civilservant

I'd certainly buy them

Bob

When at uni, it had a rotating landing path and for about a week every so often, it would fly over the uni and shake the crap out of the place.

Was quite nice to watch though.

Oh and apparently because of it, we also didn't have mobile phone reception on campus because it had some sort of landing beacon on one of the building roofs, so you could only get reception on the bog in a particular corner building :/

Steve_

Yeah I was in the car park at Terminal 4 once at the end of the runway when Concorde went over, it was only a few hundred feet above me and the noise was ear-splitting.

Pulaski

One year when I was living in Wimbledon in June, when the tennis was on, and the wind was from the east, I heard Concorde on TV flying over the All England tennis club, then I heard it overhead, then I flipped over, if I remember correctly, to the cricket at Twickenham, and then on to golf at Wentworth, picking up the noise from Concorde at each location!

MostlyYank

I saw it fly overhead when it did a 'tour' of the US and the idiots were out protesting it.

I saw an interview of the chief pilot, he said it was amazingly stable to fly, mach 2 steering with two fingers.

So cool.

Pete

cluedweasel

I guess I'm one lucky sod then. My step-father worked at Filton for British Aerospace (or whatever it was called in the last 60s) and I got to go onboard for a nose around. Years later, our next door neighbour was a flight engineer on Concorde and took me on a tour of it at Heathrow. Never actually got to fly on it though.

As for Queen, I first saw them on the "Crazy Tour" in 1979. Managed to get 6 dates on that tour in. Saw them another 5 times on the "Works" tour in 1982. Then I got some strange feeling about the "Magic" tour in 1986, quit work and followed them around Europe. People thought I was mad at the time, but it was pretty much the best thing I've ever done.

markonline1

Didn't ever fly on it. When my ex worked for BMI, we could get tickets for 400 quid each to NYC. Stupidly, we never took advantage of that! My first job at LHR was the security company that had the contract with BA though so I've been on it many times. First impressions, not the luxury I was expecting. 2 and 2 configuration, the seats were OK but not the luxury I thought they would be. You were paying for the speed, not the luxury. That said, it was no cattle class. The best part of the plane was the cockpit! Like an old world war 2 bomber. No glass cockpit there. If you counted every switch and dial, you'd end up in the thousands easily.
I was lucky enough to work 7 years in Air Ops at LHR. Concorde retired before I joined, but this still hangs proudly on the unit wall



The one Concorde BA still own, I want to say AC, but don't quote me that, is at least on display now, sort of. It's just to the east of the 27L hold, the southern runway.





Oh, and I also had the privelage of seeing a shuttle launch at Cape Canavarel which I'm afraid blew any Concorde experiences I've had out of the water.

civilservant

She's Alpha Bravo, not Charlie, but she's in terrible shape now - not even protected from the elements.

Shame on you BA.

markonline1

I would say, cosmetically, the exterior isn't too bad considering. One of my colleagues used to take it on himself to go aboard and try and keep it clean in his spare time. Then bits started going missing, not from him I might add, so BA sealed it up and that was that.

I hoarded a load of copies of Skyport, heathrow's paper when she was taken out of service. They did a souviner special. I thought I'd sell me to all the spotters on eBay and make a killing. Unfortunately, every other one of Heathrow's 60,000 employees had the same idea LOL

SultanOfSwing

There's one at Ringway as well, isn't there? Or at least there used to be - I seem to remember seeing one on my way back from a trip out here, by the runway when we were coming in to land, or maybe when we were taxiing to the gate.

I might also be going mental, of course.

Jerseygirl

http://www.manchesterairport.co.uk/m...onferencetours

SultanOfSwing

Those prices aren't bad, actually. Shame the prices of flights to Ringway are ...

S Folinsky

Eastbound Trans Pacific flights arrive before leaving -- after flying through the night.

But then, that is a factor of the Dateline, not speed.

jeffreyhy

I always did think it was kind of neat to spend a day and a half going to Bangkok, but only half a day coming back.

Regards, JEff

S Folinsky

I found it strange leaving L.A. at noon and landing just about sunset -- the next day.

[BTW, this was usually L.A.-Seoul]. [One trip to HoChihMin City via Taipei left LA at Midnight -- that was totally discombobulating].