0:04

By the time it reached British Airways space

0:07

coming down to London and descent, the

0:09

atmosphere had turned into a bit of a party.

0:11

I think probably people are drunk quite a lot.

0:14

How much of some stuff to do with it? But it

0:16

was

0:17

Yeah. It was a party. It was

0:19

a a week and a bossy at the same time.

0:22

Aviation historian Jonathan Glancey,

0:25

remembering Concorde's final passenger

0:28

flight. When the

0:30

aircraft landed, there was a certain picture in applause.

0:35

And then applause was for a machine

0:37

for the crew for the captain and

0:39

when the aircraft landed. The

0:42

captain and co pilot had put

0:44

union jacks out of the side windows

0:46

of the cockpit. And kind, you know, it's

0:48

a bit theatrical and maybe a bit

0:50

camp and kitchen. But, nevertheless,

0:53

it was actually a land of hope and drawry

0:55

moment. But this truly was, you know,

0:57

the end and the end of an era.

1:00

After twenty seven years of service,

1:02

Concorde flew its last passengers

1:05

on October twenty fourth two thousand

1:07

three. And

1:13

It was just the emotion sinking in

1:16

very quietly that this was the end

1:18

of something that's from a child

1:21

you had absolutely

1:22

adored and now it was gone.

1:25

But why had Concorde ended in

1:28

this final episode of making an impossible

1:30

air plane, the untold story of Concord,

1:33

will uncover the complex answer to

1:35

that question. We'll also

1:37

look at the legacy Concord left for

1:39

those who worked on it. For the airline industry

1:41

and for all of our lives. And

1:44

we'll look forward to the possible return

1:46

of supersonic passenger flights. I'm

1:51

Nastran Tavakotoifa, and this is

1:53

Teamistry, an original podcast

1:55

from Atlassian. Makers of collaborative

1:57

software, including Jira, Trello,

2:00

and Confluence. When

2:11

Concord landed, that day, he throw

2:13

for its final passenger flight. It

2:16

wasn't alone. As a proper

2:18

send off, British Airways had not

2:20

won, but three Concord aircraft

2:22

landing and succession. The

2:24

other two had completed short flights

2:26

before arriving. The sight

2:29

of three Concorde aircraft coming

2:31

into land was a last fleeting

2:33

glimpse of what could have been when the project

2:36

started in the early

2:37

sixties. When the expectation was

2:39

that this would be regular occurrence.

2:42

In a few years time, the site of Hong Kong,

2:44

or international air fields, all everywhere,

2:46

will be commonplace in all those places.

2:50

As they came into land, a huge

2:52

banner declared in French, Concord,

2:55

we love you. The final

2:57

Air France Concord flights were also

2:59

full of emotion. Months

3:02

earlier, on the thirty first of May,

3:04

two concorde aircraft landed within an

3:06

hour of each other at Charles de Gaulle

3:08

Airport in Paris. The

3:11

cruise shed tears the waiting crowd

3:13

cheered, many holding banners that

3:15

echoed the British. Thank

3:18

you, Concord. We love you.

3:22

But those were not actually the final

3:24

flights of Concord. They were

3:26

still to come. Before

3:28

we hear those stories though, We need to

3:30

understand just why Concorde went

3:32

out of service, and we'll find out

3:34

from the engineers who were there on the

3:36

inside. My call

3:38

and first John Britain. As

3:41

soon as those terrorists hit the Twin Tower

3:44

because until then, I think

3:46

the American public had felt that

3:49

they were insulated from

3:52

terrorist attacks. That happens in

3:54

Europe in the Middle East, the Far

3:56

East. We don't get that in America. And

3:59

they stopped flying Mike, didn't they? Yeah. I changed

4:01

everything.

4:01

Obviously, that was a huge impact, political impact,

4:04

military impact on in the United States,

4:06

the attitudes that the people changed.

4:10

A lot of people don't know that the attacks of

4:12

nine eleven had a huge impact

4:14

on Concord. A number of the people

4:17

killed in the Twin Towers were regular

4:19

Concord costs as. Plus,

4:21

the attacks caused the aviation industry

4:24

as a whole to have a major downturn.

4:28

Soon after, when France refused to

4:30

cooperate during the invasion of Iraq, there

4:32

was an unofficial boycott of all things

4:34

French in the US. Which directly affected

4:37

Air France's Concorde Service. For

4:40

them and for British Airways, passenger

4:42

loads were down. What wasn't

4:44

helping was news coverage of Concord.

4:47

Ever since the crash, if there was any kind

4:50

of operational hiccup on a Concord flight,

4:52

the kinds of issues that would come up on regular

4:54

subsonic airlines, it would be

4:56

reported as a major crisis.

4:59

This did little to build confidence in a

5:01

public already fearful of terrorism.

5:05

Added to these worries were the rising costs

5:07

of maintenance, about thirty times

5:09

higher per passenger than a wide

5:11

body airliner. The

5:14

thing is, regardless of all this happening

5:16

externally, If it hadn't been for

5:18

the hard work, ingenuity and

5:20

the drive of the engineers and crews

5:22

maintaining Concord, it could never

5:24

have kept flying. But

5:28

time was catching up with Concorde.

5:31

Safety inspections to determine how long

5:33

it could keep flying for quite a major

5:36

upgrade, replacing the crown

5:38

skins. Those key structural supports

5:40

along the top of the fuselage So

5:44

that means stripping out all the

5:46

internal furnishings, all the insulation,

5:48

everything, taking those top

5:51

skins off the fuselage, making

5:54

new skins, riveting

5:56

them back on, and then rebuilding

5:58

the aircraft, and the cost of that

6:01

was becoming prohibited.

6:04

To better understand the situation, you

6:07

need to know about a key player behind

6:09

the scenes, Airbus. This

6:11

pan European company was formed in

6:13

the early seventies to challenge the

6:15

US when it came to wide body airliners

6:18

like the seven forty seven. By

6:20

the early two thousands, Airbus was a

6:22

world leader in aviation, of course.

6:24

Plus, they were the ones who actually

6:26

provided key support to keep Concorde

6:29

in the air. When it came to parts and

6:31

so on. But

6:33

at this time, Airbus was looking to

6:35

the future and their coming a

6:38

three eighty wide body subsonic

6:40

passenger jet. Plus,

6:42

even the minor incidents being reported about

6:45

Concord, threatened to tarnish Airbus's

6:47

reputation. So they announced

6:49

in April of two thousand three that

6:51

they would not support Concord beyond

6:54

October of that year.

6:56

And so all these things amounted to that. There

6:58

was double whammy. There was the possible

7:01

increase of costs to

7:03

continue operating and

7:06

the decrease in revenue due

7:09

to the terrorist attacks. So

7:11

as soon as those two graphs cross

7:14

over, as soon as the accountant start doing

7:16

costs against income, There's

7:19

no emotion or

7:20

anything. It's it's losing money

7:22

pull the plug. The

7:25

end of Concorde was not because of

7:27

a dramatic incident or accident.

7:30

It was the stroke of an accountant's pen.

7:33

In backroom discussions, Air France

7:35

let British Airways know that they would cease

7:38

operations in May of two thousand

7:40

three. If BA wanted to

7:42

continue indefinitely, they'd have to

7:44

take on the fall burden of maintenance

7:46

costs. Publicly, however,

7:49

British Airways and Air France announced

7:51

it was a joint decision to

7:53

end Concorde Service. And that

7:55

hit Concord maintenance supervisor, Ricky

7:57

Bastien, pretty

7:59

hard. It was an absolute bombshell,

8:01

where this announcement was made because

8:04

things were improving. Things were improving.

8:06

We reckon it's going to be couple of years before we got

8:09

back to where we were. It was a

8:11

there's near a disbelief. III couldn't quite

8:13

believe that this was gonna be the end. A

8:16

great shame. Great great shame.

8:19

But John and Mike, although saddened by

8:21

the announcement, weren't surprised. It

8:24

had flown millions of passengers

8:27

it had done a fantastic job

8:29

and it had done all that supersonically.

8:32

So we were tinged with

8:35

sadness because it was finishing, but

8:37

we could see that the problems that

8:41

we were gonna encounter if we carried

8:43

on operating it. So in some

8:45

respect, we were upset. And

8:48

in other situations, we were Oh,

8:51

thank goodness for that belief. Because

8:53

day to day managing it was

8:55

getting getting difficult. Difficult.

8:58

But as I mentioned, the last passenger

9:00

flights weren't Concorde's final act.

9:03

The remaining planes had to be flown to places

9:05

around the world where they'd become museum

9:07

pieces. In France, the

9:09

very last flight was on June twenty seventh,

9:12

bringing Concord BVFC back

9:14

home to where it had been

9:15

built. In Toulouse. It

9:17

included a very special passenger.

9:21

I was invited on this last flight

9:24

We've heard from Dudley Collard throughout this

9:26

series. He was one of the first aerodynamicsist

9:28

to work on Concorde in France until

9:31

he retired in nineteen ninety two.

9:33

But just think about something for a second.

9:36

Back in nineteen forty nine, when Dudley

9:38

had moved from England to America,

9:41

That trip took about a week crossing

9:43

the Atlantic on a passenger boat.

9:46

Twenty years later, he'd

9:48

helped to build a plane that covered that

9:50

same distance in just over

9:52

three hours.

9:55

Was a funny feeling before it took off

9:58

particularly in Paris. And

10:00

I'm thinking,

10:01

gosh, all that work

10:03

we did on it. And we're just going

10:05

to go on a last flight.

10:10

Dudley, along with producer Pedro

10:13

and I, We all climbed aboard of the Concorde

10:15

aircraft on display at arascopia. Now

10:18

that just happens to be the exact same

10:20

one that doubly flew in on on that day.

10:23

I think I sat about about

10:26

here on the last

10:28

flight of the

10:30

airplane. Have a seat. Thank

10:32

you so much. And when do we take off?

10:36

Thinking of French

10:39

now, they're quite disciplined really, but

10:41

they do have moments. And

10:44

we taxied and noticed in this seat.

10:47

And, of course, we could look out and

10:49

we landed into loosener crowds

10:51

or people. And

10:54

there were all the Pompeii. The

10:56

Pompeiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii firemen

11:00

with their fire equipment and

11:02

trucks and thanks. All on the

11:04

top brandishing, their empty

11:06

champagne bottles. That's

11:10

French. Someone else

11:12

very special on that flight was none other

11:14

than Andre Turquotte. The famed

11:16

pilot who'd taken the French Concorde prototype

11:19

on its very first flight back in nineteen

11:21

sixty nine. And

11:24

he said to me that

11:26

he was furious, really. Because

11:29

he said, this aircraft has

11:31

been canceled. For

11:33

political reasons. And

11:35

I said yes, but one

11:38

thing we have to think is

11:40

that the aircraft was launched for

11:42

political reasons, and

11:45

we had about twenty

11:47

years or more fabulous

11:50

job.

11:53

British Airways' final Concorde flight

11:55

on November twenty 6 two thousand

11:58

three was the last time the plane

12:00

would ever fly. On

12:03

that day, Concord, B0AF,

12:06

the last one to be built, returned

12:08

to the place of its birth. As

12:11

it flew over Bristol, thousands of

12:13

people gathered to see it, some of whom

12:15

had dedicated their careers to building

12:17

the plane. Pedro and I

12:19

talked to Mike and John about that day while

12:21

we were at aerospace Bristol museum in

12:24

Foulton.

12:27

Where did it land?

12:28

And on the on the airfield here? Like the airfield

12:30

right here. Yeah.

12:31

Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Where were you were you out on the

12:33

airfield?

12:33

Yeah. I was on the side of the

12:35

airfield by the the fly ops building

12:38

there. And as the aircraft came in,

12:41

Mike banished and Les Brody opened

12:43

the TV windows, and they waved

12:45

the Union Jack

12:46

out. And, know,

12:49

did you that was a great moment.

12:52

For Mike, the final flight was quite

12:54

emotional. I was one

12:56

of those lucky people who got to hear the

12:58

shutdown, the very last shutdown on the Olympus

13:01

five ninety three engine and on that sort

13:03

of

13:03

windy, cloudy November along with all

13:05

the other dignitaries who were there to say goodbye

13:07

to the aircraft and see the end of it.

13:09

This is what I think is so compelling

13:11

about this story. Is

13:13

now I understand that

13:16

the end of Concord is

13:18

the end of a dream. It's the end

13:21

of a vision. For British

13:23

aviation industry, but you can also say for aviation

13:25

in general, but also for people in

13:27

general. This kind of work, this kind of innovation,

13:29

this kind of thinking, You're talking about the iconic

13:32

status. Yeah. And now it's

13:34

gone. Like so many of those things

13:36

are gone. It's not just the end of Concord.

13:39

No. But a lot of those engineers mirrors

13:41

that work on concorde, works

13:43

on Airbus. So we've got innovative

13:46

products coming out of Airbus, okay, not

13:48

supersonic ones, but we did

13:50

future studies on ASTs,

13:53

a giant supersonic transport. And

13:55

we've got models of those, and you've got

13:57

the innovations still going on. We've

13:59

own an Airbus now with

14:02

all or flying on

14:04

cooking oil basically. Yeah.

14:07

Environmentally friendly. We've

14:09

got those developments. We've got electric aircraft

14:12

being

14:12

developed. You know, things

14:15

changed. Don't they? Like, can't imagine that

14:17

anyone's gonna build museums

14:20

to all the airplanes that are current. Any of the

14:22

passenger airplanes that are currently out there right now. You know what

14:24

I mean? Maybe not.

14:27

You can tell what Pedro is trying to do

14:29

here. Right? He's trying to

14:31

dig deeper for John's emotional

14:33

reaction to the end of Concord. But

14:36

John doesn't see it that way. Even

14:38

though most of this series has been about looking

14:40

back, John looks to the future

14:43

and how Concord continues to influence

14:45

us today. For

14:46

example, in the Allies developed for

14:48

Concorde. And then there was a

14:50

spin off as to the

14:52

spin off from materials like stainless

14:55

steel. You know, which are used in every

14:57

day, you know, you got stainless steel saucepans in your

14:59

in your kitchen. Yeah. Some of it was used

15:01

on the spacecraft. A lot of those

15:03

high temperature steels are used

15:06

in nuclear power plants. Mhmm.

15:08

In the reactor cell, you know, you need high

15:10

temperature, stainless or titanium

15:12

or whatever in

15:13

those. So There were lots of spin offs

15:15

from this. Aviation

15:17

journalist Michel Polycom also has

15:20

list of contributions we can thank Concord

15:22

for.

15:28

We owe lot of things to the Concorde. The

15:31

modern carbon breaks that all airlines

15:33

use around the world, the in flight

15:36

fuel transfer systems, the

15:38

knowhow of the European aerospace industry,

15:40

particularly the French and the British

15:43

owe a lot to the Concord.

15:52

And the other Europeans that entered the airwest

15:54

consortiums were able to use all of that.

16:03

But it's important to recognize that the rebirth

16:05

of the European aerospace industry after

16:08

World War two was thanks to all

16:10

the work that was done and all the

16:12

knowledge that was gained while making

16:14

the Concorde

16:15

fly. And to making it fly well

16:17

for twenty seven years.

16:23

Michel is talking about perhaps Concorde's

16:25

biggest legacy, Airbus.

16:28

The international collaboration behind

16:30

Concorde inspired the way Airbus

16:32

works today. Even Concorde's

16:34

building process, where bits are fully

16:37

made in various locations and then

16:39

assembled

16:39

elsewhere, became Airbus' modus

16:41

operandi. Mike Hall.

16:44

Now that was a result primarily

16:47

of Concorde. The necessary

16:49

working together of Concorde, putting

16:51

all the parts together and getting different companies

16:53

who spoke different languages both technically

16:55

and mechanically, if you will,

16:58

French and English and all the other suppliers had

17:00

to work together to get this aircraft to work

17:02

to the same appropriate standards.

17:05

The creation and success of Airbus cemented

17:07

Europe's place at the forefront of the aviation

17:10

industry. And not just Europe,

17:12

but France, who play a major

17:14

role in Airbus, with the UK delegated

17:17

to a supporting position.

17:19

But could the UK have

17:21

become back in the sixties? A

17:23

world leader in wide body airliners if

17:26

it hadn't sunk all its hopes and investment

17:28

into Concorde. Could British

17:31

Airways have flown a fleet of completely British

17:33

designed and built planes. It's

17:36

all hypothetical, of course, but

17:38

it's worth noting when considering the

17:40

overall success of Concord. The

17:44

other big hypothetical school question

17:46

is, will passengers fly supersonically

17:48

again? First off, I'll answer

17:51

one of the most Googled questions about Concord.

17:53

Can any of the remaining planes fly

17:56

again? Now, you don't

17:58

wanna say never, but after twenty

18:00

years of sitting still, some out

18:02

in the elements. There's just no way

18:04

they're structurally sound enough to be deemed airworthy.

18:09

I asked Katie John if she thinks she'll be flying

18:11

at the speed of sound anytime soon.

18:14

I think it's pretty unlikely. I mean, ever

18:16

since Concord retired, we've been hearing, yes,

18:18

The next generation is only five years away,

18:21

five years away, five years away. So I think

18:23

it's probably very unlikely that I'd ever

18:25

go on a supersonic flight. But

18:27

maybe, just maybe. Katie

18:31

might fly supersonic one day.

18:34

It's about time to enter a

18:36

new era of supersonic travel.

18:40

Time to turn the future into

18:43

the present. It's about

18:45

time. Boom.

18:49

Supersonic. The only

18:51

contender out there now is Denver's

18:53

boom. That clip is from their press

18:55

release. This startup has been promising

18:58

for a few years that they will build a new

19:00

supersonic passenger jet, which

19:02

will be called overture. Sculpted

19:05

for lead and safety, engineered

19:08

for a sustainable future. Boom

19:11

got a huge boost in the last couple of years

19:13

as major carriers including United,

19:16

American, and Japan Airlines, all

19:18

placed pre orders. But it's unclear

19:20

how binding these agreements are. We

19:23

only have to think back to all those options

19:25

placed on Concord in the sixties after

19:27

all. In fact, a lot of the same

19:29

challenges Concord faced over half a

19:31

century ago are still with us,

19:34

not only in terms of technology, but

19:36

the cost of flying supersonically. Eric

19:41

Tagler is a Forbes Aerospace columnist

19:44

who's been writing about the industry for over

19:46

twenty years. He believes

19:48

there is a market for travel

19:50

that's faster than the speed of sound.

19:53

But at the right price, and it's

19:55

not a price that boom can deliver

19:58

supersonic flight at and or has

20:00

anyone else been able to demonstrate

20:02

that they could do that if you

20:04

can make supersonic flight comparable

20:07

to a Southwest Airlines

20:09

tickets on a flight from, let's say,

20:11

Miami to Phoenix. Yeah. They're

20:13

all for it. But if they have to

20:15

pay a premium that is probably five

20:17

times that number to be

20:19

generous, sorry, not gonna

20:21

work. Not to mention that

20:23

in the past decade, accelerated by

20:25

the pandemic, a new technologies emerged

20:28

that cuts down on the desire for supersonic

20:30

travel.

20:31

What you and I are doing right here

20:34

connecting via the Internet is

20:36

saving more time than going to the

20:38

airport, jumping on an airplane and flying to

20:41

see you. Face to face. So

20:42

Zoom,

20:45

not boom. Despite the challenges

20:48

though, boom is confident they will

20:50

have a prototype built in a few years

20:52

and will be flying paying customers by

20:54

the end of the

20:55

decade. Eric isn't

20:57

so sure. I don't believe

20:59

BOOM will be in business by the end of the decade.

21:02

They will use up the capital

21:04

that they have. They've managed to generate

21:06

about two seventy million dollars worth

21:09

of investment thus far, they're

21:11

going to need probably conservative

21:13

estimates say somewhere in the area of fifty

21:16

to sixty billion dollars to

21:18

get a supersonic airliner to

21:20

market. Thus far, they've raised around

21:23

five percent of that. And so they have you know,

21:25

the the financing challenge is bigger than the

21:27

technical challenge.

21:29

One major technical challenge to

21:31

supersonic flight is of course,

21:34

the sound.

21:37

Without small something that Boom will be dealing

21:39

with. And that's evident

21:41

simply by its name. You know, they're a supersonic

21:44

airline or company called Boom. So

21:46

obviously, they're not looking to solve

21:48

the noise problem. That was always part

21:50

of their value proposition. We're going to be first

21:52

to market because we're not going to tackle that.

21:54

We're going to fly supersonic over

21:57

the oceans, over the Atlantic, over the Pacific.

22:03

But that isn't good enough for NASA. Now,

22:07

we are prepared to help open the doors

22:09

to a new market of commercial supersonic

22:12

air travel

22:13

overland. And cut our flight

22:15

time in half. That

22:17

clip is from NASA's public YouTube

22:20

channel. They've partnered with Lockheed

22:22

Martin's skunk work division to produce

22:24

the X fifty nine experimental

22:26

aircraft, which currently seats only

22:28

a single pilot.

22:30

It is a very narrow pointy aircraft.

22:33

The whole point of that being to delay

22:35

the formation of a shock wave on

22:37

the nose Instead, it will create

22:39

a series of smaller shock waves over

22:41

various parts of the plane to produce

22:44

allowed thumps instead of sonic

22:46

booms. Once the X fifty

22:48

nine is ready, NASA will recreate

22:50

sort of the Oklahoma boom test

22:52

of nineteen sixty

22:53

four. We will fly the X fifty

22:56

nine over a number of US communities

22:59

to collect data on what sound level

23:01

people consider acceptable. National

23:04

and international regulators will

23:06

then use this data to consider

23:08

lifting the current bands on commercial

23:11

supersonic travel over land.

23:16

I would expect the upcoming test

23:18

that NASA does to be largely

23:20

successful. And from that,

23:23

a technology and a

23:25

design metrology that

23:27

Lockheed Martin will develop that will

23:29

ultimately lead it to a supersonic

23:32

airliner one day in the hazy future.

23:35

You see, while the x fifty nine will

23:37

never carry passengers, The hope is

23:39

that it will point the way towards how to build

23:41

passenger planes that don't create a sonic

23:43

boom, explains Eric. Probably

23:46

looking at something in the neighborhood of a hundred

23:48

passengers or so, la Concorde,

23:52

but there's no guarantee key that you will be able

23:54

to scale and achieve the same effects in terms

23:56

of noise reduction. However, they

23:59

do know a lot about these things as gunk works

24:01

and I'm sure they already have some ideas

24:04

for the shape of a passenger transport.

24:07

Now I should say we

24:09

did reach out to Boom and Lockheed Martin,

24:11

but they were unable to participate in the

24:13

podcast. But as

24:15

Eric says, If supersonic passenger

24:18

travel seems just as impossible today

24:20

as back in the sixties, then should we

24:22

even be trying to bring it back? I

24:24

mean, maybe our focus should be on sustainable

24:27

transport instead of

24:29

speed. After all, it

24:31

seems many of the promises of Concorde never

24:33

came true. The

24:36

idea that technology will make our lives

24:38

better, I think more people than ever

24:41

now realize that that is not necessarily

24:43

the case. It improves some aspects

24:46

of our lives and considerably worsens

24:48

other aspects of our lives.

24:51

That said, Eric believes there

24:53

is a very good reason to keep chasing

24:55

the supersonic dream.

24:57

If we continue to embark

24:59

on these projects, and explore these

25:02

ideas, and we do it in a fashion

25:04

as a team, then there is value

25:06

in that. And I think some of

25:09

the central things that you've been examining with

25:11

respect to Concorde as with respect

25:13

to other issues are teaming

25:15

ideas, the dynamics of a team,

25:17

how that works, how people come

25:20

together and work together and

25:22

how they reach a goal. I

25:24

think we're losing some of that today.

25:26

And it is becoming more

25:29

difficult for people to work together

25:31

in team settings.

25:35

Eve Gurna feels the story of Concord

25:37

is evidence that by harnessing our

25:39

differences, we can find the inspiration

25:42

to do something amazing.

25:44

We have qualities and defects due

25:47

to our history, and

25:49

we have to go together. Of

25:51

course, that's on the white side,

25:54

the whiskey and the cigar and

25:57

on the other side, the red wine.

25:59

And yes, but that's not

26:01

a joke. It's a question of character,

26:03

we are bullish. You

26:05

are certain. And yes,

26:07

and we are made to work together

26:10

because we compensate our

26:12

qualities and defects one

26:14

with the others. Michel

26:17

Polinko is confident that the HEIGHTS

26:19

Concorded achieved, metaphorically speaking,

26:22

will happen again. It

26:25

is beautiful that some dreams

26:28

can be realistic and

26:31

it happens, men

26:34

won't on the moon. Men

26:37

like me flew at

26:40

magnitude. It's fabulous. It's

26:44

fabulous. So

26:46

I am positive. Some

26:48

people after me will

26:51

life some fabulous things.

26:55

When we started the series back in episode

26:57

one, I asked why Concorde?

27:00

Well, beyond the incredible technical

27:03

achievement, there's something emotional

27:05

in its core. John

27:07

Britain. Our old

27:09

boss, tentalba, was

27:12

asked what three words for

27:14

him described the aircraft, and

27:16

he said speed, power,

27:19

and beauty.

27:21

And the greatest of these is

27:23

beauty. When

27:26

we visited Ricky Bastian, His

27:28

front room was covered in

27:30

concorde photos and momentos.

27:33

That room here seems festering

27:35

the pictures of the airplane. Family pictures

27:38

go in the bedroom. This room is conquered

27:40

only. And it

27:42

stuffs everywhere. It's very difficult

27:44

to be dispassionate about the airplane. Because

27:47

of her beauty. It's a very emotional

27:49

thing and it is very difficult to put your finger on

27:51

what it is about

27:52

it. But There was something

27:54

about the character of the aircraft and the people

27:57

involved with her as well.

28:01

And that's something that's gonna stay with

28:03

me from reporting on this story. The

28:06

way Concorde has impacted so many

28:08

lives. I can't think of any

28:10

other airplane that has inspired such

28:12

love and such devotion. I'll

28:15

be honest, I do a lot of investigative

28:18

work, and that means that I have to be

28:20

objective and a bit detached

28:22

and not become part of the story. But

28:24

with Concorde, I really couldn't help it.

28:27

I even wear a little Concorde pin on my

28:29

jacket these days. And the

28:31

thing is as much as I was moved

28:33

by people's emotional connection to Concord.

28:36

I was also surprised by how some

28:38

of the people we spoke to were really

28:40

matter of fact about it

28:41

all. And I'm talking about doubly

28:43

collard here. You have to think

28:46

oh, you see a completely different light

28:48

if you worked on it as I did.

28:50

To somebody who just

28:53

takes it because it's they want to get

28:56

from a to b as comfort and

28:59

fast as possible and so on. Air

29:01

France offered to a flight to New York and back

29:03

on it as a little gift

29:06

just before I retired. And

29:09

So we went on and there

29:11

were people getting on it and said, I

29:13

will cover steps and

29:15

I looked down and I think on my

29:17

order. Look at that.

29:20

The problems we have with that, and

29:22

I look over here. Oh, there's another

29:24

lot. And so

29:28

For us, they were a series of

29:31

more or less unsolvable

29:34

problems that we had to sort out quickly.

29:37

This was right at the end

29:39

of our time recording just before

29:41

we head at home. As I said,

29:43

when I started working on this podcast, I

29:46

didn't know that much about Concord, and

29:48

I certainly didn't feel emotional about

29:50

it. But for my producer Pedro,

29:53

the lifelong Concord fan, who

29:55

did never see one up close and whose

29:57

idea this whole series was. This

29:59

trip took on a really deep meaning

30:02

for him. As we were packing

30:04

up our recording equipment, Pedro

30:06

was off talking to Dudley, who reached

30:08

into his pocket and handed something small

30:10

to Pedro. They both got

30:12

really serious and I thought, wait

30:14

a second, it's Pedro crying,

30:17

so I quickly turned on one of the microphones.

30:20

So,

30:21

Pedro, what what did Dudley Cola

30:24

just give you? Well, as we were walking

30:26

away from the plane and saying, are you goodbyers, he's

30:28

like, you know, I understand you

30:30

really like Concorde and it means a lot to you and airplanes

30:32

and

30:32

such. I have a little something for you and reaches

30:34

into his pocket and he pulls out.

30:39

This sort of nondescript

30:42

piece of metal. It's

30:44

like, you know, just kind

30:47

of you'd see it lying on the grounds

30:49

and wearing like shop or something and it's just this

30:51

weirdly tooled piece of metal and he

30:53

says that's a piece of concrete. And

30:56

then we both started crying. It

30:59

was really nice. It was very

31:01

sweet.

31:04

It's it's just

31:07

something that tugs at your heart strings

31:09

and gets into your head and you

31:11

cannot ignore a scene of beauty

31:14

and function. I don't think. Nigel

31:18

Ferris, who was there in the 6 is when Concord

31:20

was born. The fact

31:22

that it turned out to be what it was, how

31:26

do you see? Can't fall in love with an airplane,

31:28

but it's it's just lump of metal

31:30

and plastic and so on. So I've not

31:32

really nice thing to say about gold, gold, metals

31:34

and plastics, but it was that

31:36

said it purely and simply, but what it

31:39

actually did was and show

31:42

to people what could be done

31:44

with little bit of thought and ingenuity.

31:50

What an achievement of aviation Britain

31:52

and France had brought about? Supreme

31:54

combined technology had shown the rest of the world

31:56

a clean pair of

31:57

heroes. Concorde and the men who

31:59

built hands through them have left their

32:01

mark in the sky

32:07

You've been listening to making an impossible

32:10

airplane. The untold story of Concord

32:12

on The Teamistry, an original podcast

32:15

from Atlassian. If you

32:17

visit as Atlassian dot com slash

32:19

Teamistry, you can check out some of the behind

32:22

the scenes photos of Pedro and I geeking

32:24

out over Concord. There's also

32:26

transcripts of every episode and a

32:28

full bibliography of all our research

32:30

sources. And please, leave

32:32

us a rating and review in your podcast

32:34

app. Pedro Mendez was

32:36

this season's writer and show runner.

32:39

Ramatula Shake was the show producer

32:42

and Mark Angley, our sound designer.

32:44

Mary Drew Brown was our video editor.

32:47

Executive producers were Karen Burgers

32:50

and Carla Hilton. Our Atlassian

32:52

team included Jamie Olstin, Naceli

32:55

Mendez, Karina Filofandev, and

32:57

Shannon Winter. special

32:59

thanks to Brooklyn's Museum, Aerospace

33:02

Bristol, and Eriscopia. For

33:04

all their help. This series

33:06

is dedicated to the memory of Ted

33:08

Talbott, who passed away while we

33:10

were in production. I'm

33:12

Bastian to have a really far. Thanks so

33:14

much for listening.