THIS week marks the anniversary of the launch of the joint Anglo-French BAC-Sud Aviation enterprise to build the world’s first supersonic airliner - Concorde in 1962.

The Concorde story has now passed into legend - the sleek and slender supermodel of the skies that could fly from London to New York in less than three hours.

But what is less well known is that the man largely responsible was Cinderford’s own Archie Russell who led the Bristol design team.

Archibald Russell was born in Cinderford in May 1904 and attended East Dean Grammar School where his father was headmaster.

Russell, who was knighted in 1972, became one of the leading aircraft designers of his time playing a leading role in the development of such famous aircraft as the Britannia (the Whispering Giant) the Brabazon and the Blenheim bomber.

In the mid 1950s when the first supersonic fighters were going into to service with British, American and Soviet air forces, was already toying with the idea of a supersonic airliner.

He was particularly interested in the ‘breathtaking novelty’ of the slender-wing delta, which gave massive lift at high angle of attack.

He cut his teeth developing the experimental Bristol Type188 supersonic reconnaissance aircraft in 1962, which was to prove the literal flying testbed for many of the ideas that went into Concorde.

When Concorde finally went into service with British Airways and Air France in 1976 it was hailed as the technological marvel of its day in spite of some bitter political infighting in the background.