Concorde

[clarkkentsglasses]

Off for a Concorde experience this week for half term.

Has anyone here flown on Concorde?

Never flew on it but I did get to go onboard once. My grandparents worked at a small Scottish airport where it came in for maintenance and they were able to drive my brother and I onto the runway so we could go aboard and have a look. I dont think we got to meet any crew but we did get to look in the cockpit so I suppose someone must have been there. Pretty much all I remember was how tiny it was, I had never been on a plane before then but knew Concorde was special and I couldn’t figure out why because it was so small.

We also watched it take off an hour or so after being on board, it was painfully loud, I cried because of the noise.

I've been in the 002 prototype at the Fleet Air Arm Museum. It's much smaller than modern jumbos.

I grew up near Heathrow and we always used to run out and watch when we could. It was so beautiful (but yes, bloody loud).

Since size keeps coming up..the “why”

Firstly for context if you ever saw a 747 and a Concorde parked up together you’d realise Concorde was actually fairly lengthy, not much shorter than the 747 and certainly longer the most other airliner types of the time, but the fuselage diameter was relatively tiny.

Reason for that is you really want to minimize the curves supersonic airflow has to go around when an aircraft is pushing through the air.

Result of that is a design with a long fuselage and to keep the sides almost straight your fuselage diameter has to be kept small…

Hence Concorde had the low cabin ceiling and was only a 2/ 2 seating config…Adding any more seats abreast e.g. make it 3/3 and/or make the cabin higher and you’d have to consider increasing the fuselage length.

HTH.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finenessratio

I'm living in Cornwall too and loved hearing the double boom.. and yes it was always about 9pm...

Yes..no supersonic over land but as soon as it was past the coast of Cornwall off it went..and the sonic boom rattled our windows..

Concorde did have a low ceiling but I'm 5' 8" in my socks and could stand up comfortably in the middle. The doorway is a bit low, mind, and was lined with foam for those dolts like me who don't duck at that bit!
Flying on it was quite something. It set off down the runway, and like all other aircraft it gathers speed. Just as you think it can't possibly go any faster on land it goes up, and it feels like up like a rocket - you can feel your body being pushed back into the seat. Then it levels off and because you are so high, and above the weather, the flight is very smooth. You realise it's not flying level when you go to the loo - you walk uphill to get to the front and downhill back again, though the cabin crew don't stagger about like I did in the aisle, and no, that had nothing to do with the champagne! When you looked out of the window, the sky was like a navy curved stripe at the top, then white below, weird. Wonderful experience, and I feel very privileged to have had it.

There is a Concorde at the RVP in Manchester which you can visit. I've been there a few times, although not done the "experience". Yes, there is one close to runway 27L at Heathrow but it is apparently in quite a poor condition, sadly. I have also been to the one at the Museum of Flight at King County in Seattle. I think there is one in Manhattan too. I saw her fly at Farnborough in the mid 80s when I went with my dad.

DH and the DDs went to Filton to watch the final flight - I had to work that day. DH was gutted because it was a trip he had always wanted to do. We used to live on the flight path into runway 08 at Exeter and one Sunday Concorde came in over our house. The whole house shook, but in a good way!

@Malbecfan

I think there is one in Manhattan too.

G-BOAD, been at the Intrepid Museum for some time, currently being refurbished..

As you say the one at Heathrow, G-BOAB, isn't in a great state (certainly not internally)..for those that don't know the set up there it's situated inside BA's Heathrow maintenance base, which is a restricted area, so there's no public access to it at all.

There were lots rumours over the years about what the company's plan was for the airframe...the industry being very much hard headed as it is these days I don't think the bean counters are at all interested in releasing funds to ensure it's preserved to any great extent, so it would be nice to see it in a museum somewhere.

https://intrepidmuseum.org/exhibitions/permanent-exhibitions/british-airways-concorde

https://www.heritageconcorde.com/g-boab-208

I lived in London in the 1990s and always used to go outside to watch it fly over if I was at home at on my days off work. There was something quite magical about it.

I remember that we used to lose tv reception for a few seconds as it went over.

I have lived under the Heathrow flight path since the early 90s and loved to see and hear it overhead. However my best Concorde memory was returning home from work along the M4 eastbound on a really windy day, and Concorde came in overhead across the motorway just in front of me, landing on one of the shorter runways which were used when cross winds were high (and no longer exist).

In more recent times I did google to make sure I hadn't imagined it, and those runways were definitely in use from time to time back then.

My Mum flew on it twice to New York. I've been on the tarmac many times at Heathrow when the ordinary planes were held while it took off.

@not4profit

The original Heathrow had I think 6 runways but the by the time you get to the 90s there was just three, the two main parallels running east west and a north east /south west aligned runway (05/23) that got very very infrequent use..that one went in the early 2000's.

It was very much shorter than the main pair, as I recall it had no precision approach radio aids, and it's use it really screwed up the arrival rate..as a result it only get used on very rare occasions, i.e. when the winds really demanded it..

If you look hard at Heathrow on Google earth you can just about make out what remains of a couple of the old runways..there's an old SE/NW one to the west of the main terminals, 05/23 is less obvious but it ran from just west of T4, north eastwards, the middle bit has been completely obliterated by the new stands, apron and terminal extension to the east of the central area but a bit if the NE east end can then be seen extending towards Bath Road.

I was lucky enough to fly on Concorde twice in two days! I was on the first Concorde flight to Norway on 23 September 1984, returning the following day. Was filmed by Norwegian telly coming off the plane as it was the first time Concorde had been to Scandinavia. I also used to regularly see it fly over my school as a child.

This thread has lead me to two videos that might answer some questions.

Someone filmed their journey -

And the demise of the aircraft -

Never flown on it just saw the one in NYC it’s quite small.

It was longer then the average airliner of it’s day but slender..reason why is explained in a PP.

I have my mother’s Concorde/QE11 cabin bag from her trip to New York and her flight back. She said it was an amazing trip. I also have her certificate from the flight.

It’s like this one.

From last week's outing to the Aerospace Museum at Filton. Adult male, tables and chairs for scale.