WHEN it came to air travel, Concorde was the ultimate luxury.

After nearly 50,000 flights and having carried 2.5 million passengers, the supersonic marvel was finally retired – here’s everything you need to know.

When was Concorde retired?

On April 10, 2003, Air France and British Airways simultaneously announced they would be retiring their fleet of Concorde aircraft.

In October of that year, the supersonic passenger-carrying commercial airplane was retired.

Concorde had been in service for 27 years, having made its first commercial flight on January 21, 1976.

It was jointly developed by the British and French governments and was seen as a significant achievement in aviation technology.

Why was Concorde retired?

The decision to retire was due to a number of factors.

Air France and British Airways blamed low passenger numbers and rising maintenance costs.

Although advanced when it was launched, 30 years on the planes were outdated and expensive to run.

Passenger numbers fell after an Air France Concorde crashed minutes after taking off from Paris in July 2000, killing all 109 people on board and four on the ground.

The plane ran over a piece of metal on the runway, bursting a tyre which caused the fuel tank to ignite as it was taking off.

The 9/11 attacks in 2001 also had a severe impact on the number of people choosing to fly.

By the time Concorde was retired, it was the only aircraft in the British Airways fleet that required a flight engineer.

How fast could it fly?

The aircraft could hit a maximum speed that was more than twice as fast as sound.

That translates to about 1,354 mph, meaning the jets could make a trip from New York to London in around three and a half hours.

Its fastest-ever trip between the two cities fell on February 7, 1996, when British Airways flew Concorde from New York JFK to London Heathrow in two hours, 52 minutes, and 59 seconds.

The plane covered 6,035 km (3,750 miles) at an astonishing average speed of 2,010 km/h (1,250 mph).

When was Concorde's last flight?

Concorde took off for its final commercial flight on November 26, 2003.

The supersonic airplane made its last flight as it came into Bristol, tipping its wing to Clifton Suspension Bridge on its way.

The flight, which lasted only an hour and thirty minutes, was the last of the Concorde fleet.

However, its last passenger-carrying service from New York JFK to London Heathrow was on October 24, 2003, with crowds gathered to see what was the end of an era.

A large crowd of spectators greeted the plane’s arrival in London, which coincided with two other final Concorde flights from Edinburgh and the Bay of Biscay.

Where are the retired Concorde aircraft?

According to reports, several planes went to museums around the world, while others were dismantled and auctioned off in parts to collectors.

Twenty Concorde planes were built in France and the UK – six prototype and development aircraft and 14 service planes which were operated by Air France and British Airways.

The last Concorde built and the last to fly went on display in October 2017 at the Aerospace Bristol museum, a £19m centre in Filton.

Concorde number 216 was moved to its new home by engineers from British Airways and Airbus, who towed the iconic aircraft across Filton Airfield and up a ramp into the new purpose-built hangar.

Filton was where half the Concordes were constructed, the others being built at Toulouse.

The six other retired BA service planes are on display at Heathrow Airport, Manchester Airport, Barbados Airport, the National Museum of Flight near Edinburgh, the Museum of Flight in Seattle, and New York's Intrepid Sea-Air-Space Museum.

Air France also had seven service jets but one crashed and another was broken up for spares.

The five still intact are on show at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum at Washington DC's Dulles Airport, the Sinsheim Auto & Technik Museum in Germany, the Airbus factory in Toulouse, the Air and Space Museum at Le Bourget, and Charles de Gaulle airport near Paris.

The two original prototype aircraft, numbers 001 and 002, are on display at the French Museum of Air and Space at Le Bourget and the Fleet Air Arm Museum at Yeovilton.

Two pre-production aircraft, numbers 101 and 102, are now at the Imperial War Museum, Duxford, and Orly Airport in Paris.

Two development aircraft built for testing, numbers 201 and 202, can be seen at the Airbus factory in Toulouse, and the Brooklands Museum in Weybridge.

Were there attempts to save Concorde?

In 2003, Sir Richard Branson announced that Virgin Atlantic was interested in buying the fleet.

Branson later wrote that Virgin Atlantic had wanted to run the fleet for many years to come, but no agreement was reached.

What's the future of supersonic flight?

In August 2023, NASA revealed new updates on its supersonic hydrogen plane that aims to be twice as fast as Concorde.

The US space agency has been researching the possibility of a Mach 4 passenger jet that only takes 1.5 hours to get from New York to London.

NASA said: "Flying from New York City to London up to four times faster than what’s currently possible may sound like a far-off dream, but NASA is exploring whether the commercial market could support travel at such speeds."

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