Concorde - The Future of Flight

Revolutionary leader Oliver Cromwell was executed on 30th January, 1661 - despite having been dead for more than two years. His body was exhumed from its tomb in Westminster Abbey on the instruction of King Charles II, who sought retribution for those involved in the trial and ex ...  Show more

The BBC broadcast the first ever edition of Roy Plomley’s ‘Desert Island Discs’ - the world’s longest-running interview programme - on 29th January, 1942. Opening, as the show still does, with Eric Coates’s theme music ‘By the Sleepy Lagoon’, the episode welcomed comedian Vic Oli ...  Show more

March 2, 1969. French pilot André Turcat takes to the skies above Toulouse-Blagnac airport. He’s flying an odd-looking plane: long and slender with triangular wings and a bent-down nose like a bird of prey. It’s called the Concorde – a jet designed to move supersonic flight from ...  Show more

Almost as soon as Chuck Yeager broke the sound barrier in 1947, people began thinking of ways to transport passengers at supersonic speeds. However, the challenges in creating a passenger aircraft that could travel at supersonic speeds were much greater than making a fighter airc ...  Show more

The pandemic has been very hard on commercial aviation, but most experts believe the sector will soon be growing again – fast. The BBC's Theo Leggett takes a look at what new technologies are out there. Sandra Bour Schaeffer, Chief Executive of Airbus Upnext, tells him what the a ...  Show more

The supersonic Concorde Jet erupts in flames while taking off and crashes into a nearby hotel. Air France Flight 4590 prepares for a routine flight to JFK International Airport. Everything seems normal as the plane taxis onto the runway, but disaster strikes during takeoff. Find ...  Show more