BRITISH AIRWAYS Concorde SST 8X10 PHOTO Midland-Odessa TEXAS 1970s airlines ad

Description

British
airways
Aérospatiale / BAC Concorde SST
1970s publicity photo
of Concorde's visit to Midland-Odessa, TX (MAF)
VERY GOOD condition, as shown.  Not certain whether this was a test/proving stop in the early 1970s or perhaps a late-1970s charter flight?
Photo is color and measures 8.0 INCHES by 10.0 INCHES.
The back side of this photo is stamped:
"IMAGE IN INDUSTRY LTD., 2/3 GOUGH SO., LONDON, E.C.4, TELEPHONE 01-353 2459, REF NO. 1115/11A, Photograph by Arthur Gibson."
Photo will be packaged in plastic and placed between two pieces of cardboard for protection while in transit.  USPS Priority Mail shipping is available at the applicable rates upon request and I do combine shipping on multiple purchases.  If you have any questions, please ask.
The Aérospatiale/BAC Concorde is a British–French turbojet-powered supersonic passenger airliner that was operated until 2003.  It had a maximum speed over twice the speed of sound, at Mach 2.04 (1,354 mph or 2,180 km/h at cruise altitude), with seating for 92 to 128 passengers.  First flown in 1969, Concorde entered service in 1976 and continued flying for the next 27 years.  It is one of only two supersonic transports to have been operated commercially; the other is the Soviet-built Tupolev Tu-144, which operated in the late 1970s.
Concorde was jointly developed and manufactured by Sud Aviation (later Aérospatiale) and the British Aircraft Corporation (BAC) under an Anglo-French treaty.  Twenty aircraft were built, including six prototypes and development aircraft. Air France and British Airways were the only airlines to purchase and fly Concorde.  The aircraft was used mainly by wealthy passengers who could afford to pay a high price in exchange for the aircraft's speed and luxury service.  For example, in 1997, the round-trip ticket price from New York to London was ,995 (equivalent to ,700 in 2019), more than 30 times the cost of the cheapest option to fly this route.
The original program cost estimate was £70 million.  The program experienced huge overruns and delays, with the program eventually costing £1.3 billion.  It was this extreme cost that became the main factor in the production run being much smaller than anticipated.  Later, another factor, which affected the viability of all supersonic transport programs, was that supersonic flight could be used only on ocean-crossing routes, to prevent sonic boom disturbance over populated areas.  With only seven airframes each being operated by the British and French, the per-unit cost was impossible to recoup, so the French and British governments absorbed the development costs.  British Airways and Air France were able to operate Concorde at a profit, in spite of very high maintenance costs, because the aircraft was able to sustain a high ticket price.
Among other destinations, Concorde flew regular transatlantic flights from London's Heathrow Airport and Paris's Charles de Gaulle Airport to John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York, Washington Dulles International Airport in Virginia.  It flew these routes in less than half the time of other airliners.
Concorde was retired in 2003, three years after the crash of Air France Flight 4590, in which all passengers and crew were killed.  The general downturn in the commercial aviation industry after the 2001 September 11 attacks and the end of maintenance support for Concorde by Airbus (the successor company of Aérospatiale) also contributed to the retirement.
British Airways (BA) is the flag carrier airline of the United Kingdom, headquartered in London, England, near its main hub at Heathrow Airport.   It is the second largest airline in the United Kingdom, based on fleet size and passengers carried, behind easyJet.
BA was created in 1974 after a British Airways Board was established by the British government to manage the two
nationalized
airline corporations, British Overseas Airways Corporation and British European Airways, and two regional airlines, Cambrian Airways and Northeast Airlines.  On 31 March 1974, all four companies were merged to form British Airways.  However, it marked 2019 as its centenary based on predecessor companies.   After almost 13 years as a state company, BA was
privatized
in February 1987 as part of a wider
privatization
plan by the Conservative government.  The carrier expanded with the acquisition of British Caledonian in 1987, Dan-Air in 1992, and British Midland International in 2012.  Its pre-eminence highlights the reach of the country's influence as many of its destinations in several regions were historically part of the British Empire.