Concorde was a supersonic marvel that never made money — and crashed, ending its era

Concorde, which entered service in 1976, was one of the most remarkable aircraft ever built: a supersonic airliner that could carry passengers across the Atlantic at twice the speed of sound, cutting the flight to about three and a half hours. It was a joint project of France's Aérospatiale and Britain's British Aircraft Corporation, and a symbol of technological ambition.

But Concorde was never a commercial success. It was enormously expensive to build and to operate, burned fuel at a staggering rate, and could carry only about 100 passengers. Its sonic boom meant it could not fly supersonic over land, restricting it to a few ocean routes. Only 20 were ever built, and only Air France and British Airways flew them, on a handful of routes, at fares few could afford.

For decades Concorde flew as a glamorous but money-losing icon. Then, on July 25, 2000, an Air France Concorde crashed shortly after takeoff from Paris, killing all 109 people on board and four on the ground. The crash, the first in Concorde's history, shattered confidence in the aircraft. After a brief return to service, Concorde was retired in 2003 — a technological marvel that the market could never support.