Having spent the last 11 years based JFK, it never got old to see this magnificient bird arrive and I think to a man, or woman, every one always took a moment to look.
Diesel8 made this observation which, given he/she was in New York, was hardly surprising that people stopped to look. I live in south London under an area where aircraft are not far from acquiring the glide slope for 27L or departing from 10R, so aeroplanes are a part of everyday life. Having said that, they're not at the moment because of the runway work! But I digress.
I have loved aeroplanes since I was very young - I genuinely understood Bernouli's principle when I was about nine - and I
always looked at aeroplanes, indeed I still do. But most of the time, when the engine note was obviously a 747 or 727 (noisey!) or some such, I would perhaps concentrate on what I was supposed to be doing. But in the early evening, the absolutely inimitable sound of 593s would draw the eyes of nearly
everyone in our area. We saw her every day and yet we all looked. Always. Extraordinary.
Not being in the flying profession, I only have two Concorde stories of my own. Back before the M25 was completed and it stopped at Poyle, I would take the opportunity to use what became the Poyle northbound on ramp as a 'plane spotters' place. One evening I stopped in the gathering dusk and got out to watch a few planes. 737s and 757s abounded as the light faded, leaving a broad, light blue band across the horizon, tinged with peach and little colour anywhere else.
Then I heard her on her way and the old heart beat a bit quicker. Suddenly she was up and passing and my mind's eye took the photograph I always wanted and now will never get.
Concorde, silhouetted against the horizon, the cabin lights just visible, but the four, electric blue reheat exhausts - including shock diamonds - the only other colour in the monochrome image. Unforgettable.
The second was day time. I was parking my car in the north car park - when it was basically all the way down one side of 27R. On my way, I think, to Stockholm Arlander, I was ignoring the succession of 'light iron' going by very close. Again, I heard her light up and just stood and waited. Fabulous sight of Concorde, just rotating as she passed me and climbing away to the west trailing thunder ..... and every car in the north car park sounding their tribute when the reheat set off their alarms.
You just had to look - every time.
Roger.