The sleek, elegant lines of the world's only supersonic airliner are as eye-catching today as they were over a quarter of a century ago when Concorde first went into service. Her revolutionary design was born of early post-war experimental aircraft. This book explains the Concorde story from its earliest conception to its rebirth and re-establishment as queen of the sky. Half way through the writing of this book, Concorde suffered its first accident while in service, necessitating changes to the book to take account of this tragedy. A full account of the events of 25 July 2000 are also given here.

It looks at the ill-fated Russian attempts to win the laurels of being first to prove Mach 2 as a feasible reality in airline service. This is the story of the pioneering days, the design, production and operation of Concorde and also the Tupolev TU-144, the only two supersonic transports that made it into production and service. Alongside the fascinating development of both these aircraft, the author examines the many projects in Britain, France and the United States that never made it beyond the drawing board or the designer's sketch book. He has pulled together the different strands to provide an overview of the development of supersonic transport aircraft, and subsequent attempts, so far still-born to produce a second-generation SST that draws on the considerable advances made in knowledge and technology.