On 29 Nov 1962, I was at prep school. Great excitement when we heard that the Concorde agreement had been signed.
In the mid-1960s, at my public school we had a presentation from BAC about the Concorde. A little later, the 'test' supersonic bang flights took place with Lightnings. The genpub was Not Amused!
On 2 Mar 1969, I was just about to go flying in a Cherokee from Weston Super Mare aerodrome when the news came through that Andre Turcat had just taken off in 001.
On 24 Mar 1976, I'd just finished my TWU course with 234 Sqn when the first scheduled flights to Dulles landed - Air France and ba landed simultaneously on parallel runways.
Whilst at Brize for nearly 20 years, I saw Concorde on several occasions. I remember once saying to the U/T USAF exchange officer co-pilot "Have you got many of those in the US?"....
On 25 Jul 2000, I'd just left the Farnborough Air Show and was driving home when the news of the AF4590 crash came over the radio.
In 2001 I was sitting in another PA28 at Brize (G-BPAF) with a student when G-BOAF was towed past during the 'return to flight' trials. "'AF from 'AF, good to see you back!", I said.
And then the worthless ba rolled over to French pressure and announced that they were killing off their Concordes.
On 24 Oct 2003 I could barely believe it when I was sitting at home watching the final Concorde arrivals at London Airport on TV. Jeremy Clarkson's words “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap backwards for mankind." were very apt.
4 years later, the spineless ba even removed their model from the Concorde roundabout at London Airport..... Whereas passengers in the Long Term Car Park bus would always gaze in admiration at the model, nowadays no-one gives that hideously ugly A380 model a second glance, nor cares which foreign airline it's supposed to be advertising. It's still the 'Concorde roundabout' to everyone, even though it isn't a roundabout and no longer has a Concorde model.
Concorde - when once we had an aviation industry with ambition....
