Concorde, Ever been on it?

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Davepick

Well-known member
On Antiques Roadshow yesterday they showed Concorde and a guy who'd been pilot years ago.
It got me to wondering how many have been on it.
I've been on twice, but never flown in it.
Once when it paid a courtesy visit to Luton Airport, and once at Duxford, Cambridgeshire. where it is now retired to.
My oldest Grandson had a serious heart condition when born at Victoria Hosp. On his second day he was rushed to Alder Hay Hosp in Liverpool.
They did a temporary repair job. When he was 6 he had a full operation at Harehills Hosp Middx, done by Sir Mahgdi Yacoub, one of the best in the world.
My grandson, now 37, has never looked back.
A year or so later they got lots of kids with heart problems and other serious illnesses together, took them to Heathrow and Concorde took them out over the Bay of Biscay.
He was interviewed on TV on landing.
Interviewer, 'What was it like up there?' G/son, 'It was very bumpy.' 🙄
 
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Don’t understand why they got rid. Phasing out the fasted mode of transport seems like a technological regression
 
A mate of mine tells the story about working for BA, they used to work a jolly scheme whereby you put your name in and they would draw people out to act as courier where required. His name came out once and they sent him to the States on Concorde as a day trip.

I believe they got rid of them as they ran out of spares. They cannibalised the old ones to keep them in service, but with so few made that soon ran out of steam.
 
Was working with the ground crew at Manchester airport on the day it came for a final sortie with a load of dignitaries, out into Atlantic and back, before its retirement in 2003 I think it was. Bobby Charlton was one of them. Never one to miss a freebie old Bob😉

Of course she did return and was retired to MA as part of the Runway park attraction and is still there I believe but not currently taking any passengers 😷😞

Just to add that I made a near fatal error on the day as it was fairly chaotic and I somehow managed to go out on the apron without my ear defenders. The roar, up close, from her supersonic engines had me wondering whether I would ever hear again. I recovered 😁👂
 
ballysboots said:
Was working with the ground crew at Manchester airport on the day it came for a final sortie with a load of dignitaries, out into Atlantic and back, before its retirement in 2003 I think it was. Bobby Charlton was one of them. Never one to miss a freebie old Bob😉

Of course she did return and was retired to MA as part of the Runway park attraction and is still there I believe but not currently taking any passengers 😷😞

Just to add that I made a near fatal error on the day as it was fairly chaotic and I somehow managed to go out on the apron without my ear defenders. The roar, up close, from her supersonic engines had me wondering whether I would ever hear again. I recovered 😁👂
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After working with fast jets (and harriers) for many years, ear defs were a must.
 
Davepick said:
On Antiques Roadshow yesterday they showed Concorde and a guy who'd been pilot years ago.
It got me to wondering how many have been on it.
I've been on twice, but never flown in it.
Once when it paid a courtesy visit to Luton Airport, and once at Duxford, Cambridgeshire. where it is now retired to.
My oldest Grandson had a serious heart condition when born at Victoria Hosp. On his second day he was rushed to Alder Hay Hosp in Liverpool.
They did a temporary repair job. When he was 6 he had a full operation at Harehills Hosp Middx, done by Sir Mahgdi Yacoub, one of the best in the world.
My grandson, now 37, has never looked back.
A year or so later they got lots of kids with heart problems and other serious illnesses together, took them to Heathrow and Concorde took them out over the Bay of Biscay.
He was interviewed on TV on landing.
Interviewer, 'What was it like up there?' G/son, 'It was very bumpy.' 🙄
Click to expand...
Only the one at Duxford mores the pity.
 
scunner said:
A mate of mine tells the story about working for BA, they used to work a jolly scheme whereby you put your name in and they would draw people out to act as courier where required. His name came out once and they sent him to the States on Concorde as a day trip.

I believe they got rid of them as they ran out of spares. They cannibalised the old ones to keep them in service, but with so few made that soon ran out of steam.
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Airbus stopped supplying parts, simple as that.
 
Wasn't it losing a shed load of money? Other more profitable area of British Airways were funding Concord's losses. In those days lots of business meeting were still face to face, whereas nowadays all the other ways of communication have taken over.
 
I managed to get on board at Gatwick Airport, in the early 2000's, as I worked for Servisair ground crew .It was a bugger putting ground power in as the nose is so high and on board it was very narrow....beautiful aircraft though. Stood watching it take off with many other workers and the concrete vibrated over 500 yards away.
 
Critchley Deserved said:
Isn’t it at Manchester Airport?
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Critchley,not any more I think, the only time I've been on it was when it was a visitor attraction at Manchester Airport and I was there for a trade show in the same building. As a s few have said, it seems a backward step binning something ahead of its time.
 
Only at Manchester airport visitors centre.
After my family it’s the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen.
Got quite emotional seeing her again on antiques road show.
Yanks made sure Concorde was never a commercial success for strategic reasons mainly .
 
Came out of my finals to see one go over, before it went into service.

There used to be one at the Fleet Air Arm museum, went in it when the kids were tiny. Could not believe how small it was inside.

Beautiful looking bit of kit
 
Blackpool-rocks said:
Wasn't it losing a shed load of money? Other more profitable area of British Airways were funding Concord's losses. In those days lots of business meeting were still face to face, whereas nowadays all the other ways of communication have taken over.
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Unless you're Dominic Cummings.
 
Yes I flew on it one way to New York around 1989. Yes I’m an old git.

I used to work for DHL and in the old days, before they had their own aircraft, they sent documents and freight as excess baggage to speed the material through customs. To do this they always had to have an onboard courier on the plane.

The Concorde service was a special service where they picked up cheques from banks in London in the afternoon and could deliver them into Wall St the same day, saving interest on transactions worth 100s of millions.
I needed to go to New York on business so my Boss said go as the courier.

I remember it flying over land towards Bristol where it was not allowed to break the sound barrier, and could tell even then it was moving much faster than a conventional aircraft. Very small, I think it only took around 100 passengers.

The onboard service was brilliant, I think they served a seven course meal and a different wine with each course. Plus any other drinks you wanted. I must admit to being a little pissed at the other end.

The plane was full of city bankers. I always remember, I needed to fill in my immigration card and had forgotten a pen. I asked the guy behind me to borrow his. When he passed it to me my arm dropped six inches, it felt like a brick it was so heavy. Part of it must have been made of gold.

It was a great experience, and I feel lucky to have done it. I was brought quickly back to earth though ! Came back economy class.
 
The French pulled out. It was costing too much. Not enough passengers paying top whack.
Real shame.
Still nothing comes close.
 
I used to live about ten miles due west of Heathrow back in the late 90s. Directly under the flight path. Concorde would fly over must days on it's final descent. Spellbinding.
 
Only when on the ground.

I have few regrets in life, but not flying on that magnificent machine is one of them.
 
My old man saved up a few coupons in one of the national papers for a limited print of British and French Concorde back in the 70's in black and white. Still got it,gathering dust somewhere.
 
We used to have a couple of flights each day come into JFK from both London and Paris and one particular memory I have is an early morning Air France Concord flight making a pigs ear of the landing and the tower controller making a rather rude comment.
I should say that this was soon after the French government had forbid the US aircraft in England on route to Libya from overflying France and consequently they had to route via the English Channel around Brittany and down the Bay of Biscay making the flight quite considerably longer.
The Americans were none too pleased with France and the usual relaxed and often chatty air controllers at JFK cooled somewhat towards Air France flights, hence the remark re the landing of the French Concord.
I cannot recall the exact words said by the tower controller before handing him over to the ground controller but the reply from the French captain was "if you can walk away from it intact, it was a good landing".
Of course that is not strictly true, having seen a Hawker Hunter in Aden make a rather heavy landing, so much so that the undercarriage collapsed with the aircraft skidding to a stop just short of the end of the runway and nearly into the sea, the pilot climbed out unscathed, he walked away but a good landing, afraid not.
 
Been inside the one at Bristol when it first went back to Filton.

My dad did some design work on the main undercarriage bay which was contracted out to Warton as a design only package of work.
 
Lytham_fy8 said:
I heard it go over Heathrow once, lovely noise, it was no Vulcan mind.
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Never been on concord, but went in a Vulcan bomber when was at blackpool airport years ago..think was late 80s, was amazed how small it was inside, considering it operated with 3 crew....awesome👍
 
Killingmesoftly said:
Never been on concord, but went in a Vulcan bomber when was at blackpool airport years ago..think was late 80s, was amazed how small it was inside, considering it operated with 3 crew....awesome👍
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Five crew same as the Valiant and Victor and sometimes a sixth member, had a six year stint in Valiants and a Victor, the Vulcan was referred to as the Tin Triangle.
 
my wife went on it just before it stopped for good and she said it was very average given the hype. Obviously amazing experience, and nice to get to NY very quickly, but very pokey and claustrophobic and not a patch on regular business class on most decent airlines.
 
Everything was railed back for speed. Creature comforts were sacrificed for the greater good of time saving. And then it went south. Literally.
 
It just came back to me.
The reason it had no passengers etc at Luton is that the runway isn't/wasn't long enough for it to have passengers etc.
Fantastic aircraft though.
 
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