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Old 1st Jan 2011, 22:20
  #1061 (permalink)  
ChristiaanJ
 
Join Date: Jan 2005
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Originally Posted by DavvaP
Another thing I've found today whilst searching for all things Concorde, were several mentions about the eclipse chasing that Concorde did during its lifetime. One really stood out and that was the chase during 1973. Here's a link to a photograph taken:
Concorde During Eclipse | Surfer Jerry
There were two 'sessions' of eclipse chasing by Concorde.
The first one was the 1973 chase over Africa by Concorde 001, which lasted 74 minutes in all.
The other one was the one in 1999, when three Concordes did a brief chase, but without any special equipment on board.

BTW, the picture from "Surfer Jerry" is a very nice and impressive PhotoShop creation... but it's not real. There was no other aircraft accompanying 001 during that flight....

The intriguing part of the 1973 story though is the special "window" put into 001 to view the eclipse through. ChristiaanJ, you've posted previously on another forum about this (dated back to 2004 ) - are there any photographs of the windows installed for this event?
Chasing The Sun: A Supersonic Celestial Observation | Scienceray
It sounds a completely magical experience!!
Your 'ScienceRay' link describes the 1973 flight in good detail.
IIRC there were three windows installed in the roof.
I've seen photos of the installation, but I'm not sure if any of them are on the internet.
If you're really interested I can ask the Musée de l'Air.
The windows were removed after the flight and the openings blanked off, but if you know where to look you can still see them.

For those who read French, there's a great description of the flight in André Turcat's book "Essais et Batailles".
And because he was flying the plane.... he himself never saw the eclipse as such.

CJ
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