                 Concorde Crash

    The Concorde was born from a race to develop the first supersonic commercial plane. The first test flight, an Anglo-French joint venture, was seen as a symbol of national pride in both countries. It took off from Toulouse, France, in 1969. In January, 1976, the first commercial Concorde services were launched simultaneously by British Airways and Air France. Environmentalists have long objected to the supersonic planes, saying they use too much fuel and wreak havoc on the ozone layer.
     In the United States, it took an order by the Supreme Court to allow the jets to land. It's been considered among the world's safest, with no fatal accidents before yesterday, though the supersonic planes have had a history of wheel and tire problems. Earlier this week, both British Airways and Air France said they found hairline cracks in the wings of several planes. They said the cracks posed no danger to passengers and none were found on the Concorde that crashed. Investigators have recovered the flight recorders, damaged in the crash and fire, and have begun their analysis, piecing together the final moments leading up to the crash.
