Welcome to History's Not Boring by Kidopoly.com. I'm Mira! And I'm Finn. Before we dive into today's adventure, we have a very special shout-out. Charlie, who is eight years old and lives in Tacoma, Washington, sent us an awesome request.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, Charlie asked us to do an episode all about the Concord Supersonic Jet. So Charlie, this mind-blowing episode is just for you.
SPEAKER_00Finn, imagine taking off in an aeroplane from London, England, just as the sun is starting to set at 5pm.
SPEAKER_01Okay, I'm picturing it. A normal flight to New York takes about eight hours, right? So it would be super dark when I landed.
SPEAKER_00Normally, yes. But on this specific plane, you would land in New York at 3.45pm on the exact same day. The sun would actually rise backwards in the sky during your flight.
SPEAKER_01Wait, what? You landed before you even took off. That's literal time travel.
SPEAKER_00Haha, not quite time travel, Finn. It's just flying faster than the Earth rotates. You were flying at Mach 2.04, which is about 1,354 miles per hour.
SPEAKER_011,354 miles per hour? That's twice as fast as a normal passenger jet today.
SPEAKER_00Exactly! Today, we are talking about the most famous, most glamorous, and fastest passenger airplane in history. A sleek white jet with a pointy needle nose called the Concorde. To understand how amazing the Concorde was, we have to go back to the 1960s. It was the era of the space race, and everyone was obsessed with going faster and higher.
SPEAKER_01So who built it? Was it the Americans because of NASA?
SPEAKER_00Nope. It was actually a massive team-up between two countries, Britain and France. In 1962, the British Aircraft Corporation and a French company called Sud Aviation joined forces.
SPEAKER_01Whoa! Two different countries building one plane. I bet they had to translate all the blueprints.
SPEAKER_00They did, and they named it Concorde, which means agreement or harmony in both French and English. Their goal was to build a passenger plane that could break the sound barrier.
SPEAKER_01Wait, remind me, how fast is the speed of sound?
SPEAKER_00Great question. The speed of sound is about 767 miles per hour. When a plane flies faster than that, it's called supersonic.
SPEAKER_01Oh, and when you cross that invisible sound barrier, it makes a massive explosion noise called a sonic boom, right? Boom!
SPEAKER_00Exactly! So, on March 2, 1969, in a city called Toulouse in France, the very first Concord prototype finally rolled onto the runway.
SPEAKER_011969? That's the same year humans first walked on the moon. What a crazy year for science!
SPEAKER_00It really was! As the test pilot, André Turcat, revved the four massive jet engines. Flames shot out the back. It roared down the runway and lifted off, looking like a giant flying paper dart.
SPEAKER_01You said it looked like a paper dart. I've seen pictures of the Concorde, and it has this super weird pointy nose that bends downwards. Why did it look like that? That is one of the coolest engineering tricks ever!
SPEAKER_00It's called the droop nose. To fly 1,350 miles per hour, the plane had to be shaped like a needle to slice through the air.
SPEAKER_01Okay, makes sense. A needle is super aerodynamic.
SPEAKER_00Right, but because of its triangle-shaped wings, called delta wings, the Concorde had to tilt its nose way, way up into the air when it was taking off or landing.
SPEAKER_01Oh, if the nose is pointing up, the pilots can't see the runway in front of them. They'd just be staring at the sky.
SPEAKER_00Exactly! So the engineers built a nose that could physically bend down on a hinge. During takeoff, they lowered the nose by 5 degrees, and for landing, they lowered it a massive 12.5 degrees.
SPEAKER_01That is so clever! It's like a bird bending its beak down to see where it's stepping. What else was special about the engines?
SPEAKER_00It had four Rolls-Royce Olympus engines, and they used something called afterburners. Basically, they dumped extra raw jet fuel straight into the exhaust pipe and lit it on fire.
SPEAKER_01Whoa! So literal fire was shooting out of the back to push it faster. That must have been incredibly loud.
SPEAKER_00It was deafening. The Concorde was so loud taking off that car alarms in the airport parking lot would go off. And because of that massive sonic boom we talked about, it was banned from flying at top speed over land. So where could it fly super fast? Only over the ocean. Once it cleared the coast, the pilot would announce, ladies and gentlemen, we are now flying at Mach 2.
SPEAKER_01So what was it actually like to be a passenger on the Concorde? Were you strapped in like an astronaut?
SPEAKER_00Not at all. The inside looked like a very fancy, but kind of narrow train carriage. It only held about a hundred passengers. But the craziest part was looking out the window. Why? What could you see?
SPEAKER_01Clouds?
SPEAKER_00You were looking down at the clouds! The Concorde cruised at 60,000 feet. That's over 11 miles up in the air. Normal planes only fly at 35,000 feet. 60,000 feet? Wait, if you're that high, can you see space? Almost! Even in the middle of the day, the sky above the Concorde wasn't light blue. It was a dark, dark purple, almost black. And if you looked at the horizon, you could actually see the curve of the Earth.
SPEAKER_01That is unbelievable! Okay, but here's a weird fact I know about flying that fast. Can I share it? Go for it, Finn. When you fly at Mach 2, the air rubs against the outside of the plane so fast that it creates crazy friction heat. The nose of the Concorde got up to 260 degrees Fahrenheit.
SPEAKER_00Wow! That's hotter than boiling water!
SPEAKER_01Haha, exactly. And because metal expands when it gets hot, the entire airplane actually stretched during the flight. The Concorde got up to 10 inches longer while it was flying. No way! 10 inches longer! Yeah, the flight engineer even had a little gap on his control panel, and during the flight, the gap would stretch open so wide he could stick his hat inside it.
SPEAKER_00The Concorde was an absolute marvel. Over its 27 years of flying, it carried around 2.5 million passengers, and a lot of them were super famous.
SPEAKER_01Like who? Movie stars?
SPEAKER_00Oh yeah, movie stars, rock stars, and even Queen Elizabeth II. The food was incredible too. They served fresh lobster and caviar on fine china plates while flying faster than a speeding bullet.
unknownHahaha!
SPEAKER_01Eating lobster while stretching an airplane with fire engines. That is wild. But wait, if it was so amazing, why aren't we flying on Concorde today?
SPEAKER_00Well, being that fast was incredibly expensive. By the year 2000, a round-trip ticket cost about $12,000. Plus, those afterburner engines burned massive amounts of fuel.
SPEAKER_01And they couldn't fly over land because the sonic booms were too loud. So they were stuck only flying a few routes, right?
SPEAKER_00Exactly. It mainly just flew between London, Paris and New York. Sadly, because of the high costs and the planes getting older, the Concorde was retired. Its very last commercial flight was on October 24, 2003.
SPEAKER_01Wait, 2003? That means for the last 20 years, we've actually gone backward in speed. No passenger plane today can fly as fast as the Concorde did back in the 1970s.
SPEAKER_00You're completely right! But here is my favourite fun fact. In 1985, there was a massive charity concert called LiveAid. A musician named Phil Collins performed a set on stage in London. Don't tell me he took the Concorde! He sure did! He hopped on the Concorde, flew across the ocean, and performed a second time in Philadelphia on the exact same day. Alright, Finn, time for the quiz. Are you ready to test your supersonic memory?
SPEAKER_01Oh boy, okay, I'm ready. Fire away! First question.
SPEAKER_00About how fast in miles per hour did the Concorde fly at top speed? Next one, let's see if you remember the engineering. Why did the nose of the Concorde droop downwards? Question 3. How high up in feet did the Concorde cruise, where you could see the curve of the Earth? Alright, here's number four. Due to the extreme heat from friction, how many inches could the plane stretch during flight? Last question. In what year did the Concorde take its final commercial flight? Great job! Let's go through the answers and see how you did. The first answer is it flew at Mach 2.04, which is about 1354 mph. For question 2, the nose drooped so the pilots could actually see the runway when they were landing. Number 3. The answer is it cruised at an incredible 60,000 feet. Question 4. The metal expanded so much the plane stretched up to 10 inches. And the final answer is it was retired in the year 2003.
SPEAKER_01Man, learning about the Concorde was so cool. I can't believe an airplane actually stretched 10 inches while flying. That is officially my new favourite fact.
SPEAKER_00I knew you would love that one. For me, it's just mind-blowing that we could fly from London to New York in about three and a half hours. I wish they still flew today.
SPEAKER_01Hey, if you loved learning about the Concorde as much as we did, fly faster than the speed of sound down to the review button and leave us a five-star rating.
SPEAKER_00Yes! Just scroll down on your podcast app and tap those five stars. It really helps other kids find the show.
SPEAKER_01Oh, and don't forget to check out our site kidopoly.com. We've got tons of fun learning games, activities, and cool stuff to explore there.
SPEAKER_00Absolutely! And just like Charlie from Tacoma today, if you want to shout out on the show or want to suggest a topic, send us an email at hello at kidopoly.com.
SPEAKER_01Thanks for hanging out and time travelling with us today. See you next time on History's Not Boring. Bye.