Loud noise often in evenings near LHR in 1990s
During the 1990s, I lived about 3 miles south of Kingston-upon-Thames, not that far from LHR
Many evenings about 7:15 pm, I would hear a loud aircraft (much louder than other aircraft) going overhead. The neighbours were insistent it was Concorde, which sounds plausible - it would tie up with a BA003 LHR-JFK flight 1900 departure- but I don't know for certain.
What seems odd, is that if the aircraft took off heading east, that it would end up turning right to go west, quite so far to the east of LHR. My guess (and only a guess) is that with the aircraft's rather limited fuel reserves and emphasis on speed of travel, pilots would be incentivised to do a 180 degree turn as soon as possible
Was Concorde really so noisy that anyone on the ground within 5 miles would hear a mighty rumble, did it typically climb slowly in normal operations, or did it happen to use a much bigger turning circle than other aircraft ?