The world’s first supersonic airliner, Concorde 001, is now officially a French historic monument, newly designated by Culture Minister Rachida Dati, who said “This plane embodies France’s innovation and industrial strength in the aviation sector.”
Built in 1969 and used in commercial service from 1976 to 2003, the plane is now at the Aeroscopia Museum near Toulouse, today the home of Airbus. In service, it connected New York to Paris and London in just over three hours, although at tremendous cost and fuel burn.
The plane was built by a consortium of French and British companies whose descendants are Airbus in Europe and BAE in the UK.
