Concorde at Sydney Airport, 1972

This charming 1972 home movie captures a Concorde on the runway at Sydney International Airport in Mascot, alongside retro Qantas and Pan Am jets on the tarmac. 

Developed in the 1970s through a groundbreaking partnership between French and British engineers, the Concorde promised a new era of supersonic travel. Flying faster than the speed of sound cut travel times by more than half, but the iconic jet faced limits. Sonic booms restricted it to transoceanic routes, and rising costs, noise issues, and accidents eventually led to its retirement after 27 years of service.     

The Concorde made its final transatlantic flight in 2003, coming to rest at an airfield near Bristol, where it had been built three decades earlier.