SST Fame

Concorde test pilot Andre Turcat died Jan. 4, 2016, at the age of 94, at his home in Aix-En-Provence. Turcat flew the maiden flight of the Aérospatiale-BAC Concorde 001 on March 2, 1969 in a flight from Toulouse.

He flew the SST supersonic for the first time in October that year. Turcat and Brian Trubshaw were the joint test pilots of the Anglo-French commercial supersonic transport with Turcat working for the French and Trubshaw, the British. Trubshaw flew Concorde 002 from Bristol’s Filton airport to RAF Fairford, Gloucestershire, on April 9, 1969. The Concorde did not go into commercial service until 1976.

Only Air France and British Airways flew the type, of which only 20 were built. They were flown in commercial service for 27 years with both airlines suspending service in 2003.

The Getty images shown here are of Turcat (left) and Trubshaw in front of a Concorde in Bristol, England, December 9, 1968, and a shot of Concorde 001. (Photo Credits: Dennis Oulds/Central Press/Getty Images). For a video of the first flight of Concorde 002, and of Turcat and Trubshaw, watch this film from April 14, 1969. 

Also shown is one of my favorites of four British Airways Concordes in flight. 

I also found in our archives photos of the Russian SST, the TU-144. Notice the rainbow in the background. This did not depict the life of the Tupolev supersonic aircraft.

The TU-144 was the first supersonic commercial aircraft to fly on December 31, 1968 in Moscow. A TU-144 crashed at the 1973 Paris Air Show, delaying further development. It didn’t begin passenger service until November 1977, and in May 1978 an improved TU-144 crashed while on a delivery flight. The TU-144 was grounded for passenger SST service with only 55 scheduled flights to its record. It did perform some cargo services until end-of-service in 1983.