The Concorde-type European supersonic aircraft began operating on commercial lines on 21 January 1976. It was a revolutionary passenger aircraft that has remained unique to the present supersonic flight feature (in history there was only another type of supersonic passenger aircraft – the Soviet Tupolev Tu-144 – but it was dropped from commercial use after only 55 regular flights). The first passenger airlines that Concorde flew were London – Bahrain and Paris – Rio de Janeiro. The Concorde was able to exceed twice the speed of the sound propagator (Mach 2), which means that it was more than twice as fast as any other passenger aircraft in use at the time (they regularly move at subsonic speed).
Concorde aircraft were able to fly at an altitude of 18,300 meters, which was significantly higher than ordinary passenger aircraft. The Concorde’s hull was so narrow (2.87 meters) that only four passengers were seated in a single row, with passageways in the middle (similar to buses). The Concorde was decommissioned in 2003, so that no supersonic passenger aircraft are flying in the world today.
