Concorde and Concordski Trivia Quiz

Answer: Zhukovsky

The concept for the aeroplane that was to become Tu-144 was originally published in the journal "Technology of Air Transport" in January 1962. At the time, the leadership of the Soviet Union was anxious that the country not just match but surpass the technological achievements of the West, and the development of a supersonic passenger aircraft was seen as a major part of this. The Soviet air ministry initiated the development project in July 1963, with a plan for up to five flying prototypes to be built; the first of these was to be ready by 1966.

Development of the aircraft through the Tupolev design bureau was primarily undertaken by the Soviet Union's Flight Research Institute, which was based at Ramenskoye Air Base (later to become Zhukovsky International Airport) near Moscow. Part of the government's decree upon the launch of the project was that the first flight should take place by 1968 - this was achieved when the prototype took to the sky on 31 December 1968 from Ramenskoye. The aircraft - CCCP-68001 - was in the air for 38 minutes before returning, with its first flight coming two months before its Anglo-French competitor.

Answer: Sud Aviation

In the late 1950s, the French government began investigating the concept of a supersonic passenger aircraft, requesting potential designs from three major French aircraft manufacturers - Dassault, Nord Aviation and Sud Aviation. Sud Aviation's design, which came to be called the "Super-Caravelle", and was intended as a successor to the company's earlier Caravelle, was chosen as the winning design, with work to develop it beginning in 1960. Almost immediately, Sud Aviation began conversations with the UK aerospace industry, specifically in relation to obtaining suitable engines, as France did not have a major engine manufacturer of its own. The company planned to enter into a partnership with the Bristol Aeroplane Company, which was part of the British Aircraft Corporation, as part of this.

At the same time, Bristol had been developing its own SST proposals, and so the two companies were able to found themselves in agreement over much of the process. The idea of a formal partnership to develop an aircraft was put to the British government, which, despite reservations, saw it as a way of gaining French support for the UK's proposed entry into the European Economic Community. As a result, a treaty to develop the Anglo-French SST was signed in November 1962, with BAC (through Bristol) and Sud Aviation as the main industrial partners. Sud Aviation continued in this until 1970, when it was merged with Nord Aviation and SEREB to form Aerospatiale.

Answer: MiG-21

During the development process of the Tu-144, wing shapes for the production model were tested using what came to be known as the MiG-21I, a highly modified MiG-21 fighter featuring a scaled down example of the planned double delta wing shape of the Tu-144. However, work on the design of the wing was being conducted in parallel with the development of the first prototype, with the result that the findings that came from the flight tests of the MiG-21 aircraft were too late to affect the prototype's initial design. As a result, the first prototype was designed with an ogival delta wing - this is a type of double delta wing where the leading edge is shaped into a curve, and was the route that had been taken in the design of the Anglo-French SST.

Following the conclusion of the test programme with the MiG-21I, it was decided to completely modify the wing design of the production version of the Tu-144. The ogival delta was abandoned in favour of a more conventional compound delta, also known as a "double delta", which features an inboard section at a greater angle of sweep than the outboard section, in effect creating two delta shapes. During this process, a pair of retractable canard fore-planes were added to the design just behind the cockpit to improve the aircraft's handling at low speed. The first pre-production aircraft, CCCP-77101, made its maiden flight in June 1971.

Answer: Endeavour

In an attempt to reflect the unity of the United Kingdom and France in their cooperation developing the supersonic passenger aircraft, the name that was chosen for it was "Concorde", which is spelled "Concord" in English, meaning "agreement" or "harmony". However, following the signing of the treaty, President de Gaulle of France insisted that the French spelling be used, which led to Harold Macmillan, the UK Prime Minister, equally insisting that only the English spelling would be used in the UK. This led to the two prototypes, the French 001 and British 002, having different names.

In December 1967, the first prototype, F-WTSS, was structurally complete and was rolled out from the Sud Aviation facility in Toulouse. During the ceremony, Tony Benn, the UK's Minister of Technology, announced that the UK would henceforth use the French spelling of the aircraft's name, stating that the 'e' stood for "Excellence, England, Europe and Entente". in his later memoirs, Benn said that he had subsequently received a letter from an irate Scottish individual, pointing out that parts of the aircraft were made in Scotland. Benn replied by stating that the 'e' also stood for Ecosse, the French word for Scotland.

Answer: Paris Air Show

The Tu-144 and Concorde had first shared the stage at the 1971 Paris Air Show, although both had been on static display at that time. Two years later, at the next staging of the Paris Air Show, both were scheduled to undertake flying displays. On 3 June, the two aircraft were scheduled to be displayed successively, with the Concorde display first. The display, by Concorde F-WTSA, the second pre-production model, was described as being "unexciting", with the Tu-144 pilot having insisted that his aircraft would outperform the Anglo-French SST. During the Tu-144 display, the aircraft, CCCP-77102, was brought into what seemed to be a landing approach, with undercarriage lowered and canards deployed, before going into a full power climb. The aircraft appeared to stall, before going into a dive, breaking up before hitting the ground.

The crash led to a dampening in enthusiasm from Aeroflot, the Soviet flag carrier, for the aircraft, with restrictions placed on the use of the Tu-144. Although the exact cause was never determined, the two most popular theories are the unexpected presence of a French Air Force aircraft attempting to photograph the Tu-144's then highly advanced canard fore-planes, or that the pilot, in an effort to outperform Concorde, attempting to perform a manoeuvre that was outside the performance envelope of the aircraft.

Answer: Pan Am

The consortium of Sud Aviation and BAC began taking orders for Concorde almost as soon as development began in 1963, with the initial customers, Air France, British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC) and Pan Am, announced on 3 June with orders for 6 aircraft each. Further orders from Continental, American and TWA were received during 1963, while other airlines from around the world also made orders over the following years, many subsequently taking options for more aircraft above their initial numbers. By the time that Concorde first flew in March 1969, the order book totalled 74 orders from 16 airlines.

However, several factors came together that resulted in the sales performance of Concorde to collapse - the development cost of the aircraft had led the unit cost to significantly increase from the initial projection; the sonic boom meant it would be almost impossible to undertake supersonic flight over land; while the 1973 oil crisis led to airlines becoming concerned about fuel costs, and saw them looking at new wide-body aircraft as a more efficient option. As a result, by February 1975, all but two of the airlines that had placed orders in the 1960s had cancelled their options. Only BOAC (subsequently to be merged into British Airways) and Air France, with the backing of their respective governments, persisted in bringing the aircraft into service.

Answer: Alma-Ata

Aeroflot began operating Tu-144 services between Moscow and Alma-Ata in Kazakhstan on 26 December 1975, initially as a freight and mail service. The demand from the Soviet government was for passenger services to begin in conjunction with the 60th anniversary of the revolution, which would come in November 1977, whether the aircraft was actually ready or not. Passenger services from Moscow to Alma-Ata duly began on 1 November 1977, with the initially scheduled for once a week. While the inaugural flight was successful, subsequent attempts proved less so, with flights cancelled or rescheduled due to what Aeroflot claimed was bad weather at Alma-Ata. Not only did the aircraft suffer numerous failures, but the cabin suffered from high noise levels, which led to passengers having difficulty hearing each other. Passenger services were eventually withdrawn on 1 June 1978 after just 55 flights.

Despite the end of passenger services, the Tu-144 was persisted with as a fast freight carrier, with a long-range version developed for other routes, including as far as Khabarovsk in the Russian Far East. Freight only services recommenced using the long-range variant from 23 June 1979. However, technical issues remained a problem for the aircraft, with structural problems to both the airframe and engines leading to services being suspended several times. Production ended in January 1982, and the Soviet government terminated the Tu-144 programme on 1 July 1983.

Answer: Bahrain

By the time Concorde was ready to enter passenger service, it had been barred from entry into the United States, which had been regarded as the main and most important potential destination, owing to the potential for noise pollution. While British Airways and Air France attempted to get the ban overturned, they turned attention to alternative destinations, with British Airways electing to begin Concorde operations with a route to Bahrain. This proved difficult as a result of the need for a long overland route across Europe that could not take advantage of supersonic flight. However, using Concorde still shaved 90 minutes off the time, taking four hours as opposed to six and a half. The first service from London to Bahrain took off precisely at 11.40am on 21 January 1976, exactly the same time as Air France's first service to Rio de Janeiro left Paris.

Two weeks after the launch of Concorde services, the US Secretary of Transportation provided authorisation for both Air France and British Airways to operate into the United States, allowing a sixteen month trial service for each airline to provide two flights per day to New York and one per day to Washington DC. Services to Washington began on 24 May 1976 while, after the lifting of a local ban, New York flights began in November 1977. The Bahrain service was withdrawn in November 1980, while flights to Rio were stopped in 1982.

Answer: Ilyushin

The failure of the Tu-144 in passenger service still left a requirement for improved air connections to the far flung cities of the Soviet Union. As frequent supersonic services were no longer an option, Aeroflot instead turned to the concept of the wide-body aircraft capable of carrying a large number of passengers. The first such aircraft developed in the Soviet Union was the Ilyushin IL-86, which made its first flight in December 1976. Capable of accommodating around 300 passengers, the inaugural IL-86 service began between Moscow and Tashkent in December 1980, with full domestic services commencing from February 1981, and international flights starting the following June.

The IL-86 was primarily designed as a medium-range airliner, used by Aeroflot on domestic routes within the Soviet Union and international flights to Europe and Asia. However, from 1982 onwards it was also used on long-haul routes, beginning with Moscow to Havana, which could be accomplished only with a pair of refuelling stops. Further services were also introduced to other locations in South America. Although both long-range and high-capacity versions were proposed, only the baseline version of the IL-86 was produced, of which 106 were built.

Answer: Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport

In December 1978, Braniff International made agreements with British Airways and Air France to lease up to 11 Concorde aircraft for use on domestic flights between Washington DC and Dallas. Braniff had placed orders for three Concorde aircraft in 1966, cancelling them as part of the swathe of lost orders during the early 1970s during the oil crisis. However, in the period following the cancellation of its own order, the airline had begun plans for an ambitious expansion programme, part of which included obtaining the use of the SST. The planned service was introduced as an extension of the existing Air France and British Airways flights to Washington, with the crews that brought the aircraft in changed for Braniff crews, who would then take the aircraft on to Dallas.

The inaugural flights took place on 12 January 1979, with a pair of aircraft landing at Dallas-Forth Worth International Airport simultaneously. Although the Braniff services were not permitted to fly at supersonic speeds, being restricted to a high of Mach 0.95, they still took 20 minutes off the flight time to Dallas of an equivalent short-haul airliner. However, despite this, the service never gained popularity with the public, with passenger loads rarely more than 50%. As a result, Braniff ended its arrangement and terminated the service in May 1980.

Answer: Boston

Upon its initial entry into passenger service, Concorde was preventing from flying to the United States as a result of a ban implemented by the United States Congress following public protests. However, the US Secretary of Transportation, William Coleman, did give permission or a trial service to be operated three times a week to Washington DC, which started running in May 1976. This ultimately led to the federal ban being lifted in February 1977. However, although this now permitted both British Airways and Air France to run a daily scheduled service to Washington, the Port Authority of New York, owners of New York City's John F. Kennedy International Airport, instituted a local ban, thus preventing the aircraft from commencing services to the Big Apple.

The fight to lift the ban on flights into New York went to the US Supreme Court, which finally removed the restriction on 17 October 1977, which led to British Airways beginning its twice-a-day service from London to New York on 22 November 1977. Seven years later, British Airways introduced a third US destination to its Concorde services when, in March 1984, it began flying a three times a week service to Miami, extending its Washington flight. The Miami service lasted until January 1991, while flights to Washington ended in November 1994, leaving just the flagship New York service, which continued until Concorde's withdrawal from service in October 2003.

Answer: Mexico City

In 1977, the Mexican oil industry began a boom period of increased production, which led to a massive increase in the Mexican economy. As part of the exploitation of this boom, Air France instituted a Concorde service from Paris to Mexico City in 1978. The twice-weekly service operated as an extension of the airline's existing flights to either Washington DC or New York. The service was inaugurated on 21 September 1978, following the flight from Paris to Washington.

In order to reach Mexico, the service was routed down the eastern seaboard and then across Florida before transiting the Gulf of Mexico. As a result of the restrictions on supersonic travel over land, the aircraft was forced to decelerate from Mach 2.02 to Mach 0.95 during the period that it crossed over Florida, before accelerating again. Despite this, the service still reduced the travel time from Paris to Mexico City, taking 6 and a half hours. However, the economic crash that followed the Mexican oil boom led to Air France withdrawing the service in November 1982.

Answer: British Caledonian

Following Concorde's entry into passenger service with British Airways in 1976, British Caledonian (BCal), the UK's largest privately owned airline, began looking at the idea of procuring Concorde for its own services. This was partly owing to the change in the UK government's aviation policy, which opened the possibility of British Airways introducing services that could compete with British Caledonian. As a result, BCal looked at obtaining Concorde to operate its own supersonic services. Two proposals for procurement were considered - either BCal obtaining their own Concorde fleet, which was possible as two airframes remained unsold at that point, or for BCal to enter an arrangement with BA.

Two primary routes were envisaged for BCal's Concorde services. The first was the addition of a scheduled Concorde service to the airline's existing route between London and Lagos in Nigeria, while the other was a planned new service from London to Atlanta via Gander or Halifax. These proposals were sufficiently advanced that a launch date of 1980 was envisaged, with the two aircraft fleet to be maintained either by BA or Air France. However, the rising oil price during 1979 saw BCal end the proposal before it started.

Answer: Bay of Biscay

When British Airways announced it was to withdraw its Concorde fleet in October 2003, it also announced plans to make the event a celebration, which included a final flourish that would see three Concordes land in succession at London Heathrow Airport. On 24 October 2003, G-BOAG departed JFK Airport with the final scheduled service, while two other aircraft, G-BOAE and G-BOAF, left Heathrow for a pair of special services - one flew north to eventually land in Edinburgh before returning to London, while the other flew a circular round trip around the Bay of Biscay.

The three flights were rotated into the landing pattern back into Heathrow with a scheduled landing time of just after 4.00pm, having been given special permission to make a low pass over London. The aircraft landed in succession, with G-BOAG, the scheduled service from New York, being the last to land. The end of BA's services, along with Air France withdrawing their fleet in May 2003, saw the twelve remaining Concordes distributed to various museums around the world. The final ever Concorde flight came when G-BOAF was taken from Heathrow to its final resting place at the Aerospace Bristol museum in Filton on 26 November 2003.

Answer: Germany

The Tupolev design bureau constructed a total of 17 Tu-144s, of which eight were ultimately scrapped, while another two crashed. Of the remaining seven, a total of six are on display at various museums. Five of these are in Russia, while the sixth, CCCP-77112, was stored for twenty years until it was purchased by the Technik Museum Sinsheim, a private museum consortium located at Sinsheim in Baden-Wurttemberg. In October 2000, the aircraft's wings, nose and tail were removed, and the parts were put on a barge and shipped via the Baltic to be reassembled at Sinsheim and lifted onto a display stand on the museum roof.

Following Concorde's withdrawal, 18 of the 20 constructed airframes were provided for display at various museums and other locations around the world. One of Air France's Concordes, F-BVFB, was donated for display at the Technik Museum Sinsheim alongside the Tu-144. On 24 June 2003, the aircraft made its final flight from Paris to Karlsruhe, where it was disassembled for transport to the museum by road and barge. Upon arrival, it was reassembled before being lifted onto its display stand alongside the Tu-144, making it the only location anywhere in the world that both first generation SSTs can be seen alongside each other.