The Concorde Story

Description

Christopher Orlebar traces Concorde from an audacious Anglo-French proposal to the world’s best-known supersonic airliner. Writing with the perspective of a former Concorde pilot, he explains the aircraft’s distinctive delta wing, afterburning engines, movable nose, and flight deck, then follows the political bargaining, engineering trials, route proving, and commercial service that shaped its career. Accounts of crews and passengers place the machine’s speed and glamour beside its high operating costs, environmental controversy, and restricted network. Later chapters address the Paris crash, the aircraft’s return to flight, and final retirement. The book combines accessible technical explanation with operational history, presenting Concorde as both an engineering achievement and a fragile product of international politics, economics, and public fascination.

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