Tower Control: “Air France Concorde flight 4590 turn left and hold runway 26R.”
Pilot: “Roger that tower, 26 Right.”
(Moments later) Tower Control: “Air France 4590 you are cleared for takeoff. Good day.”
On July 25, 2000, Paris skies were a vivid summer cerulean hue with light, variable winds, and visibility unlimited. At 4:43 p.m., the supersonic transport wheels began to roll down the runway at Charles De Gaulle Airport. The Supersonic Transport (or SST) aircraft rapidly accelerated to “V Speed,” the point of no return requiring rotation off the ground at 198 knots (or 227.8 mph).
A split second before rotation, the left front inboard landing gear tire shredded, hurling pieces of rubber into the fuel loaded wing, resulting in a massive eruption of jet fuel and a staccato arpeggio of fire. A large, bellowing contrail of red, white, and yellow conflagrations plumed nearly a block behind the accelerating plane, leaching fear from everyone that saw it. In its wake, angry black soot-filled smoke trailed down the runway, scorching the concrete with torching, blistering jet fuel. Moments later, at an altitude of 200 feet, the engines stalled. The SST banked left and pancaked tail low into an airport hotel. All 100 passengers and a crew of nine lost their lives, plus four people on the ground.
Investigations determined that a Continental Airlines DC10 had taken off on the same runway just five minutes before the Concorde. A 17 by one-inch piece of titanium trim from an engine cowling fell off the airline. Inquiries found that the rugged metal cut the SST's massive Goodyear tire rupturing the fuel tank.
Twenty-Four Years Earlier
On May 24, 1976, just before noon, I was standing on the observation deck, next to the tower at Dulles Airport, outside Washington, D.C. At the time, I was a vice president at Daniel J Edelman Public Relations D.C. office. The firm was contracted, as Registered Foreign Agents, for Aerospatiale (France) and British Aircraft Corporation, (United Kingdom), to win the approval of the SST landing rights in the U.S. Our years of work was successful on Capitol Hill, with the FAA, and other governmental agencies. I took the photo that accompanies this column when the British Airways and Air France Concordes posted nose to nose on the tarmac in front of the terminal.
A Round-Trip Ticket Costs Nearly $10,000
The two Concordes took off from Paris and London in the early afternoon, European time. The turbo-powered supersonic passenger airliners cruised as high as 60 thousand feet and flew at Mach 2.04, or 1,350 miles-an-hour arriving at Dulles in less than four hours. The aircraft first appeared lined up two minutes apart in the blue and fluffy, white clouded sky. The jets looked like a water bird squatting to land as the delta wings rose upwards, capturing wind resistance slowing the airship in its glide path. They emerged as prehistoric birds with a drooping nose, as the cockpit tilted downward so pilots could visually see the runway below. Like a giant kite, they elegantly floated to the ground.
Following the landing rights success at Dulles, our office took media hotshots, and VIPs on complementary flights to France. The guests could have breakfast at home in Washington, lunch at Maxims-de-Paris, and be back home in time for supper. Inside the long slender cabin, passengers watched monitors showing the plane's airspeed pass twice the speed of sound. When this bird accelerated, powerful air friction made the exceedingly small windows hot to touch. The all-leather seats were not as large as today's business class seating. A round-trip ticket costs nearly $10,000.
The Air France Concorde made a final historic landing on June 12, 2003, at Washington Dulles International Airport. The supersonic SST jet traveled from Paris to Dulles, officially ending Air France's 27 years of service. The aircraft was donated to the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum at Dulles Airport. It is there today, along with the legendary Enola Gay B-29 bomber.
British Airways flew the last commercial passenger Concorde flight on October 24, 2003. The trip was from JFK Airport to London Heathrow. It carried 100 passengers, including actress Joan Collins, model Christie Brinkley and a couple from Ohio, who reportedly paid $60,000 on eBay for the tickets. Supersonic travel has yet to resume.
Jerry Wilkerson has lived in SaddleBrooke for 11 years. He is a former press secretary for two U.S. Congressmen, a prior Chicago CBS radio and newspaper reporter. Wilkerson is a navy veteran and a former Police Commissioner. Email me at franchise@att.net.
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