France's culture minister Rachida Dati has announced the designation of Concorde Number 1 – a model of the Franco-British supersonic aircraft – as a historical monument.
"This aircraft embodied the industrial strength and innovative capacity of France in the field of aeronautics. It was also a symbol of our ability for international cooperation," wrote French culture minister Rachida Dati on social media platform X this week.
"This aircraft, a pioneer of supersonic flights, has remained in people's memories. Its preservation will allow future generations to experience a unique example of our aeronautical expertise through a futuristic vision," she added.
A symbol of luxury and technological advances, the Concorde is the world's only supersonic passenger plane, travelling faster than sound at speeds that whisked an elite class of travellers between London or Paris and the US east coast in just over three hours.
Twenty aircraft built
A statement from the ministry specifies that Concorde number 1 (N1) is one of the 20 aircraft built between 1967 and 1979, and that 18 are still preserved today, including six in France.
Concorde N1 was one of the two prototypes intended to obtain the airworthiness certificate required to carry passengers.
It made its first flight on 6 December, 1973, and its last on 26 May, 1982, paving the way for flights between Paris and New York on 19 October, 1977.
Since 2014, it has been one of two aircraft preserved and displayed at the Aeroscopia museum in Blagnac near Toulouse in south west France.
The Concorde service was definitively retired in October 2003, three years after the crash of July 2000 that killed 113 people.
On 25 July, Air France Flight 4590, operating the Paris-New York route, crashed shortly after takeoff onto a hotel in Gonesse, a northern suburb of Paris.
(with AFP)
