Flight Path To Greatness

10:43am UK, Saturday October 25, 2003

The final flights of Concorde have taken place, with British Airways retiring the supersonic aircraft after 27 years of commercial service.

Here is a timeline of how the world's most elegant airliner came into being:

The great plane

1956

Britain and France begin independently researching the possibility of building a supersonic airliner.

1960

British Airways' forerunner, BOAC, accepts its first Concorde reservation.

1962

Because British and French engineers are working along such similar lines, they opt for a joint development.

The governments of both countries sign a deal to share design, development and manufacture.

Each country builds one prototype, one pre-production model and eight production aircraft.

Of the 16 production models, 14 are eventually made available for sale.

1967

The first Concorde prototype rolls off the production line in Toulouse, France.

1969

March 2 - Concorde 001 makes its first flight at Mach 2 from Toulouse.

April 9 - The first British prototype, Concorde 002, takes flight from Filton, Bristol.

October 1 - The first supersonic Concorde flight takes place.

1972

June 28 - BOAC orders five Concordes

1973

September 20 - The British prototype lands at Dallas Ft Worth on its first visit to the USA.

1974

June 17 - The first double Atlantic crossing in one day.

1975

December 5 - Concorde is awarded UK Civil Aviation Authority's Certificate of Airworthiness.

1976

January 21 - The first commercial supersonic flights see a British Airways service from London-to-Bahrain and an Air France service flies from Paris-to-Rio.

May 24 - BA begins a London-to-Washington service.

1977

November 22 - BA begins a London-to-New York service.

1986

November 8 - First round-the-world flight by a BA Concorde, covering 28, 238 miles in 29 hours, 59 minutes.

1993

Former hairdresser Barbara Harmer becomes Concorde's first woman pilot.

1999

November 18 - Two BA Concorde's fly in supersonic formation to chase the total eclipse of the sun over the UK.

2000

July 25 - An Air France Concorde crashes during take-off in Paris, killing 113 people.

August 15 - BA suspends its supersonic operations.

2001

November 7 - Concorde returns to service, flying into New York after 15 months of safety modification work.

2003

April 10 - BA and Air France announce that they are to retire their Concorde fleets because they have become too expensive to maintain.

May 31 - Final Air France Concorde flight.

August 30 - Final BA Concorde service from Barbados.

October 24 - Last commercial Concorde flight takes place. Three flights land consecutively at London Heathrow at about 4pm and the curtin comes down on a piece of British aviation history.