Toulouse!
Concorde 001 made her most important public appearance back-end first.
She was being nosed out of her hangar by a tractor on the day for which
Britain and France and the rest of the world
had waited so long. The great supersonic jetliner was going to fly.
A year late, millions of pounds over the estimated cost and still a very big
question mark.
These were Concorde's first claims to fame.
But on this day, a lot of those question marks would be answered.
For Concorde 001, this was the chance to prove she was
the Superbird everyone had hoped and worked for.
193 feet long,
38 feet tall, with a wingspan of 84 feet.
Vital statistics of an Anglo-French lady who was all dressed up and ready to
go place
on the biggest date of her life. Keeping that date were the world's press.
All eyes were glued to the sleek, futuristic machine standing on its
spindly legs out there.
Droop snoot in the down position, surveying the scene.
At the other end, heat surged from the mighty Rolls-Royce engines
as the ground crew checked, rechecked, and checked again.
Concorde was buttoned-up good and tight.
There was little more anyone could do other than fly her.
After six years of designing and building, delays and progress,
the dream was a reality. Concorde nosed slowly out to the start of her
flying career.
The men chosen to crew the speedbird on her maiden flight had plenty to do during
the last few seconds before takeoff. The all-important final pre-fight check
carried out by chief pilot André Turcat and his crew
went without a hitch. This was it!
With 12 tonnes of test equipment onboard, André Turcat took Concorde up to 10,000 feet.
She was almost ticking over
at less than 300 miles an hour.
Nose still in the droop position, undercarriage down. The less for the pilot to do, the better.
Earthbound, technicians waited for reports to come in. And what reports they were!
Concorde handled beautifully. After only 27 minutes of flight, she was coming home.
The weather was threatening, but the test pilot knew what he wanted to know...
Concorde was coming back as a success.
In a few years' time, the sight of Concordes on international airfields
all over the world
will be commonplace if all goes well. Then, there'll be 130 passengers onboard.
Flying times will have been cut by half. London to New York from 7 hours 40 minutes
to 3 hours 25 minutes. But for the moment,
there's a lot more flight testing to be done - A long, lonely job for the French and British test pilots
and their crews. But now was a time of triumph.
And André Turcat was the hero.
Jubilant senior executives of Sud Aviation and the British Aircraft Corporation
greeted the tall, quiet Frenchman
who had taken their machine on its successful maiden flight.
Inside, the world's press wanted to hear
Monsieur Turcat's verdict. "The big bird flies!" he said.
It's the beginning of the big work. If that work goes well,
Britain and France stand to make 4,000 million pounds
and lead the world of
civil aviation.