In episode one, host Nastaran Tavakoli-Far and producer Pedro Mendes set the stage for our six-part story of the people and teams that made supersonic flight a reality. The team travels to the Brooklands Museum in the U.K, where Nastaran sees a Concorde up close for the first time. Also in episode one, you’ll hear about the monumental 1956 meeting of the Supersonic Transport Aircraft Committee (STAC) that set in motion a complex network of teams from the U.K. and France to execute this ambitious project.
Hello ladies and gentlemen, welcome aboard Concord.
My name is Mike Bannister and it's my great pleasure to invite you on the world's only supersonic airliner as we prepare for departure from London's Heathrow.
So the actual cabin is really small.
I'm quite short so I can stand up, but if you're over five foot ten or something you're gonna have to stoop.
Do make yourselves comfortable as we offer you the finest wines, the finest cuisine, the finest service in the air.
Although the flight is very short, we hope it will be a memorable experience for you.
Cabin crew, doors to automatic and cross check.
Okay, you're probably thinking to yourself, wait a second, didn't Concorde stop flying like 20 years ago?
Well that is true, but I can assure you that I was actually on a Concorde aircraft.
Or maybe you're thinking, what is Concorde?
I think Concorde was by any standards the most beautiful aircraft that ever flew.
It's just the most magnificent engineering achievement.
I think she's the most beautiful airliner in the world and also she's a symbol of peace.
She was like an entity all on her own.
She was far more than an airplane.
Concord.
For many people that word conjures up images of a sleek futuristic jet plane or they may think of celebrities sipping champagne or of a horrible fiery crash.
Concord is all those things.
But it's also much more the giant gleaming white dart which points the way to the supersonic future of intercontinental transport.
So today we hear about billionaires flying off into space or other acts which to me sound kind of selfish and not really that impressive either.