On 25 July 2000, Air France Flight 4590, a Concorde passenger jet on an international charter flight from Paris to New York, crashed shortly after takeoff, killing all 109 people on board and four on the ground. It was the only fatal Concorde accident during its 27-year operational history.
Flight 4590 during takeoff
F-BTSC, the Concorde involved in the accident, photographed in 1985, 15 years prior to the accident.
N13067, the DC-10 involved in the accident sequence, photographed in 1996, 4 years prior to the accident.
N13067, the DC-10 involved, was scrapped at Mojave, California, in 2002.
Concorde is a retired Anglo-French supersonic airliner jointly developed and manufactured by Sud Aviation and the British Aircraft Corporation (BAC).
Studies started in 1954, and France and the UK signed a treaty establishing the development project on 29 November 1962, as the programme cost was estimated at £70 million .
Construction of the six prototypes began in February 1965, and the first flight took off from Toulouse on 2 March 1969.
The market was predicted for 350 aircraft, and the manufacturers received up to 100 option orders from many major airlines.
On 9 October 1975, it received its French Certificate of Airworthiness, and from the UK CAA on 5 December.
Concorde
British Airways Concorde in early BA livery at London-Heathrow Airport in the early 1980s
Concorde 001 first flight in 1969
Concorde on early visit to Heathrow Airport on 1 July 1972
