HISTORY: THE CONCORDE, A MYTHICAL PLANE
Nicknamed “White Bird”. The Concorde was a supersonic aircraft, cruising at Mach 2.02 and flying at an altitude of between 16,000 and 18,000 m. It was equipped with a delta wing and post-combustion engines.
Its elegant silhouette flew at twice the speed of sound. No aircraft, civilian or military, was able to achieve this feat.
A flagship of Franco-British aeronautics, Concorde has pulverized traditional air transport data.
Le Concorde in St Martin Juliana… a subject already mentioned with its coming (presidential… with the Bush Mitterrand meeting) in 1989 (16/12/1989). In fact, the concorde had already flown twice between Paris and St Martin Juliana (06/02/1981 – 27/11/1981).
Small flash back …
December 1989: François Mitterrand in Saint-Martin for a meeting with George Bush!
On 16 December 1989, François Mitterrand, then President of the French Republic, and George Bush, President of the United States, met in Saint-Martin. The aim was to discuss the future of Europe, transatlantic relations and political upheavals in the Eastern European countries.
After the helicopter descent of the American president, we discover rare images of the two men talking on the beach of Anse Marcel. The two presidents then held a joint press conference. Then before leaving again, François Mitterrand made a surprise visit to Marigot where he went to meet the Saint-Martinois.
Details of this summit meeting, with Jean-Christophe Lefort of RFO Guadeloupe on 17 December 1989:
First landing of a Concorde at Juliana Airport in Maho!
The Saint Martin runway is famous for these thrilling landings since the planes are at very low altitude on Maho Bay.
A big THANK YOU to Lucien DUPONT who sent us this video of the first landing of Concorde and his testimony:
” On February 06, 1981, the French-Dutch island of Saint-Martin/Sint Maarten, in the Caribbean, experienced an important event: the first landing of a Concorde on the runway of Juliana Airport.
This flight was chartered by a real estate developer to launch its large tourist complex of Baie Orientale on the eastern part of the French part.
Residing there for eighteen months, I choose to attend this first, by boat, in the axis of the track, in front of Maho Beach, where people from all over the world come to give themselves strong sensations by hanging themselves at the fence a few meters under the wheels of the planes that land!!!
There was less traffic on the sea than on the roads around the airport.
The aircraft departed the next day and took off face-to-sea, unlike most take-offs, so as not to take any risk against the small hills that are in the runway’s centre line.
Many others, no doubt, immortalized this landing, but the technical means of the time were not those of today.”
In the photo below, we can see the arrival of the Concorde at Juliana airport in Sint-Maarten in 1989.
