Monday, March 02, 2009

F-WTSS 001 - Autorisé à décoller

It is 2nd March, but 1969, forty years before today! The place, known to avionics veterans either as TLS or LFBO and located 6.7 km northwest of Toulouse just south of Blagnac is the Aéroport de Toulouse - Blagnac, better known to the outside world as the Toulouse Blagnac International Airport, in France, witnessed history in the making when an Anglo-French plane bearing registration number F-WTSS, designated 001, took off and hovered in the air for 27 minutes before its commander decided to bring it back to land!


Powered by four Olympus 593 engines, built jointly by the Bristol division of Rolls Royce and the French Snecma organisation, the Aérospatiale-BAC Concorde had for the first time "lifted off" ground amidst thundering applause from a battery of personnel, cameramen and journalists who had gathered to watch the maiden flight!

Eventually, only 20 of these super-birds were ever built and the supersonic carrier was withdrawn from service due to a host of problems ranging from finance to environmental impact! F-WTSS, 001 itself flew only 812 hours before being retired on 19 October 1973! It is currently on display at Musée de l'Air et de l'Espace (The Museum of Air and Space), Le Bourget, France.

The last concorde, G-BOAF 216, was retired on 26 November 2003 after 18257 hours in flight, thus bringing the concorde era to an end!

Footnotes:

Image Courtesy: The BBC
Other inputs: Wikipedia

14 comments:

  1. Good information, but a very 'manly' subject...

    Mechanical engineering is as boring as those guys to me! :(

    Hope many of them will read this and start a fight ;)

    wishes,
    devika

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  2. 'Concorde' I've been familiar with this name since a kid coz. I'd a toy airplane with the name Concorde printed on it. I wanted to be a Pilot then :P

    I didn't know about this history behind concorde.

    So what are you? Engineer?

    And man, this place Lohagadh is amazing. Are there organised treks there? Can beginners go? I so want to do this...

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  3. Yeah, the word concorde was used a lot in our childhood for 'soooper' planes. I remember asking my dad if we could fly in one of those for our regular trips to India.

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  4. aah nice piece of info there
    I always dreamed of watching one concorde for real...but alas!!!:(

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  5. she was a magnificen bird, was the concorde. it's a shame her career ended the way it did...

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  6. Concorde?? Hey all thanks to my buddy, a freak of planes... who enlightened me on these planes. made me nostalgic, when we spoke all day n night about planes...

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  7. Devika Chechi

    I always wanted to be a pilot! From a very young age, avionics interested me more than anything else.....but then everytime I would tell someone I wanted to be a pilot, pat came the reply "But you wear glasses?"
    And then the rest is history!

    I agree this can be sometimes boring and truly manly a subject! But very exciting ;)

    :)

    Cheers

    Rakesh

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  8. Magiceye

    Yes indeed, it made history!

    Cheers

    Rakesh

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  9. Rakesh

    Welcome to my space!

    I can understand how it feels, especially when one has related to avionics since childhood!
    Much like you, I too wanted to be a Pilot, but then.........!

    I work as a Research Analyst

    No, there are no organized treks to Lohagad! One can form a group of people and then head out....the best time to visit - during the monsoons!

    Cheers

    Rakesh

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  10. Vimmuuu

    Yeah! I kinda relate very well!

    Cheers

    Rakesh

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  11. Praveen

    Thanks very much! Me too! I haven't ever seen a Concorde ever :(

    Cheers

    Rakesh

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  12. Polona

    Indeed, a fine bird who graced the skies like none other! But alas!

    Rakesh

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  13. Bharath

    One can speak about planes for a lifetime, trust me!

    Cheers

    Rakesh

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