Concorde Crash in Paris: 9 Years Ago Today

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On This Day in Aviation History: July 25th

1909, French aviator Louis Blériot makes the first crossing of the English Channel with a heavier-than-air machine. The 37 minute flight from Calais to Dover was completed aboard Blériot’s own Blériot XI, a biplane constructed mainly of oak, poplar and cloth and powered by a 25hp engine. The effort was made in response to a challenge published by London’s Daily Mail newspaper. Blériot’s prize: £1000. The feat earned him immediate fame, and his company went on to produce over 800 planes, including fighters used in World War I.

1973, the Soviet Union launches Mars 5, the fifth of seven of probes sent to the red planet in the 1960s and 70s. Mars 5 would reach Mars in February of 1974, where it would transmit about 60 photos back to Earth before losing pressurization.

1984, Cosmonaut Svetlana Savitskaya becomes the first woman to perform a space walk, floating around the Salyut 7 space station for over 3 1/2 hours.

2000, Air France Flight 4590, a chartered Concorde aircraft scheduled to fly a German tour group from Paris to meet a cruise ship in New York, crashes immediately after takeoff from Charles de Gaulle International Airport in Paris, killing all 109 passengers and 4 people on the ground. The accident would mark the beginning of the end of supersonic commercial flight; less than three years later, all Concordes would be retired.