Catalogue description Ministry of Technology and successors: Concorde Project: Minutes of Meetings and Technical Reports

The development of the Anglo-French Concorde supersonic aircraft was one of the largest and most advanced technological projects ever undertaken in Western Europe. Preliminary research in industry and government establishments on the problems of supersonic flight as applied to passenger aircraft started in Europe in 1956, and between 1959 and 1961 independent design studies in Britain and France reached similar conclusions. Discussions which began in 1961 led to the signing in London on 29 November 1962 of an agreement between the British and French Governments to share costs, design, development and production work and the proceeds of sales of a supersonic aircraft which ultimately became known as Concorde.

The programme for building Concorde began in 1965 and the first two prototypes made their maiden flights on 2 March and 9 April 1969. They were followed by two pre-production aircraft, and all four were used for testing. A certificate of airworthiness was granted by the British and French airworthiness authorities in 1975. The world's first supersonic scheduled passenger-carrying services were, inaugurated on 21 January 1976 when Concorde aircraft operated by British Airways and Air France flew between London (Heathrow) and Bahrain, and between Paris and Rio de Janeiro, respectively.

Detailed work was the responsibility of the companies concerned in both countries. These were the British Aircraft Corporation (BAC), which became part of British Aerospace when this new public corporation was established in 1977, and the French company Sud Aviation (which became part of the Societe Nationale Industrielle Aerospatiale) for the airframe. This was assembled at Filton near Bristol and at Toulouse in France. Rolls Royce Ltd. and Societe Nationale d'Etude et de Construction de Moteurs d'Aviation (SNECMA) were responsible for the power plant which was assembled at Bristol. Altogether hundreds of companies were involved in the project through sub-contracting and supplying materials. Overall control of the project was exercised by a Directing Committee comprising officials responsible to the British and French Governments. The project was originally the responsibility of the Ministry of Technology, but was dealt with in turn by the Ministry of Aviation Supply from 1970, the Department of Trade and Industry from 1971 and the Department of Industry from 1974.