ERROR

Javascript isn’t activated or your browser does not support Javascript

You cannot browse this web page and site correctly before activating Javascript in the browser prefs

Home > Eclipses > Solar Eclipses > Total Solar Eclipse of 1999 August 11

Français

Total Solar Eclipse of 1999 August 11
from Air France Concorde F-BVFC flight AF4500

Twenty-six years after the first Hall-of-Fame Concorde 001 record flight during the 1973 June 30 total solar eclipse, three other commercial Concorde were in the umbral path of this new eclipse. One was affreted by Air France (AF4500) and two by British Airways (BA99S and BA91N). Concorde was the only civilian plane able to "chase" the eclipse because of its speed superior to Mach 2 and because the speed of the umbra was about Mach 2.3 over Europe. Thus the three Concorde managed to stay in the shadow for about 4 to more than 5 minutes (for AF4500). However only the Air France Concorde passengers had the opportunity to view this eclipse from the cabin with a line-of-sight angle barely under 50 degrees during totality which didn’t facilitate the observations; the two British Airways Concorde passengers had an even worse line-of-sight angle at 60 degrees which made observations even more difficult and a totality duration under 4 minutes.
The photographies were taken from the Concorde cockpit on Air France flight AF4500. The simulation below, made with my Solar Eclipse Maestro software, refutes the claim that the passengers had over 8 minutes of totality as it was said in the documentary.
After the crash of the Concorde on 2000 July 25^th, those three flights were the last to intercept the umbral shadow cone and the 1973 record with its mighty 73 minutes won’t be broken anytime soon, the 2001 June 21^st flight having been cancelled.

You can use this solar eclipse calculator to compute the local circumstances of the eclipse. A time exposure calculator is there to help you choose your camera settings.

Click on thumbnails for a larger version

Page 1 | This is page "Concorde" | Page "Google Map"

Concorde takeoff	Concorde flight AF4500	Concorde flight AF4500 planning
Concorde flight AF4500 path	Concorde cockpit crew (left: Eric Célérier; right: Jean Prunin)	Concorde front flight panel
Earth view from 20,000 meters	Flying towards the eclipse	Umbra on the right
Earth from above	Panoramic view of the cockpit (QuickTime required)	Back to Earth
Postcard of AF4500 Concorde F-BVFC 1999 August 11 Total Solar Eclipse Flight
Certificate of AF4500 Concorde F-BVFC 1999 August 11 Total Solar Eclipse Flight
Simulation, done with Solar Eclipse Maestro, of Air France Concorde F-BVFC flight during 1999 August 11 Total Solar Eclipse [requires an H.264/MPEG-4 decoder: Windows users can install the Windows Essentials Codec Pack]
In this short documentary Jean Prunin, the Concorde’s captain, who prepared the eclipse flight plan claims they had 8 minutes and 10 seconds of totality. However, they only had slightly over 5 minutes and 10 seconds of totality as the above simulation clearly shows. What lasted 8 minutes and 10 seconds is the whole run on the map below that includes some of the partial phases (in dark blue) before and after totality (in red). The flight plan, which can be seen on two pictures above and on the figure below, was to start the interception at N4950.0 and W01300.0, end it at N5020.0 and W00900.0 (complete flight plan in Google Earth, description in French of the computations done by Jean Prunin which explain the small mistakes made). A later intercept combined with a flight parallel to the umbra would have allowed a totality duration of nearly 6 minutes, and even more if flying at Mach 2 over Cape Lizard had been authorized.	Rencontre avec une ombre - Encounter with a shadow (duration: 5 minutes 36 seconds) [requires an H.264/MPEG-4 decoder: Windows users can install the Windows Essentials Codec Pack]