Cast your mind back 20 years, and people could fly from London to New York in under three and a half hours.
It was possible thanks to Concorde – the supersonic passenger which was retired from service in 2003.
We’ve stumbled across a vintage BBC report showing the last ever Concorde being made, which is both nostalgic and emotional in equal measure.
First broadcast in 1979, the video gives a behind-the-scenes look at the British Aircraft Corporation factory near Bristol in the UK.
The site, in the southwest of England, was one of two facilities that assembled the iconic plane.
During the video, workers who are interviewed talk of their dream of one day flying on Concorde.
That’ll never happen now, but we may one day see supersonic travel again, with several prganizations, including NASA, working on projects.
NASA is about to unveil its silent supersonic jet, while a plane called Stargazer is set to reach speeds of Mach 9 soon, too.
The film also digs deeper into areas of the jet’s production, such as its air conditioning systems – something you might not have thought about before.
The video also shows the plane’s famed droop nose, created so pilots could see better when landing.
What’s more, it also gives a walk through of the installation of one of the four Rolls-Royce/Snecma Olympus 593 engines that powered the aircraft up to Mach 2.
The video also walks through the assembly of the final plane, which first flew out of the factory in Bristol in April.
It also takes a look around the first Concorde to be produced, which by this point had already become a museum piece.
Who’d have thought that 20 years after its last commercial flight, the rest would end up living out a similar life.
The crazy thing is, though, one worker interviewed in the clip predicted that, come the 1990s, we’d all be flying around on much bigger and faster supersonic jets.
That didn’t happen, but it doesn’t mean it won’t happen eventually.
Here’s to hoping it happens in the not-too-distant future.
