Orlebar Concorde Story vs. Concorde
 

I looked on amazon to finally get Christopher Orlebar's Concorde book and found two of them. There is a 2011 7th edition of "The Concorde Story" and a 2017 book called "Concorde". Would anyone be able to educate me on the differences between the two? Thanks!

This is the one I have, and the one I would recommend: https://amzn.to/3i76PMc
I have seen the 2017 'Concorde' one and it is a smaller, landscape format and less comprehensive version. The fact that it is available on Amazon for a third of the price of the complete 7th edition 'The Concorde Story' is a clue as well. ;)

Thanks. With amazon prices you never know why they are at a specific level. I once bought an urgently required book and found out that the price was about 4x the going rate, asked the seller, and they told me they had priced it so high to dissuade customers from buying it because they had too many incoming orders....(to their credit they refunded the difference).

Sometimes prices are inflated on Amazon for various reasons. The smaller ‘Concorde’ book has 144 pages and focuses more on the images, while ‘The Concorde Story’ has 248 pages and includes a lot more information. I can’t compare them directly but I suspect that the second title includes everything that’s in the smaller book and more.

Try and find a rare unsigned copy!

Not in my bookcase...

I have a 6th edition of the 'The Concorde Story' on my bookcase. It was an impulse buy whilst browsing the shop at the Lakeland Motor Museum in Cumbria, more than a decade ago. Cover price was about £20, but several hardback copies were on sale for £12, and I couldn't resist buying one.

I flew a lot with Christopher Orlebar when I was a co-pilot on the 737 at LGW. He sold many of his books in flight to passengers. His passion was making the PAs he did. I think he received more letters of applause from passengers than all the other Captains put together at LGW.

I once flew in a 737 from Heathrow to Edinburgh and Captain Orlebar was at the controls. As luck would have it, Concorde was in front of us in the take-off queue. He gave us a blow by blow commentary on Concorde’s take off, including speeds, cockpit calls, fuel consumed etc. etc. We then enjoyed an inflight commentary on the PA including informing us that we were “flying as high as a 737 can go”. The man was an enthusiast for sure.