The Wind Beneath My Wings: John Hutchinson Concorde Pilot - amzn.to/2jJINhU John Hutchinson gives a tour of the Concordes engineer panel based at Duxford IWM.
That tech log story was hilarious! While you can easily find various statistical and performance data on the internet or in books, stories like this are rare. I really like this kind of videos, looking forward for more.
That’s a hilarious story about the log book 😂 absolutely love listening to John talk about the Concorde. This plane should be flying as of today… imagine all the documentaries in HD and all and it’ll probably have been improved by now. Oh well
I knew Johnnie Walker, Concorde Test Pilot and Alan Heywood, Flight Test Engineer in the early 70's and often toured around 'Old Smokey' prototype at RAF Fairford, Gloucestershire airfield with Alan, including sitting in the cockpit, seeing the then gigantic onboard computers inside the fuselage, the wing inspection panels open and dripping Avgas into 45 gallon drums previously filled Swarfega hand cleaner. It is said Alan once took his yellow labrador Ben onboard at Mach 2 setting an unofficial World record for the fastest dog! A one off incident occurred after a Concorde prototype tail was extended to prevent a serious shudder at Mach 1+. The new tail section, fabricated at Filton, near Bristol, was fitted inside the usual RAF Fairford, hangar. A subsequent test flight saw the tug connected to the nose gear and the driver, who had performed this action many times, just drove ahead without thinking about the extended tail section and promptly sheared it off on the upper vertical hangar wall section. "Millions of £'s" worth of damage occurred. Needless to say the hangar section was rapidly cut away by way of a slot to accommodate the higher tail section. The tug driver was never heard of again or even seen in 'The Bull' public house nearby where he was a regular. The incident was never reported in the Press as one can imagine the then Minister for Aerospace Michael Heseltine would have had a very red face in Parliament with awkward questions from the Labour bench opposite! Alan commented in those early days that the fuel tanks were vunerable from being punctured by debris but it went passed the boffins as nobody wanted to add anymore weight...... something in years to come, would result in the Paris crash and sadly contribute to bringing an end to a fabulous chapter of supersonic passenger aircraft designed and built in the UK and France, against all technical and financial barriers. Johnnie Walker, as his name implied a certain brand of amber liquid in a square bottle, was routinely teased as being a paid promoter of the brand just because he had the same signature embroidered on his dressing gown. Johnnie always took it in his relaxed and gentlemanly stride. Both men were regulars at 'The Mill' public house at Withington, Gloucestershire and resided in the village. Unfortunately these pioneers along with chief test pilot, Brian Trubshaw and many others who worked on the oroject are no more. All were legends and courageous in their own right, as is still, ex-BA Concorde Captain John Hutchinson, for his wonderful RU-vid videos and classic narrations, such as "3-2-1 NOW" as full engine throttles were applied on Concorde take off rolls. A long and happy retirement to Captain Hutchinson.
Raconteur par excellence! Very informative and simply stated. Very enjoyable for me as a former Concorde Planning Engineer with 5000 BAC/SUD manufacturing processes (MPs) for the manufacturing of components, the manufacture of the panels presented an easy task. Deciding the layout of the instruments was an infinitely more complicated task, and of course the input of aircrew was an absolute necessity. Going into Brian Trubshaw's office was like going in the office of God!
Andrew Ockenden Thank you for commenting, Adding a personal insight was great.Cheers From San Francisco, former Crew Chief on UH-1C/M Huey's. Vietnam Dec1970-71 282nd Assault Helicopter Company Black Cats & Alley Cats, 3rd Platoon Alley Cats
There is hysteria about radiation or radioactivity when in fact cosmic rays could be honed as a nuclear catalyst to remember how NItchitsu's Noguchi and Songsu of early 1940s Hamgyong Province achieved muon catalyzed fusion rocket propulsion for aircraft. If interested I can furnish more information.
