My greatest memory of Concorde will be watching from one of the hills around Bristol (Filton) when the British prototype took off on its first flight.
The fields around Filton were filled by what must have been thousands of people to watch this historic event. The skies were blue with some faior weather Cu.
We were not sure whether it was going to he a high speed taxi run or if it would get airborne but as it lifted off there was a huge cheer from everyone around. It was a very special moment and as has been stated above one felt very proud of what had been achieved.
That day was, I believe, April 9th 1969.
Air travel has, to an extent, always been about going faster. Anyone who has travelled from, say, London to Sydney knows only too well what "long haul" means!
What is now needed is a bigger and better Concorde which can carry 250 passengers with some freight over at least 6,000 nm and which is much quieter in the airport environment. Whether this can ever be achieved economically is debatable but there again the sceptics said that Concorde would never work.