Auction for parts and accessories this weekend. http://www.nwfdailynews.com/articles/FRANCE_CONCORDE_AUCTION http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5ghArOfgA9Q0LReciXBRHh6RWyJkwD8RUP5RG0 http://www.concorde-encheres.com Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
Very cool! I have always had a bit of a fascination with this aircraft. Mainly how it came about and the big rush it was to be the first to build and produce a real supersonic passenger aircraft. Its interesting to see the attempted copy cat plane by the Russian's, and others that never flew.
Once in Miami Intl airport while taxiing onboard a commercial jet, I saw a Concord parked next to a DC3. No camera. Rats. Smoke detectors withdrawn because of radio-activity protests ? Time to get a life.
I got to fly it quite a bit back in the mid-late nineties, always the Air France one- it was an event; the fellow passengers a bit more interesting than the usual fat guy in the sweatshirt/screaming kids routine of more pedestrian commercial air travel. It was also one of the few airlines to western europe that still had a smoking section well after others had banned cigarettes on planes. The cockpit was an abundance of analog dials and gizmos, and filled racks of space- today, all that could probably be accomplished with something the size of a single hard drive. You only really felt the speed when you deaccelerated to come back over land, for an eventual landing (due to noise regs, the speed reduction took place well in advance); at that point the thing would crank down to a crawl and you'd still be going at 500 or whatever the top speed was for 747/767/big airbus commercial jets.
Never flew on one [insert Whart envy icon here].........but was inside the one parked at the Seattle Museum of Flight at Boeing Field. Quite a small cabin inside....good thing it was fast (3-4 hours to cross the Atlantic IIRC)......I wouldn't be able to handle 8-10 hours in that skinny seat regardless of how much Dom Perignon 1959 was funnelled down my gullet.
Some years ago... High Noon outside Leesburg, VA ROAR Boy, did I know there was a Concorde. I went outside to see it fly directly overhead each and every time I was there at that time of day, though.
That plane was awesome - noisy as hell though. My home is right under one of the approach paths to JFK (10 minutes away) and I could always tell when a Concorde was coming in for a landing.
I flew in it a few times. It was always quite an experience, considering the altitude and speed. I do miss that Machmeter!
I was in the control tower at IAD once when Concorde taxied and was cleared for takeoff....... I had a great view About 15 years later I was on the final Concorde flight back to IAD from LHR. It has a special place in my heart
I flew the British one once coming back from Europe in 1985. Our top speed was mach 2.14 according to the passenger cabin machmeter. It took about three hours from London to Dulles. We took off at 3:30 in the afternoon and landed at 1:30 the same afternoon because we were flying faster than the earth was turning. Time travel - almost. The sky was a deep blue because the plane flies at around 78,000 feet and there is very little atmosphere to give the normal blue sky. Definitely my best plane trip ever! BT
The Russian one (of course all the airplance pundits called it the "Concordski") was reported to be so noisy on the inside that the passengers had to be issued with earplugs. It turned out to be a total failure, and an expensive one at that. It was mainly used for express mail due to the poor ergonomics. They did fly theirs supersonic over land, however - I guess they were not too worried about shaking the peasant's teeth loose out there in the steppes.
It just goes to show how amazing and advanced aviation technology was back then. This plane was developed in the early 60's and flew for over 30 years!