10 Euros - 50th anniversary of first flight of Concorde

The Concorde's maiden flight took place on March 2, 1969, when test pilot André Turcat lifted off from Toulouse-Blagnac — not from a military base or government showground, but a commercial airport, in front of television cameras. The Franco-British program had by that point consumed over a decade of engineering argument, diplomatic compromise, and cost overruns that neither government could publicly admit were catastrophic.

Air France and British Airways were effectively compelled by their respective governments to operate the aircraft commercially from 1976, since no airline would have ordered it freely at that price.