically, the Concordes could hold like any other subsonic jetliner, although their holding speed was a bit faster. At supersonic speeds, the jets couldn’t turn more than 10 or 15 degrees per minute, taking up a lot of space to make a full 360 degree turn.
G-BOAD about to leave New York
Every once in a while there’d be a glitch in the day-to-day flight operations of the Concorde. One day an eastbound British Airways flight couldn’t get one of his afterburners lit, and had to return to JFK because he had less thrust and more drag than would allow him to get to Heathrow. About two hours later, another Concorde came roaring out of JFK, I bet it still could have beaten a subsonic European-bound flight to Heathrow if it has departed right after the first Concorde departure.
Another time, we got a call from the Canadian controllers that a Concorde was going to divert to Bangor, Maine. While in flight at supersonic cruise, a fuel pump failed, trapping fuel in a tank near the tail. The flight would have plenty of fuel to get it to the airport, but as it burned off fuel from other tanks, their center of gravity was shifting, and the tank full of fuel in the tail threatened to make the aircraft tail heavy, and out of tolerance to land safely. When the aircraft switched onto our frequency, you could hear the anxiousness in the crewmember’s voice describing their need to land as soon as possible. They made it OK, and I never heard of the situation arising again.
F-BTSC and F-BVFA at John F. Kennedy International Airport
The first commercial flights of the SST began in January, 1976; final Concorde flights occurred in October, 2003 just 27 years after they began in operation. The final flight of a Concorde over North America occurred in November, 2003 when a British Airways jet flew from JFK airport to Seattle’s Boeing Field to become part of the Museum of Flight’s collection.
Pushing back from its gate in JFK, this graceful jet was almost directly underneath us as my New York Helicopter flight left JFK for LaGuardia
Here’s a list of the 20 Concorde jets, their registrations and the amount of flight hours each one accumulated. Table edited/copied from Wikipedia’s “Concorde aircraft histories” article.
Fuselage # Registration Flight hours
001 F-WTSS 812
002 G-BSST 836
101 G-AXDN 632
102 F-WTSA 656
201 F-WTSB 909
202 G-BBDG 1,282
203 F-BTSC 11,989
204 G-BOAC 22,260
205 F-BVFA 17,824
206 G-BOAA 22,768
207 F-BVFB 14,771
208 G-BOAB 22,296
209 F-BVFC 14,332
210 G-BOAD 23,397
211 F-BVFD 5,814
212 G-BOAE 23,376
213 F-BTSD 12,974
214 G-BOAG 16,239
215 F-BVFF 12,421
216 G-BOAF 18,257
F-BVFA in the Udvar-Hazy National Air and Space Museum in Virginia
All but two airframes are retired in museums… aircraft #203 F-BTSC crashed in 2000 and aircraft #211 F-BVFD was dismantled in 1994.
Fifty-five years ago the first flight of a Concorde was a big step into the airline world’s future. Although the Concorde wasn’t a commercial success in many ways, it definitely captured the attention of aviation enthusiasts and historians. The Concorde operations made my days a little more exciting, being able to say that I helped it cross the Atlantic Ocean many times, and was part of a number of special photographic opportunities I had at airports at home and abroad.
