Concorde

[clarkkentsglasses]

Off for a Concorde experience this week for half term.

Has anyone here flown on Concorde?

I was crewfor BA we used to get deals. Went for purser promotion on it as Crew.
Difficult to work on and we had to sign a disclaimer for the cosmic radiation we were exposed to.

@NeverAHarvester
Show him the EAP (Experimental Aircraft Programme) then. That really was tiny.

British Aerospace EAP | BAE Systems

It was a prototype made by BAE back in the 80s for a future European Fighter Aircraft developed with ACA (Agile Combat Aircraft) in mind. Although the original idea never really was developed from the EAP as initially planned, the Eurofighter Typhoon owes a lot to it.

We saw it's maiden flight. It had been taxiing along the runway a lot that week, so we knew it was going to go up shortly. When they put other fighters up (Hawk and Tornado if I remember rightly) to clear the skies, we knew it was going up and rushed down to see it. It was very exciting to watch it and just watching it doing the initial flights was amazing.

remember visiting the replica at Yeovil Air Museum when I was little. I never saw the real one although heard the booms occasionally as it flew over when we lived.

That's not a replica, it's Concorde 002, the second prototype that first flew in April 69.

Sorry to be picky, but the Brooklands gate guard model is 40% of the size not 1:4. So depending on which way you look at it, either the model is quite big or the plane quite small in relation to the other!

@notimagain I definitely used that road you've marked across at Heathrow as "recently" as 2006, so it's not been all that long gone. I actually thought it went around the time they rebuilt T2.

The future in the short term is probably supersonic business jets..time is money in the business community so cash will be found for the fuel, and a smaller lighter aircraft, carefully shaped, doesn't generally generate a boom of the amplitude Concorde could produce.

As for Sir RB, yes he made a lot of fuss about Concorde, supposedly wanting it and supposedly being denied it by nasty HMG and big bad BA.

The reality was, and a big reason for the final grounding by both BA and AF, was that Airbus (who had inherited the design/maintenance authority from Aérospatiale, BAC etc) were no longer willing to provide product support, at least at a price anybody could afford. No product support, no flying.

If Sir RB had bought an airframe I reckon he'd have spent squillions just to fly it maybe just once in Virgin colours , simply to put two fingers up at BA, and then parked it up...I don't think he was ever serious about running it on scheduled services.

Interesting about the original concept, I'm sure it was limited to what airports it could use because it needed a longer runway.

I did! Flew to New York in 1996. We were sitting in front of Bryan Adams.

I used to be a nervous flyer, but surprisingly I was fine on that flight. It might have been something to do with the champagne on tap in the Concorde Lounge prior to boarding 😀

I love that I’ve experienced the sonic boom and seen the curve of the Earth. It’s a privilege.

My 2 Aunties an Uncle flew on it years and years ago. They got a little plastic Concorde and had their photo taken next to it.

I'm surprised it was operational that recently but I'll happily stand corrected...

I have enough trouble remembering where I've put the car keys these days but I certainly remember many happy jaunts on buses, various, using that crossing, and then at some point not being able to use it...

@notimagain Apologies if it came across as a severe comment which was not the intention. More what I should have said was that I was amazed it continued as such for so long. Always seemed very weird, but it was a fabulous way to cut up to T1/2/3 than go all the way round on the motorway and in.

I worked at the National Physical Laboratory in Teddington about 5 mles from LHR in the mid-late 80's so saw and heard it on quite a few occasions - magnificent sight, incredible noise!

No apologies required, your comment didn't come over as severe at all...

Given how lots of security got tightened up quickly post 9/11 like you I'm surprised the crossing lasted as long as it did..

What lovely stories. Thank you. I used to watch it fly over my bit of south London in the early 1990’s and thought it was magical.

Also just remembered, an ex colleague of mines uncle was a Captain on Concorde.

Oh wow, thank you, yes it was a level crossing type thing with barriers, I remember just sitting there in amazement as it went past in front of me and you are right, it would have probably been being towed not taxiing. It was dark and it was all lit up. This would have been about 1988.

I was thinking about it a few months ago and google earthing, it was bugging me. I used to quite regularly cut through the airport. It never ceases to amaze me the things you can find out on MN.

So many amazing memories!

I never flew on Concorde but I do vaguely remember seeing it at my cousin's house in SE London

We were in the garden when it flew over it was amazing to see

Pretty sure it was 2003 (I was having a few personal/life crises at the time!) sort of summer time but cannot remember the month

I think some people are mis-remembering. Concorde was never allowed supersonic speed over land, therefore no boom.

My Dad was a journalist (a proper old-fashioned one!) and was on one of the early Press flights. My DH is an aviation geek and was a little bit jealous when he heard that story!

I was driving home near Windsor one evening and saw it going up up and away - everybody stopped their cars on the road and got out to watch, it was stunning.

My Dad used to do regular courier work to NY. ( BA staff ) I'm eternally envious
My parents flew out to NY on Concorde
What a missed opportunity for me 😢

I flew on it once when I was 16. We went to Barbados and it was amazing. From checking in, to taking off you felt like an absolute star. I wish I had appreciated it more but obviously we never knew it would come to an end.

I have done the Concorde experience at Brooklands and it’s fun. We also visited the flight museum near Edinburgh and it is really worth a visit if you love planes (my son is a total plane nerd). It’s so enjoyable, there’s a great display about Concorde plus the plane to go on. There’s also loads of other cool plane stuff including a whole area of “skills” to hone to make you a good pilot which was enormous fun. As a non plane nerd it was such a good day out and my son was beside himself with how awesome it was.

I used to drive through that crossing almost every day, certainly into the 90s, & I remember watching Concorde taxiing through. I'd be very surprised if it was still open in 2006, though, given how security tightened up after 9/11. Off to Google to see if I can find out.

You could hear it in Cornwall, when it got out over the sea.

Surely it would be silent after breaching the sound barrier? The engine noise would lag behind the plane, you wouldn't hear it from inside.

I read somewhere that it was noisy…someone upthread said the same thing.