Qatar has been at the forefront of aviation in the Middle East from very early on.
As I have previously posted, Qatar began initially subsidising other airlines that flew into Qatar, such as MEA (click to open a previous post). Then entering in partnership with the other three Gulf States (Bahrain, Oman and UAE) in the launch of Gulf Air. So much so, that Gulf Air’s first flight to London was from Doha (on the 2nd of April 1970) not Bahrain (on the 5th of April 1970) (click to open a previous post).
But it is not until the reading of the letter from the British Embassy and the press release (see image below) that one can realise how much Qatar was helping in the growth of aviation in the region.
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Perhaps, it is this perception of excess fluidity in the Qatar coffers, that led the British authorities to think that Sheikh Khalifa Bin Hamad Al Thani would be in the market to buy the Concorde to expand Gulf Air's fleet (See image below).
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So, when the time came to test the aircraft in hot weather and high altitude conditions (a normal part of the test regime in all aircraft even nowadays) the proposal was to try not only to test the aircraft but take advantage and use if for promotional purposes (See image below).
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The planned route was clearly design to increase sales of the aircraft. The aircraft flew from London to Tehran which had in October 1972 places an order for 2 Concordes. Iran did operate one Concorde on a charter basis and eventually in 1980, during the Iranian revolution, cancelled the order. It is worth noting, that in the late 1970’s Iran Air was the fastest growing airline in the world as well as one of the most profitable and only second to Qantas in safety.
However, as can be see on the route chart for the flight from London to Bahrain and back see slide below), from the very beginning of the operation, the Concorde had a big drawback. Its inability to fly supersonic over large populated areas due to the fear of the damage caused by the sonic boom.
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This clearly would reduce the interest for the aircraft as a private jet for someone, as the head of state, whose main destinations would be major cities around the world. Hence, the order for the aircraft never came from Qatar.
Both the British and French preproduction aircraft flew through the region during the flight test phase and taking advantage for a promotional campaign (see slide below). So much so, that eventually, the first commercial flight of the British Airways Concorde was to Bahrain (click to open a previous post).
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As I said on a previous post, nowadays technology has advanced to the point that the sonic boom maybe eliminated altogether or at least reduced to the point that authorities may finally permit the new designs to safely operate supersonically over densely populated areas changing the complete economics of the aircraft. I look forward to seeing these operate from Doha, Qatar.
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