I do miss her!

[RogerS]

The last flight to Filton was nearly three years ago. I was there and not afraid to admit that I had tears in my eyes.

This is quite a historic photograph as it took a huge amount of scheduling logistics for BA to get all four together for this super shot.

 

[Anonymous]

This is quite a historic photograph as it took a huge amount of scheduling logistics for BA to get all four together for this super shot.

What was that then, cut and paste in a photoshop studio :wink: :lol: :lol:

 

[Paul Chapman]

One of the biggest regrets of my life is that I never had the opportunity to fly in Concorde. It used to fly over my house every day and I would say to myself "I'm going to fly in that one day". And then it was gone....

Paul

 

[Anonymous]

And then it was gone....

Gone where?? :lol: Its only an aeroplane
Its no great loss , stupid white elephant waste of taxpayer's money
By the time they built that mascot thing, they couldnt (wouldnt) make decent saws planes chisles etc any more, built in obsolesense (fake excellence) was welcomed openly (no longer reluctantly) and the UK still hadnt woken up and accepted the reality that it was in terminal industrial decline, the concorde fiasco was a pathetic last ditch attempt to make out that technology wise the UK was still top drawer and that we had something to brag about :roll: As long as good old mr tax payer coughed up :lol: Then Maggie thatcher did some dirty work, now its all govt agency's call centres and retail parks, how the mighty are fallen.

 

[CHJ]

A great piece of engineering but at a massive price premium, way back in the 70's I had some peripheral involvement with 002 in association with the trials support Canberra (WT627 IIRC) and with prototype radar and navigation equipments that had to have Concord Spec components fitted, I remember one day calling in Dowty's at Tewkesbury to pick up an urgently needed dolls eye (simple magnetic indicator) and a switch, both items were a factor of 20 dearer than the 'off the shelf' items just because someone had certified them to the Concord spec. My next door neighbor worked on the line making them and confirmed that they had no special quality control applied just the paperwork
My wife who was with me at the time was horrified to learn that we were carrying the equivalent of almost a months salary of government property in my coat pocket.

 

[RogerS]

And then it was gone....

Gone where?? :lol: Its only an aeroplane
Its no great loss , stupid white elephant waste of taxpayer's money
By the time they built that mascot thing, they couldnt (wouldnt) make decent saws planes chisles etc any more, built in obsolesense (fake excellence) was welcomed openly (no longer reluctantly) and the UK still hadnt woken up and accepted the reality that it was in terminal industrial decline, the concorde fiasco was a pathetic last ditch attempt to make out that technology wise the UK was still top drawer and that we had something to brag about :roll: As long as good old mr tax payer coughed up :lol: Then Maggie thatcher did some dirty work, now its all govt agency's call centres and retail parks, how the mighty are fallen.

Woo hoo :lol: Knew there'd be at least one :-({|=

 

[woodbloke]

Concorde...emotive one here. I have mixed feelings for this aircraft on a number of levels. Firstly, a fantastic technical achievement, anyone who has read any Clarkson books will know that he is an ardent enthusiast and says in one of his books that the development of Concorde was technically more difficult than getting a man on the moon...and that was from a NASA engineer. On a different note, the power plants used in the aircraft are 1950's vintage - the Olympus turbojet powered the 'V' bomber fleet, so when Concorde went out of service, how old technically was the engine in your motor - I bet it didn't date from the 1950's? My father was for many years a BA engineer and within the company, the aircraft was tolerated, but not enthused over as my dad often said it just provided the ...'jam on the bread'. The real money was made by the long haul 747 fleet. When he was working he took me round the engineering base at Heathrow (the public don't ever get there) and I went on a Concorde on the ground, rather like being inside a giant aluminium cigar tube, my dad then took me up to the sharp end and I had a sit in the drivers chair....there's more space in a Mini than the pointy end of Concorde, but the thing I will never forget is that as I was going up the steps into the aircraft, I spotted an engineer beating seven shades of s@#t out of the front nose wheel assembly with a lump hammer! Dad also told me that one aeroplane was always kept on the ground so they could canabalise it for spares :shock: We then went over to a staff car park at the rear of the main runway and we could see all the aircraft lining up for take off, one of which was the 1.00pm BA flight to the States. When Concorde came to take off, I was about a quarter of a mile directly behind the Olympus engines when the pilot opened the throttles :!: The sound produced was like a giant ripping phone directory's in half with his bare hands...a rippling, roaring, totally deafening sound which I won't ever forget...my next thought tho' was for the poor sods who had to live in and around the flight path...would you? I do regret the aeroplane's passing, but 25 years or so for a civil aircraft ain't a bad run for anyone's money, but as Clarkson said, our children will never in their lifetimes have the opportunity of sipping vintage champagne at over twice the speed of sound - Rob

 

[Chris Knight]

Definitely the most beautiful plane ever built!

 

[Losos]

Rob,
Nice of you to post those memories. What a fantastic aircraft it was, and which ever way you look at it, it has to be admired for the technical superiority (at the time) and the courageous decision to go ahead with it, despite all the doomsayers (I think we have one posting on this thread :wink: )

I always thought the aircraft would have had a better future if they could have done 'in flight' refueling over the middle east, en route to Australia. But that is probaly just day dreaming

Just in case anyone doesn't know I believe their is still one at Duxford air museum, or did they remove it

 

[woodbloke]

waterhead37 wrote:

Definitely the most beautiful plane ever built!

....Hmmmmm.. :-k :-k..questionable...with the nose down? :roll: :wink:, even so, there's another one IMO from WW2 that knocks Concorde into a cocked hat, I shouldn't have to say the name, save that it was designed by Reginald Mitchell, look left - Rob

 

[Alf]

Ah, Concorde. Used to fly over our house just about the time my dad came home from work; many a time in my yoof I've looked up to oooo and ahh and then remembered to nip down and open the gate for the old man. And of course the Oval Test Match has never been the same without it. Seeing it go was like mothballing a high speed train to go back to the age of steam - shame on us that we haven't done better.

Cheers, Alf

 

[RogerS]

The one surprising thing about it during the flight is the 'hot' metal smell...a bit like the smell you get when cutting on a metal lathe with that white cutting solution. That and the massive shove in your back on take-off.

 

[woodbloke]

Alf wrote:

Seeing it go was like mothballing a high speed train

Alf, I do agree, it was sad to see the end of Concorde, but I think that the political long knives were out and had been free hand honed :lol: :lol: :lol: so its never going to fly again in any great capacity. No doubt other forms of SST's will be developed in future years, but I won't see them and neither, I suspect, will my children - Rob

 

[Paul Chapman]

Interestingly there was a bit on the television the other night about Concorde. Apparently one of the French ones is still maintained in as near airworthy condition as is possible without flying the thing. There's this female engineer who spends all her time crawling all over it and keeping it in tip top condition. That will be a real kick in the teeth if the French ever fly their's again

Cheers

Paul

 

[Lord Nibbo]

Sorry Roger someone mentioned Photoshop and I couldn't resist it.

I had the honour of seeing the very first flight of the first English prototype for real the day she took of from Filton. Plus I used to live at Brize Norton in Oxfordshire which was used for testing and training of crew for the first couple of years of her existance. We saw her/them several dozen times a day long before the ever went to Heathrow.

 

[Richard in Smithville]

I had the pleasure of seeing one of the rare times that she flew into Toronto, Canada. She made an appearance at the Toronto Air Show and made a few fly bys. I was just telling my dad how I didn't think she made that much noise, then the pilot dropped the throttles to head back to the airport. I never finished my sentence. But if you want my vote for one of the most beautiful planes....

 

[Matt1245]

....Hmmmmm.. ..questionable...with the nose down? , even so, there's another one IMO from WW2 that knocks Concorde into a cocked hat, I shouldn't have to say the name, save that it was designed by Reginald Mitchell, look left - Rob

Would have to agree with you there, plus the sounds from those merlins...mm mm mmmmmm.



Matt.http://www.spitcrazy.com/spitsound.htm

 

[engineer one]

maybe the one lesson of concorde was that just like suez, when we work with the french we get stuffed :lol: :lol:

am pretty sure that had concorde been built here it would have been a cheaper and probably better airplane, and we might still have an aircraft industry, but after the comet, and then helping the french kick start europlanes, where are we now????? :twisted: :twisted:

still we build the best racecars, and they all had aircraft designers originally after 1966.

paul :wink:

 

[RogerS]

....Hmmmmm.. ..questionable...with the nose down? , even so, there's another one IMO from WW2 that knocks Concorde into a cocked hat, I shouldn't have to say the name, save that it was designed by Reginald Mitchell, look left - Rob

Would have to agree with you there, plus the sounds from those merlins...mm mm mmmmmm.

Matt.http://www.spitcrazy.com/spitsound.htm

You just reminded me that when Concorde made it's final flight to Filton, as a prelude they had a Spitfire doing its' stuff..magical.

 

[dedee]

I'm in the "god isn't she beautiful camp". The noise was unique and would cause me to stop and stare every time I had the chance - quite often. I had the pleasure of standing just outside the perimeter fence at the end of the runway at Biggin Hill when she did a fly past. My ears were still ringing when I got home!

Andy