UKC

Are any of these still flying?

Only I could swear the plane that just went past my office was Concorde (in Air France Livery)

Delta Wing, Pointy Nose and about the right size.



For reference when it was in regular service it used to fly past my (different) office window at 10 to 5 everyday until one day it didn't

In reply to balmybaldwin:

Apparently not. Though some (I assume very rich) enthusiasts reckon by the end of the decade - with just £120,000,000!

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/luxury/travel/the-revival-of-concorde/

In reply to balmybaldwin:

Couldn't you tell be the noise?

On the day they were grounded, I was due to pick my Mrs. up from Gatwick, so I thought I'd take my son early and watch it take off, as we'd seen it from the car two weeks before.

Any how we waited and waited, then picked my Mrs up without seeing it obviously.

I used to work in Camberly about a hundred years ago, we'd watch it fly over every day, and every Monday (I think) Broadmoor siren would go off, happy days

In reply to balmybaldwin:

No Concordes are airworthy, and I believe even if they technically were they would be unable to legally fly (easily) due to Airbus withdrawing the type certificate.

In reply to krikoman:

I used to work on the flightpath close to Newbury. The noise it made passing overhead at about 10.15 every morning was the universal signal for a coffee break!

In reply to krikoman:


That would be the Sound of the Suburbs, then.

In reply to balmybaldwin:

Hmmm I'm puzzled then what else is out there deltawinged even vaguely that size... it did occur to me it could be an early arrival for Farnborough air show.

I might try looking it up on flight radar

In reply to krikoman:

No.. I was inside, it was flying over guildford so couldn't hear it at all.... come to think of it I don't think we used to hear it from my old London office... something made e look up and see it go by tho

In reply to balmybaldwin:

Looking on Flight Radar, the most likely suspect is shown as "blocked" and flew into Farnborough.... probably just a fancy private jet a lot closer than I thought

In reply to balmybaldwin:


Not Inside Broadmoor I hope?

In reply to nniff:


Members Only

In reply to balmybaldwin:

I don't know the answer to your question, but you remind me of the days my lectures at Reading Uni always included a Concorde break at 1110 on a Tuesday.

In reply to balmybaldwin:


Father Dougal

In reply to balmybaldwin:


I know this one is BA but it is from 2012, maybe he repainted it

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ZeGylHqo7M&feature=youtu.be

In reply to BusyLizzie:

It's one of the amazing things about Concorde, it was unique and a special sight no matter how mundane it should have been. Good engineering matters.

In reply to Blue Straggler:

I think I've seen that in the flesh (and not today)

In reply to balmybaldwin:

Hi , nothing doing in the air sadly , there's one to visit at Manchester Airport but pity it all ended.
I was able to fly on BA twice in the 1990's to Canada and the USA on Concorde, and it was an
absolutely fabulous experience, just a dream . Have breakfast at Heathrow leaving for JFK and in
just a few hours be ' sort of' back in time in New York to have breakfast again! stunning!!

In reply to krikoman:

Slight tangent but one of my enduring memories is off the vulcan bomber flying over my school (Bexhill primary school in Sunderland) coming in to land at a little airfield about two miles away, where I believe it still stands as a museum piece.

I will never be as terrified as I was that day. The world ended. All sound was blotted out, the sun vanished and my teeth moved. F*cking epic.

In reply to balmybaldwin:

We are just finishing a visitor centre in Bristol housing the very last Concorde to fly. Its been stood on the runway at Filton for years, and we built the two sided delta wing shaped building for it to be pulled into before we sealed it in.

The saddest picture ever though is that to protect it while works went on, we had the whole thing bubble wrapped....a beautiful shape, nose, wings the lots all covered in bubble wrap!

The attraction will be open soon and you will be able to walk out to the Concorde on a gantry, through the cabin and back out the other door. Well worth a visit over the next few years!!!

In reply to nniff:


Same old boring Sunday morning, old men out washing their cars...

In reply to balmybaldwin:

Vulcan?

https://ichef-1.bbci.co.uk/news/660/cpsprodpb/6855/production/_86290762_862...

In reply to balmybaldwin:

My 'Concorde breaks' were better than all yours - she was supersonic when she went over my house so I had proper sonic booms . About 9pm if I remember correctly.

In reply to Toerag:

Got to sit in the pilot's seat once, while it was in the hangar all powered on umbilicals. The heat from the 1960s electronics without any ventilation running has to be felt to be believed.

Very tight, like sitting in some amazing sportscar that someone dreamed up for a Bond film or a Dan Dare spaceship

In reply to Big Ger:

Definitely not - they can't be mistaken

In reply to balmybaldwin:


In the summer of 2000 I was freelancing for a company in the Hague and flying to Amsterdam every Monday morning from Heathrow. My flight would always leave from the gate just down from Concorde and we would take off about 5 or 6 planes behind it, but we were always in the queue on the runway ready to turn. If I was on the left side of our plane, we'd be 90 degrees on so I'd get to see and hear it take off. The heat shimmer from the engines, the noise and the shaking of our plane as we sat there were quite memorable.

Then one week it just wasn't there, as they were all grounded after the crash. That was quite eerie.

In reply to balmybaldwin:


And the last Vulcan is grounded for good now.

If there's an airshow on or a US base nearby could it have been a B-1B with the wings swept? Only thing I can think of flying with comparable size and vaguely comparable plan form (if you squint from certain angles!).
jk

In reply to balmybaldwin:


How high is your office(s)??

In reply to balmybaldwin:


If you were lucky, it could have been an XB-70 Valkyre. An even rarer sight than a Concorde and proof you're making your morning micro-doses a little bit strong.

In reply to ThunderCat:
I remember watching a Vulcan fly into RAF Halton which at the time was a training centre for RAF ground crew, probably in the late 60s. Although it could land, it couldn't take off for some reason (wrong sort of runway?) so as far as I know its still there unless it was dismantled for scrap although I guess its not used for training crew any more. Seemed massif to me at the time whereas I'm always surprised quite how small Concorde is whenever I see it at Paris -CDG (they have one on display & often see it when taxi-ing to/from the runway)

edit to add that a little googling suggests that Halton only has a grass runway so several planes which were landed were effectively stranded, including 3 Vulcans & at least one Comet

In reply to Doug:


I've only been inside the prototype which is at Duxford Imperial War Museum. It's packed with electronics and not fitted out with airliner seats.

My late step mother actually flew in one as a passenger, but she said it felt very cramped compared to a normal airliner. She said there was no sensation that you were flying at Mach 2.

In reply to balmybaldwin:

MrsD's Christmas party is often held in the main hanger at Duxford. Bizarre, eating Christmas pud sitting under the wings of a prototype Concorde or the Vulcan.