Celebrating the 50th Anniversary. On Thursday 19th May 2016, former Concorde Captain and Brooklands Volunteer, John Tye gave a talk at Brooklands Museum on his time flying the iconic aircraft.
John was my patrol leader at 1st Sunbury scouts. He lived on the same street as me, went to the same school, and was in my brother's class. The one thing I remember about him was he'd never lose his cool. Even when we burned a hole in the tent at scout camp. He just said..'well you'll have to come in on the weekend and fix it'.
I nearly got runover by Concorde. When we were kids we used to ride our bikes to the British Airways maintenance hangers. From there we got some great views of the runway apron. I was sitting on my bike watching various aircrafts coming in to land when all of a sudden I heard somone call out to me.. I looked back and to my amazement there was a Concorde towering over me with the pilot hanging out of the cockpit window ushering me to move out of his way. The nose of the concorde was literally right above my head and behind it was a Boeing 747-400.. Both of these aircraft were stationary because they were waiting for ME to move my ass out of their way so they could cross the road to get to the terminal buildings after maintenance ( those were the good ol days of the VC-10, DC-10,707, 727. L1011.. and Hawker Siddley Tridents ) We used to have picnics by the side of the runway because security was non existant in those days.
Amazing video Thank You, John Tye. I actually had tears in my eyes at this love Concorde. Shows what two countries can do when amazing minds come together. No computers back then when designing Concorde, just slide rules and drawings. Thank You, BA and Air France, for flying the most beautiful aircraft to ever exist. For me the only thing that comes close to Concorde in perfection is the spitfire.
I was lucky enough to have worked for British Airways and its predeccessor BOAC for almost 40 years, even managing Concorde 5 times. What a wonderful talk given by John and what a character..
Everybody should buy John’s book released this month. I got it early at an event in Manchester and it is superb. John is a special person and I’m glad to have had the opportunity to listen to him and shake his hand.
wow, this bought a tear to my eye, i have seen Concorde land and take off from Birmingham more than once, its just an amazing aircraft and well ahead of its time, there aint no aircraft like it, the only aircraft i can think of that comes close is the sr71 blackbird even though thats not a passenger aircraft it like Concorde was an amazing piece of technology, r.i.p Concorde, forever in our hearts.
What a masterpiece-I can’t see us equalling it-a magnificent machine, a work of art, substantially executed with raw human brain power and slide rules :-) Thank you for sharing the superb Concorde flight experiences :-)
The closest I got to this,when I was a kid the TU 144 was at Budapest for 3 days. Every day flew twice. I skipped school for 3 days. I enjoyed this video a lot. Thank you.
The date is Wednesday, October 7, 1987. I was at Buenos Aires’ international airport, standing on the tarmac by the freight dept, when an Air France Concorde taxied by followed by two French Air Force business jets towards the active runway. Their precious passenger were Francois Mitterrand and his party. From that position (close to the taxiway) we had the best seats in the house to see Concorde taxiing by, then see the French Air Force jets (Dassault Falcon) take-off, followed by Concorde. What a sight, what a sound! This moment will never be challenged.
Great video from a Concorde pilot. He also is a great storyteller. I remember those charters when they used to come into Toronto. I remember regular scheduled flights were either out of JFK in New York or Washington Dulles in DC.
What an amazing video and great to hear from a Concorde pilot. Concorde is in my opinion by far the best aircraft ever built and last great thing the UK made as it was a world beater.
Was the DC-10 metal strip ever exonerated. In fact, it was the absence of the bogie spacer that held the shear bushes apart. The port wheels were out of line, knocked and locked askew at the junction of the old and new runway extension which had a considerable ridge. This in turn caused the skid to the left. The DC-10 strip came from the starboard engine of the DC-10, not its port engine. When the runway was checked after the accident, that strip was still on the right hand side of the runway. The French BEA used it as a cover-up of the true cause of the accident. Lack of spacer, fire started when the shear bushes hit the tank no.2 (which is at the rear of the wing close to the afterburners) causing the initial fire from the reheat of engines 1 and 2. 700 metres before the DC10 strip. Then overloading and excess fuel in tank 5 which blew outwards with the shockwave from tyre debris. Engine no2 should not have been shut down before 400 feet. A gigantic coverup. So like the DC10 fiasco 21 years earlier with the Antarctic flight TE901 of Air New Zealand. The manual override switch for the gear retraction was not activated by the co-pilot which may have allowed gear up and less drag. So much more is coming to light as to the many items that were part of the disaster chain. But the fact that the BEA report failed to even recognise that it was the spacer missing, causing the veering off the runway. Shocking incompetence on the part of BEA.
Excellent talk from Captain John Tye. I would have loved to have flown on Concorde but would never have been able to afford it. The most beautiful aeroplane ever to fly and a marvel of engineering by the French and British teams involved. Saw and heard it flying a few times. I don't think Concorde will ever fly again, no spare parts are manufactured any more and it was just too expensive to maintain. A real shame. Great safety record too, just one fatal crash in nearly 30 years.
No matter what it was a joint project! The cultures go back centuries for good and bad ( obviously this was a time of cohesiveness)America couldn't even comprehend
Fantastic brilliant complete pleasure to listen experience this. Concorde will live on as it has done, injustice in its end of life however that’s how it goes. AFrance typical of them made mistakes in operation & this played part of the demise however as described chain of events & awful situation played out that day. However Concorde SHOULD have retired 100% accident fatality free & that is a huge disappointment, the accident should not of happened at all. I myself almost caused an accident on the M25 watching her! Huge roar looked up there she was out of LHR I’m now completely oblivious to all the faint horn noises going off around me which was virtually unnoticeable as RRoyce Olympus firing away, watched her pull away beautiful pure beauty to then return to my driving position looking ahead. Gone from the fast lane completely across all lanes & now I’m around 70mph on the hard shoulder!
The real reason these planes got grounded is expensive fuel costs, people are always pointing at the 2000 crash as a big factor when that is far from the truth, many other airlines have had multiple fatal crashes and are still running today.
You look at Concord it's like a swan flying in the sky I really hope one day British airways bring Concord back in our sky. French government are so jealous of us keeping it going in our skys. French h never like us British people.
It is Concorde, not Concord and if it wasn't for the French, the plane wouldn't have existed at all, the British wanted to pull out at some point during development, the French wanted it built no matter what the costs. (BBC documentary Concorde, a supersonic story). I'm not French by the way.
I met John whilst we were flying to Grenada on a 777. He came out of the cockpit and spoke to us in 1st class. he said to me I think we have something in common. I had a short sleeve cardigan on with Concorde on it. He said you got the short sleeve cardigan and I have got the Tie. He said only Concorde Captains get given the Concorde tie. Since then we have become very close friends. He is a lovely man. He took me to Brooklands and I flew Concorde in the simulator with him.
Most of the astronauts? Disagree think the majority of them considering the number would think putting a man on the moon was probably the greatest achievement of human kind
@@mikedavies71 I suggest you read Mike Bannisters book “Concorde”. I accept it is controversial and it is just an opinion. We will never be able to prove it one way or another. But I suggest that the whole truth of the AF 4590 crash and subsequent investigation needs to be looked at again. Did the strip from the DC10 really cause the puncture and the fire? Not according to 18 witnesses who saw the fire some 700 metres before the alleged position of the DC10 debris.
Fly 100 people in a shirtsleeves environment over 3500 miles at twice the speed of sound, 10 miles above the ground. Then do it daily for the thick end of 30 years. That's the achievement and it was all done using 1960s technology. In technical terms its right up there with the Apollo programme.
Concorde lost massive amounts of money for France and Britain; it was a net transfer of wealth from British and French taxpayers to American millionaires. It transferred the last of Britain superior aviation technology to the French who built Airbus.
The abandon of supersonic flight with Concorde is the biggest mistake ever ,aviation is going backwards now....because either electric or another source of power for large airliners won't happen for decades....
yes but security was a pretext. it was not profitable and that was the real reason. the mistake was not to have involved the US in the project in the first place. it would have been less expensive for Britain and France, and the American ban would obviously not have happened. as soon as an american company produces a supersonic passenger plane, you 'll see the ban lifted and the profits appear. then a concord 2.0 will make sense for Britain and France.
Awesome aircraft. Easily the best aircraft ever built. However.... at cruising altitude it was negative 55 outside but the window was hot to the touch. Guess why? Pure radiation from the Sun! Ok you got cancer but you saved 5 hours of flight.
Yes they would.. and yes they did. To arrive at a destination before you leave is something the business traveller loved to do because they could have a meeting in New York at 9am and be home in London by 6pm.
Sad not to like that beautiful plane and you could a trip round the bay of biscay for 500 well worth saving up for the experience is phenomenal so shut up
