Still is (and always will be), the most beautiful, elegant and greatest passenger aircraft ever created. As a child growing up, I'd watch it fly over my house in South East London. When the Farnborough Airshow used to be televised, I'd jump up and down with excitement to see it on the television. To this day, i dont know why my parents never took me to any airshows. We'd do motorshows, but never airshows (I've made sure i took my my own children, and they love it (youngest wants to be an air traffic controller) What really annoys me though, is that I spent 3 weeks in Barbados in 1993 as a 21 year old attending my sisters wedding, and NOBODY mentioned to me that Concorde flew in there regularly 🤯. And it was such an event because island folk would flock in to see it land and take off. I've never seen it take off, but I saw it land there in 2003 for the last time, as one plane was given to Barbados. I've stood under the one at Brooklands Motor Museum, and I regularly drive past Heathrow Airport, and see the one that sits on the tarmac. Looking like the fastest, baddest thing on the planet, but in turn looking so sad just standing there, like a bird with clipped wings. 21 years already since the last flight. God, I miss that plane so much 😢.
I miss this plane too! I first saw a, probably prototype, different signage, in Cape Town in 1973. I got a trip to JFK ( when I heard it was BA001 .... I knew what I was on.. SO EXCITED! in 1989 and, when I go, the certificate comes with me. A masterpiece of engineering... will never, sadly, be replaced. Its arrival never failed to stop me in my tracks. So, so sorry you missed an opportunity.
I was nine when Concorde took her maiden flight. I'm now sixty two, and till this day, no other plane has come close to surpassing her beauty , speed, and elegance. All these years later, and I'm just struck in awe of her. ❤️🙏
Pity they don't design such beautiful birds anymore. The only time I saw her, she was rolling on the ground and I still stood awstruck because she radiated speed and elegance even when standing still. Between the bigger planes she almost seemed unreal and otherworldly.
Hearing it landing brings back so many memories, me peeping over the kitchen door as a young boy as breakfast was on. Unmistakable powerful whistle. Everytime I saw it, it was like someone took all the air out of the room and hit me on the head with a hammer.
i watched this from the cliffs of the wirral 13 years ago, never seen anything but a fighter jet climb so sharply on takeoff, it was awesome. ill never forget it
A beautiful piece of engineering when Britain was at the forefront of technology . Hard to believe 30 odd years later nothing could come close I Had the pleasure of watching a close landing/ take off at fairford a few year ago. Shame its demise came about from some other piece of flying junk that was falling apart. thanks for posting
@Bango61 It's lack of flaps require it to bank its nose up into the airflow during approach. There is a slight flare, but generally the aircraft's nose is positive 11 degrees during landing. This is why Concorde's nose droops to 12.5 degrees so that the pilots can see clearly when pitched up. There is also a cushion of air created by the delta wings during touchdown.
@dman15333 because of the delta wing it comes in at a steeper angle of attack as the delta wing produces lift at 8 degrees pitch up when landing i think.
But because of Government admin cuts and airlines unable to foot the operational bills of this magnificent creation and one tragic accident at Charles de Gaulle de Gaulle (which was not Concordes' fault I may add...it was FOD left on the runway by a previous American Airlines plane about 55 mins before) which caused the fatal fire which engulfed Her, when Concorde's wheels kicked up the debris on take off. This is what eventually lead to the entire Concorde fleet being grounded permanently!
Yeah when you think that, that freak accident, (which is the only way I can describe it), was the only one in an originally 16yrs unblemished service history..!!! Then when you compare the multitude of crashes & accidents that occurred with the McDonnell Douglas DC-10, before that was taken out of passenger flight service, it just doesn't make sense..!!
+Mahmoud Riad I'm sure your right it will never go back in service, but there are funds put aside to get one up for air shows so it maybe a chance that one will be in the air again in the future. Never say never.
@FSXfan007 good old days hey! when old smokey turbojets where used! concorde was noisy but wasn't making a profit cos it could hardly fly anywhere or hold a lot of passengers. the new ere of flight is here with the Boeing 787 dreamliner, 747-8 intercontinental, Airbus A380 and a double decker from boeing in the forseable future. lets get a concode back in the sky for London 2012 though! would be nice to see her fly again :)
What a special plane. If the fleet hadn't been forcefully retired in 2003 i doubt it would still be flying in 2016. Running cost and environmental impact would have been its undoing.
That is very true in many ways but everything changes eventually, I mean yeah they should have kept it in the air for like 10 more years but the designs were beginning to be outdated. Perhaps if Britain had refined the designs to make them more modern and use engines that are less harmful to the environment then it would be still flying. There was much talk of taking 2 out of storsge so hope for that to happen.
@fooksake69 I disagree. It's not a step backwards to stop operating old and dangerous equipment. It is however a step backwards not to come up with something better.
Depends on the length of the runway. Speke, did have the longest runway in the uk. So concorde could take off and land fully fuelled. Not sure about now though. It did move down the road. The Airport that is :)
A stunning aircraft, for Concorde not to be flying is a crime, when you consider the fact that sir richard branson was willing to take on concorde and had a plan to make it profitable you just have to ask yourself is the british goverment a bunch of fannys? It is a massive step backwards for concorde not to be flying the sky's.
@lonewolfkay1990 So yea, i'm not saying the DC-10 was/is the greatest design ever but im pretty sure a small piece of rubber would not cause it to burst into flames. That was reserved for the Concorde.
Too loud, the concorde did hardly get any landing permissions because of that. Second it was way too expensive and it lacked safety that's to say technology was out of date and updating that would have been too expensive.
