Description
By: Jonathan Falconer .
Description
She flies, she flies!' was the ecstatic shout from BBC commentator Raymond Baxter when he witnessed Concorde 001 take off from Toulouse on her maiden flight in 1969. In her thirty-four year life Concorde never lost any of her magic, and continued to inflame the passions of all who came into contact with her.
Concorde was conceived in the early 1960s from an unlikely affair between the British and French governments and the collaboration of their respective aircraft industries. She was born into controversy, which was never far away during her career as the world's most elite passenger transport. Controversy hovered in the wings when she was forced into premature retirement in the wake of the Paris crash in 2000, and the decline in transatlantic air travel following 9/11.
Posterity has been blessed with a rich and comprehensive pictorial record of Concorde. Over the years, the cameras of professional and amateur photographers have clicked away relentlessly to capture her likeness on film and in digital format, in colour and black and white, preserving the very essence of this icon of 20th century design.
More than 200 fascinating colour photographs have been chosen for this book to illustrate the Concorde story — from her genesis through to design and first flights, and from her service with British Airways and Air France between 1976 and 2003, through to her eventual retirement to museums around the world. Fully researched captions complement the photographs, many of which are previously unpublished.
When it comes to the final analysis, Concorde was more than simply an aircraft. She was an institution — and her passing is mourned by her thousands of fans the world over.
