Does anyone remember Concorde?

TJ1997

My favourite aircraft, but unfortunately too young to have very vivid memories of it flying..

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Who's Concorde?

My earliest memories are of Concorde flying over my old house in London

Reply 3

username4986690

I remember seeing it fly once and I was obsessed with it as a child. I even have massive hand drawn picture of it that recently came out of storage.

Spoiler

It isn't my favourite plane though, that is taken by the Avro Vulcan.

Reply 4

Pugglet

My mum won tickets to NYC on one. Couldn’t go in the end as she had my sister then they obviously stopped flying

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Original post by TJ1997

My favourite aircraft, but unfortunately too young to have very vivid memories of it flying..

Yes an amazing aircraft.

The realities of operating costs just don’t make commercial turbo-jet aircraft viable. Let alone environmental factors would ground any business trying to make a serious commercial case for them.

I think some companies are looking at bringing super-sonic travel back to smaller aircraft for one off private business hire, but I don’t think thats as inspiring as a ‘Public’ route.

An engineering marvel but just not viable.

Reply 7

TJ1997

Original post by DiddyDec

I remember seeing it fly once and I was obsessed with it as a child. I even have massive hand drawn picture of it that recently came out of storage.

Spoiler

It isn't my favourite plane though, that is taken by the Avro Vulcan.

I absolutely love that! Remember building a Concorde model out of lego and becoming obsessed to the point where I had all the documentaries, books, etc ahaha

As for the Vulcan, it's a stunning machine. Seen it fly twice at Farnborough and it didn't disappoint!

Reply 8

TJ1997

Original post by Pugglet

My mum won tickets to NYC on one. Couldn’t go in the end as she had my sister then they obviously stopped flying

Oh wow, bet she must've been gutted.

My dad used to work for BA but for some reason never got round to flying on it; he still tells some amazing stories of the time though!

Reply 9

TJ1997

Original post by 73iso

Who's Concorde?

It's a plane

Reply 10

TJ1997

Original post by SpitfireAce

My earliest memories are of Concorde flying over my old house in London

Yeah it used to fly over mine; think the windows used to rattle!

Reply 11

username4986690

Original post by TJ1997

I think the first time I saw it up close was at Duxford, they have one of the pre-production models. That is when I became obsessed.

The Vulcan was a later love when I was rudely awoken in my university halls by one flying over head from Cosford. The sound puts the fear of god into you.

Reply 12

TJ1997

Original post by DiddyDec

Ah yeah I've been to Duxford and seen that one; was interesting comparing that to the commercial ones (have also been in the one at Brooklands in Surrey).

Absolutely; the thunderous roar certainly gets the hairs on the back of your neck straight up!

Reply 13

gjd800

Saw it fly only once.

Reply 14

username4222532

Yes l do l called it the iron bird it was an amazing plane

Reply 15

TJ1997

Original post by gjd800

Saw it fly only once.

Whereabouts

Reply 16

gjd800

Original post by TJ1997

Whereabouts

Manchester at some point in the 90s

Reply 17

TJ1997

Original post by mnot

Agreed, the climate now just doesn't accommodate supersonic aircraft (especially supersonic airliners that could be potentially pitched to airlines). I also feel that Concorde was made at a time where man-made endeavour was at it's highest such as seeing the likes of man reaching the moon, etc which we just don't seem to have in today's world.

Although the costs escalated, I'm pretty sure that a big reason for withdrawing it was due to the fact Airbus (who took over Aerospatiale, the French company which produced Concorde) were unwilling to fund and support maintenance costs. Air France weren't making profits on Concorde after the crash so apparently co-conspired to end commercial service; British Airways couldn't go it alone and in a post 9/11 world weren't able to afford the necessary costs to keep it running.

Yes supersonic travel for business use remains a floating idea and it could happen in the next 10 or so years if a viable project gets green lit.