Concorde's Firsts: The Maiden Flight. And a promotion at the wrong time.

Concorde no.001 performing its maiden flight on March 2, 1969 from Toulouse, France

After four years of patience and hard work, Aerospatiale's Concorde Prototype no.001 performed its maiden flight in front of thousands of spectators at Toulouse-Blagnac Airport in Toulouse, France on the 2nd of March 1969. The world will soon witness the magnificence of this aircraft after its first flight. On the other hand, the first UK-built BAC Concorde Protoype no.002 flew its maiden flight from Filton to RAF Fairford on 9th of April 1969. And these videos here will show it all:


"Concorde prototype 001 - maiden flight"
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kMCLIyJXvxg)


"Concorde 002 - 1st Flight April 9, 1969"
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ReizxjUuoE4)

Both prototypes were presented to the public for the first time on 7–8 June 1969 at the Paris Air Show. As the flight programme progressed, 001 embarked on a sales and demonstration tour on 4th of September 1971, which was also the first transatlantic crossing of Concorde.

Concorde prototype no.002 followed suit on 2nd of June 1972 with a tour of the Middle and Far East. And it made the first visit to the United States in 1973, landing at the new Dallas/Fort Worth Regional Airport to mark that airport's opening.

While Concorde had initially held a great deal of customer interest, considering that over 16 airlines from around the world placed orders for 74 of them. With various airlines being mentioned such as: 
-PanAm                             -Japan Airlines         -Air Canada                  -Qantas
-Air France                       -Lufthansa                 -Braniff                         -CAAC
-BOAC/British Airways   -American Airlines    -Singapore Airlines     -MEA    
-Panair do Brasil              -United Airlines        -Iran Air                         -TWA
-Continental Airlines       -Air India                    -Olympic Airways 

Layout of Concorde Orders from Various Airlines
(Screenshot from this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JgAvxvDRg6c)

Unfortunately, the glory shouldn't last for long after a tragic event during the 1973 Paris Air Show, when the Russian-made Tupolev TU-144 "Charger", Concorde's imminent rival...crashed during its aerial presentation. 
The Tupolev TU-144, before and after moments of its 
fatal crash during the Paris Air Show of 1973

Because of this, the Concorde program was hit by a large number of order cancellations and unprecedented circumstances. The 1973 Paris Le Bourget air show crash of the competing Soviet Tupolev Tu-144 had shocked potential buyers, and public concern over the environmental issues presented by a supersonic aircraft—the sonic boom, take-off noise and pollution—had produced a shift in public opinion of SSTs. By 1976 four nations remained as prospective buyers: Britain, France, China, and Iran. Only Air France and British Airways (the successor to BOAC) took up their orders, with the two governments taking a cut of any profits made. Resulting in only 20 aircraft being made instead of supposedly of 74 to 200.


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