1950s and 1960s

1956 - Nov 5

STAC (Supersonic Transport Aircraft Committee) set up to evauate the feasability of a supersonic airliner.

1959 - Mar 9

STAC proposes studies for two supersonic airliners, one to fly at Mach 1.2 the other Mach 2.0.

1961 - Jun/Jul

Initial joint venture discussions between the British Aircraft Corporation and Sud Aviation take place.

1962 - Sep

President Charles de Gaulle gives his public backing to a joint Anglo-French supersonic airliner, with a preference for speed over passenger capacity.

1962 - Nov 29

Draft treaty signed for Ango-French project. The building work to be shared between the British Aircraft Corporation (airframes), Sud Aviation (airframes), Bristol Siddeley (engine) and SNECMA (engines).

1963 - Jan 13

President Charles de Gaulle first uses the word 'Concorde' with reference to the project - later to become the official name.

1963 - Jun 3

Pan American signs an option for 6 aircraft. This would later be canceled as would provisional orders from several other airlines, eventually leaving Air France and British Airways as the only operators.

1963 - Jun

Both BOAC and Air France sign options for aircraft.

1963 - Jun 5

President John F kennedy announces a supersonic transport programme for the US.

1964 - May 1

BACs 'mini Concorde' BAC221 makes its first flight at Bristol and then is tested further in Southern France.

1964 - Nov 19

Britain's newly elected Labour government announces withdrawal from project.

1965 - Jan 20

Britain's government announces a change of mind about pulling out of the project.

1965 - Apr

Construction starts on the prototype aircraft.

1965 - May

Announcemet of the pre-production design.

1966 - Apr

Final assembly of the French prototype (designated 001) begins at Toulouse.

1966 - Aug

Final assembly of the British prototype (designated 002) begins at Filton, Bristol.

1966 - Sep

Avro Vulcan starts to be used as test bed for Olympus 593 engine trials.

1967 - Feb

A full scale Concorde inerior mock up is presented to potential airline customers.

1967 - Dec 11

French prototype (001) is rolled out for a major presentation ceremony at Toulouse at which Anthony Wedgewood Benn announces that the British aircraft will also be named Concorde, that is with an 'e' which the French had already been doing.

1968 - Feb

The British government announces a loan of £125 million for Concorde production.

1968 - Sep 19

The British prototype (002) is rolled out for viewing at Filton, Bristol.

1968 - Dec 31

Russia's Tupolev Tu-144, dubbed 'Concordski', becomes the first supersonic airliner to fly. Although externally very similar to Concorde the Tu-144 was beset with technical difficalties and would never enter passenger service.

1969 - Mar 3

French prototype (001) flies for the first time. Piloted by Chief Test Pilot Andre Turcat, F-WTSS takes off from Toulouse and successfully completes a short flight and returns with a perfect landing.

1969 - Apr 9

British prototype (002) flies for the first time. Piloted by Chief Test Plot Brian Trubshaw, G-BSST takes off from Filton, Bristol and successfully completes the short flght to the desigated test centre at RAF Fairford.

1969 - Jun

At the Paris airshow the two prototypes make heir first public appearance together.

1969 - Oct 1

Concorde 001 exceeds Mach 1 for the first time, holding Mach 1.05 for 9 minutes.

1969 - Nov 12

First Concorde night landing is caried out successfully.

1970s

1970 - Mar 25

Concorde 002 exceeds Mach 1 for the first time.

1970 - Sep 1

Concorde 002 appears at the Farnborough airshow.

1970 - Sep 13

Concorde 002 lands at Heathrow Airport.

1970 - Nov 4

Concorde 001 exceeds Mach 2 for the first time.

1970 - Nov 12

Concorde 002 exceeds Mach 2 for the first time.

1971 - Mar 24

The proposed US supersonic airliner project is canceled by Congress, a factor that would later provide many obstacles for Concorde in having routes to the US approved.

1971 - May 13

Concorde 001 lands automatically for the first time.

1971 - May 25

Concorde 001 makes an appearance at the Paris air show before completed a 2,500 mile trip to Dakar in just 2 hours 7 minutes.

1971 - Sep

Concorde 001 undertakes an important sales promotion tour to South America. The tour starts with 001s first transatlantic flight followed by visits to Sao Paolo, Cayenne, the Cape Verde Islands and finally Rio de Janeiro. The aircraft stared at the France ‘71 exhibition making several demonstration flights.

1971 - Sep 20

Concorde 01, G-AXDN, the first pre-production aircraft is rolled out at Filton

1971 - Dec 17

Concorde 01 makes its first flight, the short journey from Filton to the test centre at RAF Fairford.

1972 - Feb 12

Concorde 01 (G-AXDN) flies supersonic for the first time.

1972 - Apr 22/3

A Concorde flies to Germany for the first time when 002 (G-BSST) appears at the Hanover Air Show.

1972 - Jun 2

Concorde 002 (G-BSST) starts a month long promotional sales tour of the Far East and Australia. The tour covers 45,000 miles and takes in 12 countries.

1972 - Jul 28

BOAC place orders for 5 Concorde, Air France order 4.

1972 - Sep

Concorde 002 (G-BSST) appears at the Farnborough Air Show and makes several public appearances around the UK.

1972 - Sep 28

Concorde 02 (F-WTSA), the first French pre-production aircraft is rolled out at Toulouse.

1973 - Jan 10

Concorde 02 (F-WTSA) makes its maiden flight from Toulouse.

1973 - Jan 22

Concorde 002 (G-BSST) flies to Johannesburg, South Africa to undergo ‘hot and High’ performance trials.

1973 - Jun 3

The Soviet Tu-144, supersonic rival to Concorde, crashes at the Paris Air Show.

1973 - Jun 30

Scientists on Concorde 001 (F-WTSS) track a solar eclipe at 55,000 feet for 80 minutes.

1973 - Sep 20

Concorde 02 (F-WTSA) attends the opening of the Dallas-Fort Worth Airport.

1973 - Sep 26

Concorde 02 (F-WTSA) breaks the Washington - Paris record by completing the trip in 3 hours 33 minutes.

1973 - Oct 19

Concorde 001 (F-WTSS) is retired and put on display at the museum at Le Bourget Airport.

1974 - Feb 7

Concorde 02 (F-WTSA) flies to Fairbanks in Alaska to carry out cold temperature tests.

1974 - Jun 17

In an effort to promote Concorde Air France set up a demonstration of its speed. A Concorde takes off from Boston at the same time as an Air France 747 takes off from Paris. The Concorde lands at Paris, spends over an hour on the ground, then beats the 747 back to Boston by 11 minutes.

1974 - Nov 7

Concorde 01 (G-ADXN) flies to Moses Lake, USA for de-icing trials and on the way sets the record for a civil crossing of the North Atlantic.

1975 - May 30

Concorde 201 (F-WTSB) appears at the Paris Air Show.

1975 - Jun 19

British Airways starts aircrew training.

1975 - Sep 1

Concorde 204 (G-BOAC) become the first aircraft to make four Atlantic crossings in a single day, flying from London to Newfoundland twice.

1975 - Oct 14

British Airways and Air France both start to take public reservations for scheduled services.

1975 - Dec 18

The US House of Representatives vote to ban Concorde for 6 months from landing in the USA.

1975 - Dec 19

Air France receive their first Concorde (F-BVFA).

1975 - Dec 26

The Tu-144 makes it first commercial flight, but only carrying freight and mail, the aircraft would never fly commercial passengers.

1976 - Jan 1

British Airways receive their first Concorde (G-BOAA).

1976 - Jan 21

British Airways first commercial flight is to Bahrain with G-BOAA. Air France take off at the same time to Rio via Dakar with F-BVFA.

1976 - Feb 4

Concorde is given permission to fly in Washington for a trial period of 16 months, during which time noise levels and other impacts would be assessed.

1976 - Mar 4

The British prototype Concorde 002 (G-BSST) is retired to the Fleet Air Arm Museum at RN Air Station Yeovilton.

1976 - May 24

In a ceremonial start to transatlantic services to Washington, a British Airways Concorde and an Air France Concorde touch down at Dulles airport together, having flown together over the capital.

1976 - Nov 2

Concorde 203 (F-BTSC) starts an Air France demonstration tour of the Far East.

1977 - May 21

To celebrate the 50th anniversary of Charles Lindbergh’s historic Atlantic crossing, a Concorde flies the same route. Lindbergh completed the journey in 33 hours 29 minutes, Concorde did it in 3 hours 44 minutes.

1977 - Nov 22

British Airways and Air France finally start commercial services to New York, having been delayed for several months by local protests about noise and pollution.

1977 - Dec 9

A joint operation by British Airways and Singapore Airlines starts with a flight from London to Singapore via Bahrain, unfortunately this has to be canceled after only 3 flights as the Malaysian government decided to ban Concorde from its airspace.

1978 - Aug 10

British Airways flies its 100,000th Concorde passenger.

1979 - Jan

British Airways and Air France start a joint venture with Braniff International to fly between Washington and Dallas. This requires 5 British Airways Concordes to be given dual registrations and 5 Air France Concordes to be given American registrations.

1979 - Feb 12

HM The Queen and HRH Prince Philip fly to Kuwait on Concorde to start their tour of the Middle East.

1979 - Sep 21

Britain and France announce that no further Concordes will be built and that the unsold aircraft will be given to British Airways and Air France.

1979 - Dec 16

A British Airways Concorde sets a new record for the London to New York crossing: 2 hours 59 minutes and 36 seconds.

1980s

1980 - Jun 1

The joint venture between Braniff International, British Airways and Air France is terminated as a result of low passenger utilisation of the Washington to Dallas route. The 10 Concordes involved in this arrangement are subsequently re-registered back to their previous registrations.

1982 - Oct 29

Air France discontinue their Paris - Washington service.

1983 - Jan 1

Concorde sets a new record for a west to east Atlantic crossing, completing it in 2 hours 56 minutes.

1984 - Mar 27

A new Concorde route to Miami is opened by British Airways.

1984 - Mar 31

The British government transfers responsibility for Concorde management, funding and profitability to British Airways.

1984 - Sep 11

A British Airways Concorde (G-BOAB) flies from Washington to Nice and sets a new distance record of 4,565 miles.

1985 - Feb 13

A Concorde sets a new London to Sydney time of 17 hours and 3 minutes.

1985 - Mar 28

A Concorde sets a new London to Cape Town record of 8 hours 8 minutes.

1986 - Jul 11

Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher flies on Concorde to Vancouver for Expo 86.

1986 - Nov 8/23

A first round the world Concorde charter flight is completed in 31 hours 51 mins.

1987 - Sep 6

Concorde sets a transatlantic coast to coast record of 1 hour 35 minutes flying from Newfoundland to Ireland.

1987 - Oct 5

The 1,000,000th scheduled British Airways passenger in Patrick Mannix of Reuters.

1987 - Nov 27

On the 10th anniversary of flights to JFK New York, land speed record holder Richard Noble sets a new record by making 3 Atlantic crossings in one day.

1988 - Feb 7

Concorde G-BOAA sets a new transatlantic record of 2 hours 55 minutes and 15 seconds.

1990s

1990 - Jan 21

Concorde sets a new transatlantic record of 2 hours 54 minutes and 30 seconds.

1990 - Jun 6

A Concorde and a Spitfire fly in formation over the white cliffs of Dover to
commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Battle of Britain.

1990 - Sep 14

Concorde appears at the Farnborough Air Show.

1991 - May 14

HM The Queen and HRH Prince Philip fly on Concorde to Washington to start a tour of the USA.

1993 - Mar 26

Barbara Harmer, a Senior First Officer with British Airways, becomes the first female Concorde pilot.

1993 - Dec 3

The Bee Gees create the ‘fastest show on Earth’ by playing aboard Concorde on a supersonic trip around the Bay of Biscay to raise money for Children in Need.

1995 - May 29

Sir Archibald Russell CBE FRS, Concorde designer, dies at the age of 90.

1996 - Feb 7

A new transatlantic record is set by Captain Leslie Scott. The time of 2 hours 52 minutes and 59 seconds remains to this day.

1996 - Apr 2

An Air France Concorde is unveiled painted in Pepsi-Cola colours as part of a major promotion.

1997

A programme starts to paint all British Airways Concordes in the new Chatham livery.
This paint scheme was originally planned just for Concorde but was eventually rolled out to all British Airways aircraft.

1998 - Jul 1

Concorde G-BOAB flies the England World Cup 98 football team home from Nantes.

2000s

2000 - Jul 25

Air France Concorde F-BTSC crashes at Gonesse shortly after take off from Paris Charles de Gaulle, no crew or passengers survive. The crash results in all Concordes ultimately being grounded for re-engineering work on tyres, landing gear and fuel tanks.

2000 - Jul 26

British Airways flights restart but Air France Concorde remain grounded.

2000 - Aug 15

British Airways Concorde flights are grounded on the news that the Certificate of Airworthiness will be withdrawn the next day.

2000 - Dec 12

Crash investigators issue their report confirming that the accident was caused by debris from a burst tyre puncturing a fuel tank.

2001 - Jan

Work starts on G-BOAF which will pioneer the upgrades needed to return Concorde to service; primarily modifications to tyres, fuel tank linings and undercarriage electrics.

2001 - Jul 17

G-BOAF completes a successful first verification flight for British Airways. The supersonic flight lasts 3 hours 20 minutes before a landing at RAF Brize Norton.

2001 - Aug 24

F-BVFB completes a first verification flight for Air France.

2001 - Sep 5

Modified Concorde are given back their Certificates of Airworthiness.

2001 - Oct 16

Tickets go back on sale for Concorde scheduled services.

2001 - Nov 7

British Airways and Air France resume Concorde flights to New York in the morning. On a later British Airways flight Prime Minister Tony Blair flies to Washington DC to meet President George W Bush.

2001 - Dec 1

British Airways restart services to Barbados.

2001 - Dec 19

To celebrate the new year British Airways offer return flights to New York for just £2002. The seats all sell out within 3 minutes.

2002 - Jun 4

Concorde G-BOAD in formation with the Red Arrows takes part in a fly past to celebrate the Queen’s Golden Jubilee.

2003 - Apr 10

A joint announcement is made by British Airways and Air France stating that Concorde will retire from service later in the year. Rising maintenance costs and falling passenger numbers have caused Concorde to become unprofitable.

2003 - Apr 11

Entrepreneur Richard Branson, founder of Virgin, announces his interest in buying the Concorde fleet. The bid would not be successful.

2003 - May 31

The final Air France passenger flights.

2003 - Aug 30

The final British Airways flight from Barbados is undertaken by G-BOAC.

2003 - Oct 1

British Airways Concorde G-BOAG starts a 2 week farewell tour of North America with a visit to Toronto.

2003 - Oct 15

Concorde G-BOAG finishes the North America tour by departing from New York JFK.

2003 - Oct 20

The Concorde UK tour starts with G-BOAC flying in to Birmingham.

2003 - Oct 21

G-BOAC continues the UK tour with a visit to Belfast.

2003 - Oct 22

G-BOAG visits Manchester.

2003 - Oct 23

G-BOAC visits Cardiff.

2003 - Oct 24

The final day of commercial Concorde services. Captain Les Brodie flies G-BOAE on a return flight to Edinburgh. Captain Paul Douglas flies G-BOAF on the last trip around the bay. Chief Concorde Pilot Mike Bannister and SFO Jonathan Napier fly the last New York to Heathrow flight (BA002) in G-BOAG. The aircraft all perform a low fly past over London and then land in close succession at Heathrow for the last time.

2003 - Oct 30

G-BOAC flies to its retirement home at Manchester Airport.

2003 - Nov 5

G-BOAG arrives at Seattle where it will be retired at the Museum of Flight (via New York), having flown supersonically over Northern Canada in order to set a new record time from New York to Seattle.

2003 - Nov 10

G-BOAD arrives at New York JFK from were she is then taken by barge to her retirement home at the Intrepid Museum on the Hudson River.

2003 - Nov 17

G-BOAE arrives at its retirement home in Barbados.

2003 - Nov 26

G-BOAF makes the last ever flight of a Concorde aircraft. Flown by Captain Les Brodie with Chief Concorde Pilot Mike Bannister and Flight Engineer Warren Lazenby, G-BOAF does a Bay of Biscay circuit followed by a fly past of Bristol before landing at Filton airfield, her birthplace and final resting place.