please empty your brain below
Thanks for the post DG and the memories it triggered. I saw the preserved Concorde at Duxford and was amazed at how small it was, not much wider than a train carriage on C2C, though a tad faster in operation.

When Test Matches were on at The Oval they would fly over the ground which was always a thrilling sight. One also used to visit the Southend-on-Sea Air Show, now sadly as defunct as Concorde itself. You knew it was coming as you could hear it long before you could actually see it.

It was certainly exciting to see in flight, this supremely impressive example of the “white heat of technology” as the yet to be Prime Minister Harold Wilson put it, in his vision for Britain’s future in 1963.

IanD | 29.11.19 - 7:31 a.m. | #

I visited the Brooklands museum about 4 years ago. I also got in for free, including the Concorde as I had a special invitation.
Hope you also looked at the radio room.
I found the walk from Weybridge station rather long and took a bus back.

John | 29.11.19 - 8:22 a.m. | #

Oh the memories. Although I never flew on Concorde, I distinctly remember the feeling that I could have done. Yes, it was expensive, but I always felt that one day I would save up and do it. Then all of a sudden, that possibility vanished, and the future started to crumble in front of my eyes. A process which is still continuing right now. Sad, sad, sad.

Malcolm | 29.11.19 - 8:30 a.m. | #

I saw Concorde when the first british built one made her maiden flight from Filton to to Fairford in April 69. I was a boy living near Bath and saw her fly quite high up overhead.

Later when living in Surrey we were occasionally directly under her take off flight path - what a noise dirty plane she was, I was not a fan.

Richard | 29.11.19 - 8:40 a.m. | #

I was on the runway at Fairford for a take-off, which thanks to Richard I now know when that was.

Jon France (@jh_f) | 29.11.19 - 8:56 a.m. | #

Sorry to all you who never got to fly in Concorde. I was working in Bahrain and paid about 2 months pay (to upgrade the ticket the company paid for) to come home on leave. Royally treated getting on, but apart from using Gate 1 at Heathrow, tipped out into the mayhem that was T3 in those days. Still have bits of memorabilia collected on the journey.

Mike Roberts | 29.11.19 - 9:17 a.m. | #

A friend travelled back from the US on one once, but I was disappointed to find that by then, standard plastic cutlery had taken over from something more suited to the plane's status.

Man of Kent | 29.11.19 - 9:27 a.m. | #

I looked around the Concorde at Filton Museum. The thing that struck me was how basic & non luxurious it was inside.

Adrian | 29.11.19 - 9:27 a.m. | #

I never flew in it, but I cursed it every day for 7 years except for the time during which it was barred from JFK . I wonder if the museum experience includes the noise upon take off as perceived from the hundreds of thousands dwellers of its LHR flight path ;-)

Fulhamite | 29.11.19 - 9:41 a.m. | #

My earliest memory was in the mid-1970s when it did a test flight over the bay in Falmouth. Everyone was on the beach to see it go past and hear the sonic boom!

Then in the 1980s-1990s, now living in Hounslow, you could set your watch to it flying over on it's final approach to Heathrow at 6pm and 10pm on the dot!!

Hearing it first, then looking out of the window to see it hanging in the air, nose down like a giant bird of prey, before WHOOSH, over the roof it went! Thrilling. Watching it never got old.

Cornish Cockney | 29.11.19 - 10:11 a.m. | #

I seem to remember it banged through the sound barrier over Falmouth most days on its regular outbound service flights.

mikeS | 29.11.19 - 10:21 a.m. | #

I was booked on a regular BA flight from Washington DC to Heathrow which was delayed...delayed...cancelled. I was flying business class and was offered either a rebooking on the same flight the next day or a transfer flight to NY and Concorde home, three guesses which I chose.

HC | 29.11.19 - 11:03 a.m. | #

I remember going round the NT's Lanhydrock House in Cornwall in the 70's. Staff there said the vibrations from the regular Concorde flights were damaging the windows.

ap | 29.11.19 - 11:05 a.m. | #

For a honeymoon we flew on the Barbados service in the last year of operations. Best way to get there ever and yes you could see the earths curvature out of the window.

Noisy and the seats were a bit cramped for the money but the time saving was amazing and pricing was about the same as regular first class.

PeterI | 29.11.19 - 11:31 a.m. | #

A massive regret that I never flew on Concorde

The queues at most times to visit any of the stored Concordes show what a special plane it is.

Mikey C | 29.11.19 - 12:43 p.m. | #

Always turned heads, but my first sighting was truly and literally awesome - waiting for a bus at Hatton Cross, just off the end of the runway when one was taking off, seemingly passing above me at roof top height.

My aunt lived in Isleworth, under the flight path, all her married life, although she never flew (anywhere) in her life. You learned, when Concorde flew over, to pause conversation - in mid-sentence if needs be - resuming a minute or so later where you had left off.

My grandmother did fly on Concorde for her 90th birthday. Astonishing to realise that she was already six years old before Orville Wright made his first flight.

Timbo | 29.11.19 - 1:02 p.m. | #

I never tired of seeing it go over. Fortunately I'm just off the flight path and only notice the planes on summer mornings when the windows are open, but I was always got the roar of the two evening arrivals. As they got lower and assumed the tipped back landing angle, it was always quite a sight to see the top of the fuselage appear over the wings in the distant westward view.

NickW | 29.11.19 - 2:14 p.m. | #

On May 17, 1976 I was driving on the beltway (ring road around Washington, DC) when the Concorde, carrying the President of France, flew (quite low) right over top of my car when landing at Andrews Air Force Base. An unexpected and wonderful sight.

Mary | 29.11.19 - 2:56 p.m. | #

Isn't there a Concorde at the Scottish Museum of Flight in East Fortune? Or was that just a mockup, it's been a while since I was there.

Gregg | 29.11.19 - 4:12 p.m. | #

The one in Scotland made its final voyage by barge travelling from Heathrow through central London on the Thames via Isleworth. Another also arrived by barge in New York and was not treated very kindly. G-BBDG arrived by road at Brooklands from Filton in bits and had to be reassembled.

I rememeber the inaugural flights over the Cotswolds from Fairford which were very noisy.

kev | 29.11.19 - 4:38 p.m. | #

Seats on Concorde were all fare class 'R', priced above First class.

One of my (few) flights out of JFK on Concorde had an engine fail at 48,000 feet (astonishingly dramatic) so we had to turn back to JFK. I was then rerouted onto a 747 - I'm one of the few passengers to have ever been 'down graded' into First class.

Re those small windows. They're triple glazed. In order to try to get a better view while travelling at Mach2 I pressed my cheek against the window. A very stupid thing to do as I sticky discovered the inner perspex was painfully hot to the touch!

While the plane was infamously loud, it was eerily quiet inside the cabin.

As well as gloriously sumptuous service on board (which was an amazing feat by the crew given how little space there was on board), there was also special service on the ground. Those who've endured an endless immigration queue into the US will understand how special it was to miraculously find myself at the front of the line - ahead of the three 747s that had landed ahead of us. I still don't understand how the BA ground crew arranged that.

IslandDweller | 29.11.19 - 9:30 p.m. | #











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