Once the Pinnacle of commercial air travel, Concorde jets have not flown for 14 years, now a privately-funded organisation will put 1 back in service.
Concordes used to fly at a height of about 17.7km, just at the edge of space, and were thus able to see the curvature of the Earth and the darkness of space beyond the horizon.
The flight altitude surpassed the official upper limit for even military jets like the F-16.
At such heights, increased exposure to solar radiation became a concern, so each plane was equipped with a radiometer so Captains could keep an eye on the radiation levels, and drop to lower altitudes if necessary.
Beginning 1977, British Airways and Singapore Airlines jointly operated Concorde flights that plied a London-Bahrain-Singapore route.
The 3X-weekly service, which cut travel time to a remarkable 9 hours even with the stopover, operated for just 5 days before it had to be suspended. The Malaysian government had taken issue with the Concordes’ supersonic boom over western parts of Malaysia.