Скачать или смотреть "The Flying Engine": Why Did France Abandon the World's Fastest Fighter?

In 1959, a French experimental fighter shocked the world by reaching 2,320 km/h — faster than anything the Americans or Soviets had. The Nord 1500 Griffon combined a turbojet and a ramjet in a design so radical that engineers joked it was "a ramjet with a pilot added as a precaution." It broke world records, alarmed Moscow, and promised to revolutionize aerial combat. Then it vanished. Why did France abandon the fastest aircraft on Earth? And where did all that technology end up? The answer involves a plane you definitely know.

0:00 - The Birth of the Griffon: A Fighter to Stop Soviet Bombers
4:36 - First Flights and the Ramjet That Refused to Work
10:17 - Mach 2.19: The World Speed Record
16:48 - Why France Killed Its Fastest Aircraft
23:12 - From Interceptor to Concorde: The Griffon's Legacy



Music used in this video: Patrick Patrikios - The Awakening, Biz Baz Studio - Apprehensive at Best.

Photographs sourced from archive.org and are in the public domain.