In 1956, France and England simultaneously started the studies of a supersonic transport aircraft. In 1961, they resulted in two separate projects that merged on 29 November 1962 into a single project, bringing together four main companies: Aérospatiale, BAC, Rolls-Royce and SNECMA. The first prototype 001 leaves the Toulouse factory on 11 December 1967. On 9 October and 4 December 1975, the French and British certificates of airworthiness were issued after 5400 hours of flight, 2000 of which as supersonic flight. Concorde had already broken the altitude (21,000 m) and speed (March 2.2) records. On 21 January 1976, under the colours of Air France and British Airways, a new era of scheduled commercial air transport began. F-BTSD, serial number 213: Retires at Le Bourget where it is on show at the Musée de l‘Air et de l‘Espace. F-BVFA, serial number 205: Retires in Washington in the National Air and Space Museum‘s Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center. F-BVFB, serial number 207: Unloaded at Speyer and loaded on a truck headed for the Technik Museum Sinsheim. F-BVFC, serial number 209: Comes home to its native land among its descendants, Airbus, in Aeroscopia Toulouse. F-BVFF, serial number 215: Exhibited at Paris-Charles-de-Gaulle Airport, also called Roissy.