I've seen Concordes land quite often, but I'd never seen one take off before today. I happened to be arriving at LHR at around 10:00, so I thought I'd hang around to see today's flight go. I parked up just outside the perimeter road in line with the landing lights at the end of 27L. As the Concorde flew overhead, I started to wonder if standing there was such a good idea. I had no idea it was _that_ loud. I've heard Vulcans at airshows, but they were nothing like this. I covered my ears, but still had temporary deafness.
I'm amazed they were ever allowed to fly in the first place.