Spectacular Video & Photos of World's Fastest Passenger Plane in Kenya

In 1975 Kenya played host to the world's fastest passenger plane at that time that was en route to Johannesburg, South Africa. 

The manufacturers however retired the aircraft in 2003 because it was not profitable.

Concorde had a maximum cruise altitude of 18,300 metres (and an average cruise speed of Mach 2.02 (meaning twice the speed of sound), about 1155 knots (2140 km/h or 1334 mph).

Currently, the fastest commercial planes are models of Boeing, the best being Boeing 747-8i with a maximum cruising altitude of 35,000 ft and a speed of Mach 0.92 (614 mph, 533 knots, 988 km/h).

The Concorde 1 landed at Nairobi International Airport, which was later renamed to JKIA, from Cairo to carry out icing trials.

The flight was handled by Kenya Aerotech Limited as confirmed to Kenyans.co.ke by one of the company's officers.

In the 1990s, yet another model of the supersonic planes visited Kenya and was captured by Australian national Simon Watts.

The Concorde 2 stopped over in Nairobi for a few days and Watts took full advantage of the potential publicity that the magnificent aircraft provided.

On arrival, the passengers flew directly to various game parks in a less speedy DC3 aircraft as the Concorde was inappropriate for such trips.

Simon took a number of photographs with the fastest land animal - a semi-tame cheetah and the Concorde, including a shot of the cheetah wearing a pair of headsets in the cockpit. 

He also arranged for Maasai warriors to pose with the animal, on the aircraft and at the end of the runway for both landing and take-off.

He was grateful that the Maasai cooperated despite the noise that accompanied the supersonic aircraft. 

"An incredibly noisy experience, the Maasai took their fingers out of their ears just in time for the photos to be taken.

"I remember asking the departing Concorde Captain to rotate as late as possible so we could get the best shots," recounted Watts.

 

Below is a video of the Concorde 1 touching down at Nairobi International Airport (present-day JKIA) in 1975. 

 

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