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Initially, Congress banned Concorde service to the United States due to concerns over the aircraft’s sonic boom, but five months after the Concorde’s inaugural flight, an exception was made in May 1976 for transatlantic service to Washington Dulles International Airport from London and Paris. These supersonic transatlantic flights at 1,350 mph required just three and one-half hours, faster than the sun moves across the Earth. In a promotional brochure, Air France placed the event in historical perspective by recounting Charles Lindbergh’s thirty-three-hour transatlantic flight just forty-nine years earlier. The charge for a round-trip Air France Concorde ticket from Washington, DC to Paris was $1,654 ($8,700 today when adjusted for inflation). In November 1977, Concorde service was added to New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport. Learn more about the Concorde in “Supersonic Time Machine: Documenting the Concorde,” on display pre-security in the Aviation Museum and Library or online at: https://bit.ly/3UB8Q6L
This image was posted on March 24, 2023.