title: Concorde Air France : ils ont fait voler la légende
author: Air France
publication: YouTube
published: 2026-01-21T00:00:00
source_url: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KzKqAgYBo1M
word_count: 5321
On January 21, 1976, Air France operated the first commercial flight on Concorde. It departed from Paris-Charles de Gaulle airport to Dakar, then Rio. 50 years later, five Air France employees tell the story of this legendary aircraft in an exclusive testimony. Today marks the start of a new era in aviation. This is the course of history: that the world's major capital cities and business centers be connected, in the future, by a supersonic network. It rolled like a small aerobatic airplane. For the first time in the world, there will be a transatlantic flight which is both commercial and supersonic. Flying back to Paris, customers would tell us: "It was too short!" You are the first 100 passengers to fly above the speed of sound. On Concorde, when you don't know what to do, pass in the cabin with champagne. Hello. Hello Ben. I imagine that this is moving for you. Yes, very. It takes me back 25 years. I joined the airline in 1996, and after three months of service, I was offered a position in the Concorde lounge. We had a dedicated area to handle the customers checking-in and their luggage. - Very exclusive. - Exactly, very exclusive. At the same time, in full view of everyone, as we were in the main hall of terminal A. You need to put yourself back in context. The customers then completed the formalities on their own and arrived on their own at the Concorde lounge. So there was no dedicated border control or airport security? Absolutely not. Customer traffic was not what it is today. It was easier. We would then seat the customers in the lounge which faced the aircraft, gate A20. And the jet bridge was right there. And then, the customers boarded from the lounge and found themselves on the jet bridge which led straight to the plane. There proximity was truly incredible. And the customers who were flying on Concorde for the first time, I imagine they had a certain level of expectation. Absolutely. We could even sign a certificate. They were like children with eyes full of wonder. They wanted to enjoy each moment. And often, upon their return, customers would tell us "it was too short!" - It was too short! - It was too short. I imagine that many of the customers knew each other. Yes, many customers knew each other. We had loyal customers, regular customers, who took the Concorde every week. And there was mutual recognition. And the coats were collected beforehand? Coats were indeed collected beforehand. The customer arrived at the lounge, we took his coat, we put it on the rack with his seat number and then the crew, just before boarding, would bring the clothes rack to the plane. Ok! Completely different from today. Yes, absolutely. It was truly exceptional. In fact, there was a loyal customer who used to say: "Concorde is not a flight, it's almost a space-like experience." There is a reason why it was called "the beautiful bird". And I imagine that waiting in the lounge with the customers was also completely different. They were not getting on a subsonic plane. Yes, that is true. You could see it in the customer's eyes: a true sense of wonder. In fact, they were preparing to live this experience. And because the lounge faced the plane, customers could admire it right up until boarding. With everything that happened under the plane, the luggage being loaded. .. The surroundings of the plane were full of life. There were also curious people who wanted to see the plane. And how much time before the flight did the boarding start? We boarded 35 minutes before. In fact, there were only 100 seats on board. Boarding was fairly quick precisely because the customers boarded from the lounge and were directly in the jet bridge to the plane in under five minutes. Excellent! So we're going up to see the rest of the team and relive the complete experience. Okay, let's sneak into the cockpit. It's quite small, you have to be careful not to bump into things. Wow, this is incredible! Watch your head there! It's really tiny. It's a very old cockpit, designed in the 1960s, there are only analog instruments, which are very different from the screens we have today. Incredible! The idea that a non-pilot can sit here. You know, I visited this museum several times, we were never allowed to enter the flight deck. We are lucky. Yes, we have a great privilege today. So, explain it to me. During takeoff, this went down? Absolutely. What you see is in two parts. There is a glass canopy that sticks to the nose of the aircraft, allowing us us to have a better visibility. Then there is the nose. And there were several positions. We lowered the nose for takeoff. I don't remember the exact angle, but let's say 7 degrees for takeoff and 11 degrees for landing because the plane was approaching at 11 degrees of pitch. To be able to see the runway, we needed this mechanism, which dit not exist on the other planes. And so the second copilot would sit just behind. - No, it was a flight engineer. - An engineer? Yes, we called it a three-person crew, on the old 747s too. up to the 747-400. The 747-400 was the first two-pilot 747. Okay. Because as you can see, the engineer had a lot of work to do. When you were flying this plane, how long before the flight did you arrive? We started preparing for a flight 2 hours beforehand. All right. But the engineer arrived 1 hour and 45 minutes beforehand. The captain arrived 1 hour beforehand. And I used to arrive only 20 minutes beforehand so as not to get in the engineer's way. He had a lot of pre-flight work to do, he would sit in my seat. Compared to other planes, everything was different. We arrived at three different times, whereas on 747 we all arrived at the same time because there was a lot more space to work with. Emer ELAC, Emergency Lights. Off, ARM! Feux de nav. On! Engine flight setting. Climb! Robinet HP. Shut! Dégivrage réacteurs, voilure et profondeur. Off! Robinet HP. Shut! Dégivrage réacteurs, voilure et profondeur. Off! So, how long was the flight? 3 hours and 15 minutes. to New York. And the flight was daily at 11 a.m. Yes, absolutely. During the flight, you got out of that seat, twice, three times? And you ate here? Yes, we ate here just like on other planes. On other planes, you know, the flight attendants ask you when you want to eat. On Concorde, There wasn't time! one hour after takeoff, food was served. It was always the same. And because I, the co-pilot for example, had work until 1 hour after takeoff, as we wanted to know at any given time if we could reach Boston or New York, etc. in the event of an engine failure. And even in the event of both engines failing. So I had a lot of work to do, with graphs. Today's computers did notexist. So I had work until one hour after takeoff. And then we had 1 hour to eat before prepare for the descent. From what I understand, even in the years just before the plane was retired, there were always enthusiasts close to the runway to see Concorde. Absolutely. Both for takeoffs and landings. All over the world. In New York, they even came by boat because Kennedy Airport is surrounded by the sea and so they would take pictures from the boat. That's how they could get closest to the runway thresholds. And at Roissy, they were everywhere, on the embankments with huge lenses. Every day, for each flight. Perhaps I'm mistaken, you had to cut off the afterburners to reduce the noise. Can you explain why? Afterburners were essential to this aircraft. because you were almost adding a fifth engine thrust-wise. But it consumed a very large amount of fuel. So we couldn't keep them on all the time. You would put them on for takeoff, to lift the 185 tons of the aircraft off the runway. I don't remember, but let's say at about 1,000 feet, you would turn them off, And then the plane would not climb very fast, it would climb at 800 feet per minute. That's how we did the noise reduction, with very gentle turns. And then, when we were higher up, we didn't swith the afterburners back on, but we would push the throttles to the limit, to reach higher speeds. As I showed you earlier, This aircraft has a very small wing, which is what allows it to reach Mach 2. But at low speeds, the wing doesn't produce much lift. Therefore, we needed a lot of speed. And the cruise was at 60,000 feet? We would end up at 60,000 feet. We reached Le Havre at 29,000 feet, since we couldn't go supersonic before Le Havre. Then we accelerated by switching the afterburners on again, to break the sound barrier until reaching Mach 1.7. We would break the sound barrier at around 35,000 feet and we would reach Mach 2 at 45,000 feet. And then we had full freedom to keep climbing up to 60,000 feet, as the plane became lighter. And turbulence did not exist above a certain altitude? There were two aspects to this: With the very small wing, as you were climbing through turbulence, it made a "clack, clack" sound, just like a sports car. But there wasn't much turbulence, and we wouldn't meet any more afterwards. Past 45,000 feet, there isn't any turbulence. So all passengers could stand, there were no problems to get a drink? Absolutely. That's really incredible! When I saw the plane, as I used to live in the United States and in Canada at that time. I used to see the planes take off from JFK, and they would turn immediately after takeoff. What was it for? That was for the anti-noise procedure in New York. I don't know if you remember. On the 21st of January, 1976, we flew from Dakar to Rio because Concorde was banned from New York at the time. It took more than a year. There was a trial, or rather a commission. Both British Airways and Air France presented an anti-noise procedure, to the port authority. But it was very complicated, for us, the pilots. We would practice on the simulator. It was very complicated, but it did have an effect on the noise, and we were eventually accepted in New York. I saw the old networks from that era. There were flights to Washington, Dallas, Caracas, and Mexico City. So there was a network. But I imagine there weren't enough passengers. During the last few years, I read that there were many charter flights. Yes. I imagine you flew several of these flights. Yes, absolutely. We would fly loops. There were around the world trips. Around the world? With how many stops? I don't remember. There were about ten stops. It lasted 28 days. 28 days? And we flew around the world. It was a charter flight. It was expensive. People had time. Yes, for people who had time. And then we also flew loops, from Roissy to Roissy. We would take off with a full plane, 100 passengers, but we were much lighter than for a flight to New York, and we would do the same thing across the English Channel, breaking the sound barrier. We would travel around Brittany and then return to Roissy. Just for the experience. The passengers could drink champagne, at Mach 2 and then we had a little cocktail where the pilots were available to answer their questions. It was very, very nice. It captivated many people. The pilots, the cabin crew, mechanics. This aircraft brought together a lot of energy and passion. And the plane is beautiful, from the outside and the inside. It is photogenic. It's funny because it's as if a designer had made a pretty drawing, even though it was designed solely based on technical constraints. It's a nice thought. And the result was beautiful, even though it's all engineering-based. And when you were flying Concorde, what do you think could have been done better? Or was it already perfect? I thought it was perfect. Again, with the constraints it had... For example, we had the first electric flight controls. So for example, you told me you remembered it rolled quickly. It had a very small wingspan and electric flight controls, so it rolled like a small plane, like a CAP 10, a small aerobatic plane. It was very pleasant to fly. And then, moreover, there were the accelerations and speeds, and that's what had to be practiced. It was two and a half times faster than any another plane. It took 100 hours in the simulator to learn the delta wing, the specific characteristics for landing. It was a complicated aircraft, but we underwent very long training. The remarkable achievement of this aircraft is that it democratized supersonic travel, which is incredible! And the cabin would get hot, wouldn't it? Yes, there was kinetic heating. For example, on a subsonic aircraft, it's about thirty degrees. But at Mach 2, it's 180 degrees. So you're in air which is at minus 60, which means the skin of the airplane is at about 120 degrees. It's made of aluminium, or rather, an aluminum alloy. The engineers had said "maximum of 127 degrees." The cabin would also expand. Absolutely. Yes, yes. At 127 degrees, the plane was about twenty centimeters longer. Twenty centimeters! The engineers had foreseen it: the hydraulic pipes were concentric, with joints like this. You see behind the mechanic's post, you can't put your hand there. During the cruise, you could. That's where we use to show this phenomenon. That's incredible! Thank you. Thank you, Ben. Ok. Wow! It's beautiful! It's incredible! It's very moving to be sitting in Concorde again. Amazing! So you flew on Concorde for the first time... In 1992. 92. Was it a dream to fly on Concorde? Was it a passion, or did that come later? You had to be very motivated. There were interviews before one could be recruited for Concorde. It was a real desire. We would prepare and, it was... It was a form of recognition. And what were the real differences in terms of product and onboard service between a subsonic and a supersonic flight. First of all, there wasn't much space and you had to be very well organized. We only served exceptional products, like lobster. Only the finest dishes. What made a big difference was that there was always caviar, 30 gram jars, and the wine cellar was exceptional: I brought some menus. The wines were really extraordinary. You kept all of this? Yes. These menus were designed by Christian Lacroix. They represent all five continents and were offered to passengers. If you'd like, we can start with a few small canapés. Next, I've selected three colorful starters for you, among the prettiest and the most prestigious. For example, caviar served with a mushroom salad. There were a few choices, followed by chocolate cake, fruit salad, coffee... The flight was only 3 and a half hours long, so there wasn't much time. And so there were four flight attendants in the cabin and two stewards at the front and rear. Exactly. And so the forward galley was solely for... The first cabin of 40 passengers. Ok. And the back cabin wasn't as full because passengers loved to be seated in front. Being placed in the first cabin was a mark of recognition. As soon as the plane reached its cruising altitude, everyone knew each other and moved around in the cabin, to talk to their colleagues, or their friends. And how did you do your duty when everyone was Moving around. We managed. They could see when we were in the cabin with the trolleys... we made it work. But some passengers would play cards together. They were often friends, many company executives, etc. knew each other. Politicians also knew each other and so they played cards. And how many of you were part of the cabin crew team which was dedicated to Concorde? There were about a hundred Concorde stewards and air hostesses and fifteen chief pursors. We all knew each other. I can imagine! And how long did you stay during your layover in New York? We stayed until the next day's flight. 24 hours. So no jet lag? Yes, but what was incredible was when we took off at 11am, we arrived in New York at 8am. We had a whole day. In fact, for the passengers it was incredible. We were going back in time. With a flight duration that was so short, did everyone eat? No, many passengers would only eat the caviar. And try the wines which were truly exceptional. Today, you are seated in Bravo. I have wanted to do this job since the first time I flew on a plane. I was lucky to grow up in South America, mainly in Brazil. The first time I flew was to return from Brazil. We had gone by boat and at the time, Air France flights stopped in Dakar. It would fly San Paolo to Rio, Rio to Dakar, Dakar to Paris. During the stopover in Dakar, we heard a very, very loud noise. I was five years old and the flight attendant said to me, “Look, it’s Concorde taking off.” And I watched Concorde take off from Dakar and I said, "This resonates with me!" So... - From that young... - Until today! 28 years of seniority. And you still enjoy it? I am still that 5 year-old child watching Concorde take off. This has already been setup. We set up a tray table with all the tableware which was exclusive to Concorde. As you can see, there was a blue border on the side of the plates and the bowl. This is the salad bowl, the bread plate, the starter plate, the cutlery roll and the glasses. At the time, the glasses were similar but with the seahorse, which is so important to you. And as you can see, we always placed the blue border so that it formed the "C” of Concorde. We also had a salt cellar and a pepper mill which are not here, but which were placed on the table so as to reproduce the notch in André Putman's carpet. What we sought in this decoration with André Putman, was really about showing the other side of the supersonic aircraft. And what was the sequence during the service. The sequence? It started on the ground, it was non-stop. Once the customers had been welcomed on the ground by Laetitia's teams, that you saw earlier. Their jackets made it on the plane before them, since they would place their coats on a rack in the lounge, and the porters brought them on board about ten minutes before the customers. Then we formed a human chain from the front door, 1 left. The chief pursor received the rack and we passed the coats and the hangers all the way to the middle of the cabin, door 2, where we had a wardrobe. For - Up to 100 passengers? - That's exactly right. The coats were then returned to the customers upon arrival, during taxi. The overhead bins are very small. I can see that you have already flown on Concorde, because you found how to open it. Only once! You figured out how to open the luggage compartment all by yourself. You can't put much here. And the maximum load... 16 kg. It was a different time. People traveled lighter, especially Concorde passengers. And I imagine that these customers were really used to such high standards, in the restaurants where they would go. Yes, they were very used to our constant attention. We were constantly in the cabin, it was non-stop, from the entrance, to the in-seat sales, we also gave them ound barrier certificates. I can imagine! Non-stop. 3h45. Were there also children sometimes? Yes. It did happen from time to time. In fact, everyone remained a child. Even the most experienced passengers were always amazed by Concorde. You have pictures on your iPad. Indeed, I have examples of how this plane was beautified on board. When I started working as a flight attendant on Concorde, I just about had the seniority required to apply. You see, we would prepare two tray tables like this. And what is this? These are chocolate truffles, this was a small portfolio and some pens that were also offered to customers. There was some stationery that was fake stationery. Well, it was real stationery, but with fake stamps. And the customers would sometimes entrust us with their mail, with the stamp, thinking we were going to post them after the flight. So we transmitted them to our colleagues which would eventually post the mail. This is amazing! This was during the flight when the cabin extended. With the expansion, you could see the luggage compartments moving apart. Earlier, you were talking about rockets. Was it possible to see the engines from the rear galley? Yes. And in fact, during the first few flights, what surprised us most was that... Through the door seals, you could see the outside. So, during the taxi on my first flight, I said to my colleagues "I can see the tarmac, is it normal?" He replied, “Yes, yes, don’t worry". It’s a very special plane. Once we took off, everything closed off, it was allconnected. It's so small! So it wasn't possible to have more than one person. No, it wasn't. The goal was to make the colleagues in the cabin sufficiently autonomous so that they never have to go into a galley. There were some customers who wanted to drink champagne throughout the entire... All the time. Anyway, on that plane, as the cabin crew said, I think of Laurence, in particular, who would tell us, "On Concorde, when you don’t know what To do, you take a tray and go trough the cabin with champagne." Did you have to change your uniform on board the plane? Yes, exactly. We, the stewards, would change our clothes. We only put on the bow tie and the spencer once we had taken off. So there we were, greeting people in our classic uniforms, with the tie. And once we'd taken off, bam, we'd change, we took off the tie, we put on the bow tie. It was quite easy to do and it had the desired effect. So it was a different jacket? Yes, the Spencer. Which is actually not white, we would say we wore a "fresh butter" spencer. Can you see the difference compared to the headrests? It had to stay immaculate. So we always had two. We always had a cover at hand, in case there was even the slightest stain, to remain impeccable from start to finish. We were in the galley, but we were manipulating the galley, the casseroles etc. and we were wearing Spencer jackets. Customers had to always see us like this. And the customers were often standing because they knew each other. Some rare passengers, like Thierry Mugler, for example, always wanted to be seated in the second part of the cabin. He was part of of those who did not want to eat, but instead wanted two jars of caviar. He had that habit. We knew it because we kept a notebook, equivalent to what we know now as our "customer preferences". At the time, during the briefing, the chief pursor would say: "Today in the passenger list, we can expect to welcome so-and-so." Everything on paper? There were no cabinPads. We fed this preference list as the experience progressed and more information was gathered. And we knew that such a person wanted a teapot, so we prepared a teapot. For Thierry Mugler, no service, but two jars of caviar, etc. That's how it was. Were there any customers who slept during the flight? Yes, sometimes. I think back to some passengers who lowered their seat. We obviously gave them a blanket so they could rest. - Thank you! - Thank you. Hello Raphael. - Hello Ben. - How are you? I'm well. I imagine this is a special experience for you. It brings back a lot of memories, indeed. 1989: My entry into the world of aeronautics after my studies. I arrived as a young mechanic, with the luck and privilege of having been able to start my career on Concorde. Immediately? Strait out of school. I started when I was very, very young. So we were a very small group working on Concorde, with many experienced mechanics and technicians who knew the aircraft extremely well and trained us through a mentoring system, which was extremely important! And was it a dream of yours to work on Concorde? Aeronautics overall was a my dream. Concorde was something we all dreamt about. But we would say to ourselves. "Ok. It doesn't matter, I won't work on it. So I was very lucky to be able to join the Concorde team directly. I still remember my mentors, who taught me everything there is to know about this plane. I worked nearly eight years as a Concorde technician. So, walk me through a typical day for you during that time. We used to work in 3x8 7/ 7 shifts, as we still do now. The mechanics work in 3x8 7/ 7 shifts to ensure continuous operations at all times. Generally, we would collect the plane, Concorde, as it came back from New York as AF001, around 5: 30 p.m. , 5: 40 p.m. Then, depending on what the flight engineers had written down, the various breakdowns or problems they might have experienced, we were responsible, until 11 a.m. the following morning, of getting AF002 back in the air and to prepare a reserve aircraft at the same time. Because if we were lucky... There was a reserve for each day! Each day, we had the AF002 and the reserve to prepare to ensure that we respected the famous D0 which is so important to us now. Back then, the priority was for Concorde to leave on time, no matter what. I also saw pictures of two planes in New York. So there must have also been a reserve aircraft there at all times. There were constant flow reversals. The Paris-New York trip was a daily, 3 hours 30 minutes flight. It was a challenge every time to garantee it left on time. Sometimes we were missing a few spare parts. But whatever the situation, it was crucial to continuously maintain, what I would like to call "excellence". We ensured all these departures one after the other. What were the specifics tasks? What had to be done on this aircraft compared to a conventional aircraft like the ones we have today? A subsonic aircraft. The engine played a large part, and was, all things considered, very unusual. There were four Olympus 593 engines, which produce 15 tonnes of thrust, and remain relatively standard But despite this, it was necessary... On a conventional engine, you don't exceed the speed of sound, and therefore in terms of airflow management, it's a little bit easier to manage. Whereas on Concorde, we had to have variable geometry air intakes to break up the airflow and make it transition from Mach 2 to Mach 0.5. Otherwise, we would have had engine issues. So the air intakes were extremely unusual. It isn't really what we have now with just a piece of aluminum and an airflow that remains smooth. For Concorde, we really had management techniques in place. And you were considered a seasoned mechanic when you knew how to explain to the older mechanics how the system worked. That was the main thing, if you knew how to explain that and the fuel system, That meant you weren't doing too bad and that you had solid Concorde experience. How long did refueling take? It took at least an hour, if not an hour and a half? There are actually 13 fuel tanks on Concorde. We needed to transfer the fuel, which meant was a lot of manual work. We had a few automatic processes, but there was still a lot of manual work involved. The main difficulty was to fill the tanks in a thoughtful but at the same time homogeneous manner in order to avoid the plane tipping over. I can imagine! We kept a constant eye on the front landing gear compass. We had to check constantly, that we weren't getting close to the red zone. Otherwise it meant the aircraft was tipping over, while there were loading operations, passengers on board, and so on. So we were constantly monitoring. We had a small platform at the back, which prevented the plane from tipping over. The aircraft would rest lightly on the platform, and we were constantly searching for the point of equilibrium. What are your favorite memories? Ah! The departures, those were always very, very big moments. We always had the sameproblem: there were three or four of us around the aircraft, in fact, it was really a very small team. Concorde had about 80 mechanics. But it was really a very small team. We were in constant contact with the flight engineer, during departure. There was a team that had to work together: commercial and technical flight crews, ground mechanics. .. Together, we made the plane depart. We were constantly explaining to the crews: "Be careful, we are in the middle of" working on the aircraft. "And they trusted us. We didn't yet have the T-65 where we were supposed to have left the plane. It was really a small team dedicated to a peculiar aircraft. The aircraft mechanics clear all the step ladders. The last passengers are boarding. At T-5, the start-up procedure will begin and the ground mechanics will set-up for the ritual of engine ignition. The jet bridge is removed, the doors closed, the last pieces of luggage which were installed in the hold are loaded into the holds. The cargo hold doors are also closed. And at T-3 the engines start-up. The punctuality was incredible. 11h! And at that time, the mechanic was the one to push the plane back. At the block time, we would push the plane back with a tractor and we were the ones bringing the plane into the middle. We pushed the aircraft back and removed the safety pin from the front gear, which we showed the pilotes to signal that we were leaving. Have a good flight gentlemen, and see you soon upon return! And that was the technician's job. And it was only done that way on the Concorde. Thank you for all these explanations. It's extraordinary to be talking about this right below Concorde, still in Air France colours. We hope you enjoyed your trip, and that we will have the pleasure of seeing you again soon on Air France flights and on Concorde. Goodbye. What an experience! Thank you all. In front of this wonderful plane. What a memory! It's exceptional to relive this moment. With you all! Thank you. Air France dedicates this documentary to the memory of the victims of the accident on 25 July 2000. To their families and loved ones, as well as to all Air France staff who were deeply affected. To all Concorde enthusiasts. Concorde will not truly stop, because it will never leave the imagination of humankind.