Supersonic: The Design and Lifestyle of Concorde

by Lawrence Azerrad

This stylishly illustrated book looks back at the future of air travel and is as sleek and elegant as the Concorde aircraft it celebrates.

When the first commercial Concordes zoomed off the runways in Paris and London in the late 1960s, crossing the Atlantic in just under three hours, they established a new standard for luxury flight. Powered by 38,000 pounds of thrust and easily recognizable with its delta wing and drooping nose, the Concorde jet embodied the pinnacle of aviation technology and industrial design. It quickly became the preferred mode of transatlantic flight for superstars and business moguls alike. Opening with a lively history of the jet and how it changed travel, the book focuses on the look and feel of the Concorde. Photos of the jet's evolving interiors show how the original, starkly designed cabin gave way to luxury seats and interiors designed by the likes of Sir Terence Conran and Andrée Putman. Filled with fascinating historical and technical background, and drawn from the author's personal collection of more than one thousand Concorde-related objects, this elegant book offers rarely seen historical photography and firsthand contributions from the people who helped create the Concorde experience from take-off to landing and beyond.

Genres: Aviation

192 pages, Hardcover

Published March 18, 2025

Reviews

[Jose · Rating 1 out of 5]

A no-frills small hardcover book(does not come with dustjacket,sadly very minimalist.) that does not justice to the Great White Bird, while somewhat well-written it is a very short read and the author's repetitive qutoing of Kennedy and Angelou turn me off in enjoying it. It is nice to know who flew on and the celebs and the end of the book Cindy Crawford talking about it. But there is no technical data and it does not do much for a coffee-table book as it seems cheaply put-together, it is more pictures of great collector's items from the Concorde but some of the pictures are grainy almost looking like a cheap xerox(copy) of the actual picture, sometimes grainy. The Concorde was destined to fail because of the economies of scales and the fact that it was not a private enterprise, otherwise it is a shame such a beautiful Bird and Surely The American SST had also been a private enterprise would have made mincemeat of the Neat Concorde as it was to be faster than it. this book will be on my shelf with other Concorde books but it is more to look at it and quickly.

[Tim Lapetino · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book chronicles the rise and abrupt end of supersonic flight via the Concorde jets. Lawrence Azerrad has done a nice job turning his passion for Concorde and his personal collection of related design, ephemera and imagery into a light design history of the jets.

The book design is precise, well-considered and beautifully austere. I appreciate the look into this seldom-covered topic and the path Lawrence has taken from curating this collection to sharing it with the world through the book.

My only quibbles are:
-I would have loved the book form factor to be even larger to better highlight the imagery.
-It would have been great to have even more cultural context and interviews with the principal creatives responsible to really flesh out the design history.

[Jip van Kuijk · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book is nice and shows another side of the Concorde, many are technical and about the mechanical side of the airplane, this book however tells and shows us about the people who traveled on it, the style, the design, the advertisements. It's really nice, and I wish I had a chance to travel on it more than once.

[George Fischer · Rating 3 out of 5]

Beautiful design, but the text lacks any really interesting information.

[Matt · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is such a cool book, whose author isn’t a professional writer or designer, he’s a Grammy winning music producer who just loves Concorde. Awesome. Gorgeous art throughout and archive photos.