For all its advancements in ballistic missile technology, North Korea is hardly known for excellence in the realm of commercial air travel, maintaining a ragtag fleet of aging Soviet jets that are only becoming harder to repair.

But there was a time when the DPRK had high hopes for its civilian airline, and even harbored dreams of breaking the sound barrier with its commercial jets.

Files from the U.K.’s National Archives reveal that North Korea showed interest in purchasing a pair of supersonic Concorde aircraft in the mid-1970s. 

The famed aircraft, developed under a partnership between British and French