1976–2003Reputable sourceWell documented
Concorde and Supersonic Travel
On the timeline · around 1976–2003 ·
What happened
A joint British-French project born in the Cold War, Concorde entered service in 1976 as the first supersonic airliner, whisking passengers across the Atlantic at twice the speed of sound in under four hours. Beautiful but hugely expensive and fuel-hungry, it never made economic sense, and the fleet was retired in 2003.
Why it matters
Concorde was a triumph of engineering and a symbol of an age of technological optimism — but its retirement showed that faster is not always better, and commercial aviation has flown subsonically ever since.
Sources
- Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum. What Happened to the Concordes? · Reputable source
Related timelines
- The Cold War → — A supersonic project born of Cold War rivalry