Spoiler alert – no. Concorde did not return to the skies on April 1st, 2025. Instead, we paid tribute to the legendary supersonic jet by recreating two Concorde flights on Flightradar24. Here’s a look at what happened.
Concorde was a revolutionary supersonic passenger airliner developed jointly by British and French aerospace companies—British Aircraft Corporation and Aérospatiale—in the 1960s. It made its first flight in 1969 and entered commercial service in 1976 with British Airways and Air France. Flying at over twice the speed of sound (Mach 2.04), Concorde could cross the Atlantic in under four hours, making it a symbol of speed, luxury, and technological ambition. However, high operating costs, limited range, noise concerns, and the 2000 crash of Air France Flight 4590 all contributed to its decline. The aircraft was retired in 2003, marking the end of supersonic passenger travel—for now.
Which Concorde flights did we replicate?
We thought it would be fun to use April Fool’s Day as an opportunity to recreate two of Concorde’s most iconic flights, giving these beautiful aeroplanes one last chance to cross the Atlantic (albeit virtually).
The Air France (AF/AFR) Concorde F-BTSD departed Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport (CDG) at 08:00 local time, and arrived at New York’s John F. Kennedy Airport (JFK) after a 3 hour and 50 minute flight. Later at 11am UK local time, British Airways (BA/BAW)‘s Concorde G-BOAG left London Heathrow Airport (LHR) for JFK, landing 3 hours and 33 minutes later.
We saw up to 106,000 users following Concorde at one point, and the British Airways flight shot to the number one most tracked position faster than any other flight in our history (which you would expect, given Concorde was supersonic).
How did we do it?
Recreating Concorde’s voyages across the Atlantic was made possible by a recent significant updates to Flightradar24.com. The largest change is our introduction of WebGL to render the Flightradar24 website. WebGL is a graphics library that is commonly used across web applications to render animations and in our case, tens of thousands of moving aircraft icons. The vast majority of modern of browsers have built in support for WebGL and the vast majority of users will see a faster, smoother experience. It also sets the stage for allowing us to launch new features and special one off items – such as the Concorde icon we saw crossing the Atlantic on Flightradar24.
Where are these Concordes now?
Both of the Concordes we tracked are safely housed and lovingly maintained by museums.
F-BTSD, which held the fastest record for flights around the world in both directions, operated its last short ferry flight from Paris CDG to Paris Le Bourget Airport (LBG) on June 14, 2003. It now resides in the Musée de l’Air et de l’Espace at the airport.
:airplane: Exclusif / Notre #Concorde F-BTSD a repris les airs ce matin dans la plus grande discrétion, après des mois de préparation le bel oiseau blanc renoue avec le ciel à Mach 2 #Avgeek – Suivez le live :arrow_right: https://t.co/8aZPIDy3Wy pic.twitter.com/RoO83C4vka
— Musée de l’Air et de l’Espace (@MuseeAirEspace) April 1, 2025
G-BOAG flew the last ever passenger service from New York JFK to London Heathrow during October 2003. ‘Alpha Golf’s’ final flight was a more storied affair. The aircraft flew from JFK across northern Canada to Seattle, and was given special permission to fly supersonic over land. As a result, the aircraft set a new record for the East to West crossing of North America by air. It now resides in the Museum of Flight, Seattle.
Concorde – captured through the decades
Our photo partner JetPhotos has a library of over 2,300 stunning images of Concordes captured by professional photographers through its years of service and beyond.
Did you manage to track our Concorde flights on April 1st? Let us know in the comments.
The post Has Concorde really made a comeback? appeared first on Flightradar24 Blog.
