Why is it common to speak of “Concorde” rather than “the Concorde”?

Question

Suppose you researching a book on the history of Boeing B-17.

Suppose you researching a book on the history of the Boeing B-17.

Which of those sentences sounds more complete and correct?

OK, so why on an hour-long PBS documentary on the Concorde, were people constantly talking about "Concorde" this and "Concorde" that, as opposed to "the Concorde" this and that?

It is easy enough to find similar examples on Aviation SE. Just start to enter any proposed new question with "Concorde" in the titlea and you'll see what I mean, in the long list of "Questions that may already have your answer".

Answer 1

Ultimately it was the chosen name for the project and since it was a bi-lingual project the name was used in by both french and english sides working on it (7:40 into the video), as such the Definitive Article is commonly dropped when talking about it. It also derives from the word agreement and prior to the actually aircraft being built everyone was simply working on an undersigned agreement to build a plane.

The name Concorde was chosen as, in both French and English (as "Concord"), the word means agreement. The plane was to be called Concorde in both France and Britain. However British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan, decided to remove the "e" from the end, as he was annoyed that his French counterpart, Charles de Gaulle, cancelled a meeting with him due to having a cold. The British government's Minister for Technology, Tony Benn, later replaced it, claiming that the "e" stood for Excellence, England, Europe and the Entente Cordial.