Concorde's Birthday
       CONCORDE, the world's fastest passenger plane, will soon be over 33 years old. It first 1______
on 2 March 1969 in France. Concorde was developed by both France and Britain. From 1956 these two
countries had a 2______ of a supersonic passenger plane. In 1962 they started to 3______ together on
the project. The plane 4______ over 1.5 billion pounds to develop. It is the most tested plane in the history.
It was given over 5000 hours of testing. Concorde flies at twice the speed of 5______. This means that
it 6______ only 3 hours 25 minutes to fly between London and New York, compare with 7-8 hours in
other passenger jets. Because of the five-hour time difference between the USA and Britain, it is 7______
to travel west on Concorde and arrive in New York before you leave London! You can catch the 10:30a.m.
8______ from London, Heathrow and start work in New York an hour 9______! Concorde is much used
by business people and film stars. Each Concorde is built at a cost of 55 million pounds. Twenty have
been built so far. Air France and British Airway 10______ the most. They each have seven planes.