I sincerely hope that someone might be able to come to my aid in this very dark moment.

The scenario is the following:

About a month ago I watched a very interesting program on the Discovery Channel called “Flying heavy metal”. A large part of the program focused on the Concorde, during which the presenter mention that for as long as the Concorde was in operation the RAF did not have a plane fast enough to catch it. What an amazing though, that a commercial plane would be faster than anything the RAF possessed at the time.

On Saturday night some friends and I were attending a social gathering during which I happened to mention the above fact. A friend of mine took great umbrage with the statement, and explained quite emphatically that this could not be the case as he was certain that the Tornado would have been faster ( Given the parameters of the statement, he was referring to the Tornado F3 ).

Surely you have been in the situation were one of your facts are taken into question and you are left with no option but to defend said fact at all cost, even if the source is the drummer of “Iron maiden” (the presenter of the program “Flying heavy metal”). As you would know these discussions usually end in a bet, ours was no different. The loser would be the winner’s butler for an entire weekend during our next climbing trip. Although this might not seem like much of a forfeit believe me that the reality of carrying 2 backpacks instead of one, having to be cook, coffee maker, cleaner-upper, washer-upper and generally being bossed around for pure entertainment is no joke and one which I would preferably avoid at all cost.

This afternoon I scoured the web searching for the comparative top speeds of the 2 planes in question: the Concord vs. the Tornado F3. Thus far my research has been somewhat troubling; according to answers.com the F3 had a top speed of 2333 km/hour as did the Concorde according to concordsst.com Unfortunately a similar top speed still means that my name would be “Jeeves” for an entire weekend.

Thus I pose to you this most emphatic of questions:

Has the Concorde ever, under any circumstances flown faster than 2333 km/hour?

Please understand that even a fraction would put me in the clear.