1. The plane's wingspan is much smaller than that of a normal aircraft - just 25.5 metres, or 83ft 8ins (that is the length of three London buses compared to eight for a Boeing 747).

2. Concorde's oldest passenger was 105-year-old Eva Woodman, from Bristol, who enjoyed a 90-minute supersonic flight from Filton, the airfield where the plane was built, over the Bay of Biscay in May 1998.

3. The aircraft uses up a tonne of fuel just to get to the point of take-off (which it does at 250mph).

4. Passengers are afforded luxury treatment while onboard the plane, dining on foie gras, caviar and other gourmet treats and drinking fine wines and champagnes.

5. Concorde holds the world record for the fastest crossing of the Atlantic, in two hours, 54 minutes and 45 seconds, from New York's JFK airport to London Heathrow.

6. The plane cruises at a speed of 1,350mph and a height of 60,000ft (only astronauts fly higher!), from which point passengers can see the curvature of the earth.

7. Concorde 203, the plane which crashed on take-off from Paris's Charles De Gaulle airport in July 2000, had starred in disaster movie Airport '79: The Concorde.

8. The aircraft stretches up to 20cm during flights because its airframe heats up - the paint and carpets on the plane have to be designed with this in mind.

9. Concorde's distinctive drooping nose cone was a late addition to the plane, to allow the pilot and co-pilot to see the runway while coming in to land.

10. The 'e' on the end of the franco-english Concorde was added by the then technology minister Tony Benn, who said it stood "for entente cordiale, for excellence".

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