The Concorde supersonic airliner was designed by Sud-Aviation (later Aérospatiale) and the British Aircraft Corporation. Only two supersonic airliners have been developed in the world: the Franco-British Concorde and the Soviet Tupolev Tu-144. The Concorde was the first aircraft to be equipped with analogue fly-by-wire flight-controls, long before the Airbus range. The aircraft had many features not seen before in a passenger aircraft, such as the retractable tail wheel (pictured) which protected the fuselage during take-off. The Concorde was in service from 1976 to 2003 with British Airways and Air France.