Why would the company that owned The Concorde even let these people use the likeness of their jet for this film? Wow...
You want a toe? I can get you a toe, believe me. There are ways, Dude.
The metal pterodactyl finished up crashing and burning too, and the Yanks never got to Moscow for the Olympics.
shareI was coming here to find that very answer!
So strange that they agreed to this.
Does anyone have any newer information on this ?
non "fun fact": The Concorde used in the film (F-BTSC) was the same Concorde, which crashed in 2000 and ended the age of the Concorde.
On topic: It was a great advertisement. The airplane is shown in its best light at the start of the movie and even survives not just a huge hole in the belly, but also a crash landing into snow. Thats all huge advertisement. The magical reputation of the 747 was likely also thanks to the other Airport movies.
Anyway, to get some proof, I found a Washington Post article from back then, the title was "It's a Plane, It's a Supersonic Film Star" (https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1979/01/07/its-a-plane-its-a-supersonic-film-star/c73fca0a-b92a-4fcd-931e-6a0472ce700b/?utm_term=.8367660f920c). Jennings Lang (producer) said "We believe," says Lang, "that Concorde is a magical star that people will go to see in a good motion picture." Delon added: "So Air France insisted on certain changes being made in the original script. They wanted to make sure the crew always behaved correctly in the cockpit."
Aerospatiale also needed to advertise the airplane a lot, as the Concorde didnt sell well. Before the movie the same plane was on tour in Asia to sell it to Singapore Airlines, Cathay and other asian airlines. It was nearly succesful sold off to Iran, but then the revolution happened. In the end, Air France bought the plane for 1 symbolic dollar.