Concorde....

[tinkerbell23]

What was so great about concorde??

Im not questioning its greatness by the way!!

But whys it so famous?

Just watching this prog on scary plane landings- its a lovely looking plane!!!!!!! X

[Prudie]

I'm not sure but it was a beautiful piece of engineering and the closest thing I've seen to a man made bird! It still makes my heart miss a beat to see old clips of it even now. Such a shame they gave up on it (although it was phenomenally uneconomical and environmentally non PC!).

[WyeDyed]

It was the first super sonic passenger air craft.
A marvel of modern engineering (in the 1970's)

[Arksided]

I think it was the first time we tolerated the French! and it was the first 'supersonic' passenger plane.

[VHG]

Well it couild cross the Atlantic in about 4 hours. Nobody had built a passenger plane that could do that before.

In fact with a 5 hour time difference between London and New York you could land in NY before you took off in London (time wise).

I saw a program on the design of it a few months ago and never realised how brilliant the design was. Because the plane was so small they had to store some of the fuel in the wings.

But as the fuel got used it had to be moved around inside the wings (into different compartments) to keep the plane balanced.

Also, because the nose was so long the pilot could not see to take off or land so they had to make the nose dip and lift depending if the plane was taking off / landing or was flying.

I saw one land at an air show many years ago, and it was an incredible site (and I am no plane anorak).

Mind you it was noisy!

[VHG]

>>>incredible site

Whoops....incredible sight

[bibblebub]

it's flightpath used to be over our back garden back in the early 70s and it was always quite low and very noisy but looked superb

[tinkerbell23]

I think all the hype was before my time but id have loved to see it fly!

This progs MENTAL anyone watching?

Jeez oh x

[WyeDyed]

It was a joint English/French project. The first flight took off simultaneously from Paris and Heathrow.
The Yanks hated it and there were major protests in New York to stop it from landing there.

[Ann]

My husband and I love the Concorde - we saw it in the late 60s flying over Ilfracombe on a trial flight, and have been awestruck with it ever since. The best moment came in 1995 when we were in Barbados, it had a weekly flight to the island, and we stood on top of some very high cliffs near the airport to see it take off. We were disappointed we couldn't see the runway from where we were standing but suddenly heard the ROAR of the engines as it was starting up.....then like some majestic bird it came over a sugar plantation just above the level of the cliffs. We were filming it and it was so low it almost parted our hair, I fell on the ground but OH carried on videoing and its an amazing piece of film which is very special to us. We show it to all our friends with the volume turned up to maximum! It sacrilege that it was scrapped.

[Stephen_G]

She set the record (JFK in New York to Heathrow) in under three hours.

She landed at Durham Tees Valley twice (About 8.5 miles from where I live) when I was a kid, and I've NEVER heard anything louder. At 8:30 p.m. we could stand in my Sisters garden (Yeovil, Somerset) and hear her going supersonic over the Atlantic. Beautiful machine, but flawed...

[Prudie]

I watched it the other day. I'm a nervous flier but didn't particularly mind landing till that prog. The ones in the wind were terrifying to watch!

[tinkerbell23]

Oh my ann!!! What a sight! Your lucky to have an experience - should get it onto youtube!!!

Why did the yanks hate it xx

[deggers316]

it was ground breaking but a bad design in a lot of things and had numerous mishaps like the one what finished it
http://www.concordesst.com/accident/past.html

[Prudie]

That's a bit unfair, the Paris accident was the first and only one that caused fatalities. Look at 747s in comparison!
http://www.airsafe.co...nts/models/boeing.htm

[237SJ]

All aircraft have mishaps. Concorde was no different in that respect. The problem was that the fuel tank could so easily be pierced which was discovered too late. They used to get quite a few engine surges though.

[tinkerbell23]

Ill look at all the links guys thanks!!

Whats not to love about a 3h flight that usually takes what 3x longer?

Xxx

[ladybirder]

So beautiful it took your breath away.
I used to lie in bed in Isleworth and see its undercarriage as it came over the house.

[DTCwordfan]

I flew it twice to JFK

rattled like hell on the ground as it is all loose for the joints to expand at 60k feet.

It went up at some angle, and then at 600ft you experienced what felt like a power loss as they had to pull back for noise purposes.

Then out to the edge of Irish waters and the announcement "We are just about to go supersonic and will accelerate to 1.8 the speed of sound and then we'll just 'drift' over the twice the speed."

And sure enough, it was like being in a high power automatic car, foot down hard and that thud in the small of the back. They had an speedometer in the cabin and the second time, a map/altimeter.


Space was tight, glorified economy seats, thickly padded.....service ok but better in BA 1st....the other highlight was seeing the curve on the Earth's surface, along with the rich azure blue of the sky. Look above and everything was inky black.

Then the descent into NY and you felt the speed coming down through the cards.....on the ground dedicated US customs and baggage, meaning you were out inside 10 mins with the choice of a Limo into NY or a chopper ride into the top of the PanAm building.

[gadgetgeek]

She was stunning and beautiful on the ground, elegant and graceful in the air, a pleasure and honour to fly in and placed us ahead of the Yanks to boot. A wonderful aircraft, one of which that still may grace our skies in the future but not unfortunately carrying passengers. Will be a pleasure seeing and hearing her fly