Favourite Aircraft

[notlangley]

The day the World got larger

The day the World got larger was not the day that we flew from New York to Heathrow by Concorde.

An equally memorable day was a while after the crash in France. Concorde was due to fly again. We parked on the perimeter road. There were other groupies there. There must have been over a dozen of us. One of us was in touch by mobile phone with someone who was watching Concorde taxiing - and our man shouted out the important bits with eventually "it has taken off".

In my earlier days I had been to a factory that was making the "harness" for Concorde. The harness was a veritable tree of wires with long branches and roots of bunches of cables. It was there that I first saw a portable computer. The computer was mounted on four casters so that it could be pushed along the hangar floor. It was explained to me that during the test, crocodile clips were attached to the ends of all the wires and then the computer did its test - it tested continuity for each wire in turn and it also tested to be certain that there was no short-circuit between any two two wires. They certainly needed a computer for such a mind-boggling task.

Then there was the end. This was when there was the last opportunity to see a Concorde in the sky in Britain. My wife and I had parked on a moor where BA has its headquarters. We got out of the car and climbed up to the top of the gentle hillock. We were absolutely alone - we saw no-one as we stood and watched. We had come early and Concorde was late. The light was steadily fading. We were facing South and expected Concorde to come from the right and pass in front of us and land to our left. We saw it. Our eyes were fixed on it. Our concentration was loyal and much more important than anything. As we watched, our single-minded concentration was threatened by an intruder. Another plane was coming in low. This plane was very much nearer to us and threatening to block our view. Something familiar? Do not be distracted! Yes, impossibly it also was a Concorde. Two Concordes. Both coming in to land. We did not see them touch down but we watched as they sunk behind the evening grass. We were on the moor, with no sight or sound of any other human being. That truly was the day that the World got larger.