Stone to Silicon

Transport & space · 1969

Concorde

An Anglo-French airliner carries passengers at twice the speed of sound.

Concorde first flew in March 1969 and entered service in 1976, crossing the Atlantic in about 3.5 hours at Mach 2.04. Only 20 were built because of high costs and sonic-boom restrictions. It retired in 2003 as the only long-running supersonic airliner.

See it in the living treeWikipedia

Arcs above join it to what it stood on, arcs below to what it led to. The bar places this stretch on the tree's whole timeline.

What it built on 2

What it led to 1

Watch

Concorde's First Flight: Supersonic Travel (1969) | British PathéBritish Pathé · YouTube

Related measurements

The dashed line marks when it first worked.

Transatlantic crossing time Latest: 3.5 hours (1976) Source: Wikipedia: Transatlantic crossing, duration list; Geography of Transport Systems: liner transatlantic crossing times

Selected milestones in human travel speed Latest: 39.9k km/h (1969) Source: Wikipedia: Horse gait (gallop 40-48 km/h); Wikipedia: List of speed records in rail transport