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• BA Concordes were used to carried diamond shipments to the USA
• BA Concordes were also used to fly live human organs for transplant requirements/purposes
• There have been more US astronauts than BA Concorde pilots.
• One BA engineer is said to have hid in the toilet during take-off from JFK to get a free flight back to Heathrow
• BA Concordes were used to carry major currency between the USA and the UK, there was a safe fitted in the rear baggage hold for this purpose
• Fred Finn was on the first and last Concorde flight and holds the Guinness World Record for the most Concorde flights as a passenger.In total, he flew 718 times on the Queen of the Skies between 1976 and 2003 – all of them in the same seat, 9A.
• Each flight consisted of the pilot, co-pilot, flight engineer and six cabin crew.
• In 1993, Barbara Harmer, a former hairdresser from Bognor Regis, became Concorde’s first female pilot.
• British Airways limited their cabin crew to a maximum of three years’ service to allow as many people as possible the chance to work on Concorde.
• Pilots wanting to fly Concorde had to complete an intensive six month conversion programme consisting of a six week technical course, nineteen weeks on the simulator, route briefing and route flying training.
• More than 2.5 million passengers flew supersonically on British Airways’ Concorde since she entered commercial service in 1976.
• The standard return fare from London to New York was £6,636.
• In 1993 pop star Suggs from the group Madness hit the world’s longest putt down the aisle of Concorde’s cabin to raise money for charity. Five miles in two seconds!
• Victoria Beckham flew Concorde for three wedding dress fittings in New York in 1999.
• Over one million bottles of champagne have been consumed on Concorde passenger flights.
• Supersonic celebrities have included: Sir Sean Connery, Joan Collins, Elizabeth Taylor, Sir Elton John, Kate Moss, Rod Stewart, Robbie Williams, Mike Tyson and members of the Royal family
• The Ryder Cup was brought back to Europe by Concorde in 1995.
• Concorde recorded its fastest journey from New York to London on January 1st 1983, taking 2 hours 56 minutes.
• There was no in flight entertainment on Concorde flights, but you got free champagne and posh food on Wedgwood crockery.
• For its first few years, Concorde operated at a loss. The British Government, which financed the British side of the Concorde project, took 80% of Concorde’s revenue.
• It was discovered in the early eighties that public perception of Concorde was that it cost more to fly on it than it actually did. So the prices were put up to what people thought they were, and with oil prices reducing, Concorde began making money.
• In 1984, financial ownership of the crafts was passed over for the government to British Airways who operated the crafts at a profit.
• It is believed that part of the reason for the crafts being retired in 2003 was that, while they were grounded, British Airways and Air France realised that they made more profit out of the passengers who would have flown on Concorde by them flying First Class on their standard aircrafts.

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