Loud noise often in evenings near LHR in 1990s
 

During the 1990s, I lived about 3 miles south of Kingston-upon-Thames, not that far from LHR
Many evenings about 7:15 pm, I would hear a loud aircraft (much louder than other aircraft) going overhead. The neighbours were insistent it was Concorde, which sounds plausible - it would tie up with a BA003 LHR-JFK flight 1900 departure- but I don't know for certain.

What seems odd, is that if the aircraft took off heading east, that it would end up turning right to go west, quite so far to the east of LHR. My guess (and only a guess) is that with the aircraft's rather limited fuel reserves and emphasis on speed of travel, pilots would be incentivised to do a 180 degree turn as soon as possible
Was Concorde really so noisy that anyone on the ground within 5 miles would hear a mighty rumble, did it typically climb slowly in normal operations, or did it happen to use a much bigger turning circle than other aircraft ?

For a given turn rate (i,.e. degrees per second), the turn radius increases with forward speed, so I would expect that a Compton-type departure by Concorde from 09 (or 10) would use a lot of airspace. There may also have been ATC reasons for a wide turn.

That “mighty rumble” was more of a crackling, bowel-shaking roar of the air literally being rent apart by 4 reheated Olympus engines. How we all miss it! Kingston would definitely have stopped and noticed Concorde departing on Easterlies with a standard (noise-abatement 😂 ) departure starting the turn around Hounslow Heath area, but radius of turn related to speed and quite a large so I guess the east of Twickenham would have been overflown and noise focussed further east. If you listened carefully I expect you’d have detected them departing on Westerlies too.

On a quiet Sunday morning you could hear it from Elstree, about 12nm north of LHR!

Apart from being extremely loud as has been said Concorde had a huge turn radius compared to most other aircraft so the Compton departures from 09R saw it go a lot further east and south compared to others.
I was living in Camberley then approx 20 miles from Kingston and it was always a joy to be outside just after 7 15 -7 20 toe see it rush over the town usually rolling slightly left to take up a heading direct to Compton (in Berks just off the A34) , ideally burners still on and the low sun turning the underside a soft pink. Couldnt quite get the same enthusiasm for the triple 7 although in earlier years heavy 74 classics on a warm evening could struggle a bit climbing out of LHR on easterlies and making folks look up. as they say the past is anther country they do things differently there

Living in Shepherds Bush in the early 1980s, we got her arrivals - directly overhead. There was never ANY doubt when it was her! No matter all the noisy stuff at the time, Concorde made her own noise.

My father, RAF, was never able to fly in her but I once took him to the car park at Hatton Cross. He did not know what to expect but was mighty pleased at a certain arrival!

Exactly the same with living next to two Vulcan bases in the 70's & 80's!

My father was working for Avro at the time they were developing the Vulcan! Unfortunately, I am too young to remember that time but my sister has great memories of watching test flights from a great view point! We had many photos of the Vulcan at home. Later, I was able to attend air shows in the 70s and 80s.

The Atlantic is so wide that Concorde was probably just taking a run at it.

It was always Concorde................

S.o.S. ... to complete the circle back to Concorde and noise, I used to live in Bramhall in the late 50's and 60's. All the Vulcans flew over our house when testing. I will also never forget the mighty roar when they were static testing the engines at Woodford.

My father worked in the offices at Ringway, now MAN. Our parents were from the Home Counties and we moved away from there when I was three. So I took great delight the first time I flew into and out of MAN in 2001.

I remember walking back from Midnight Mass with my family on a very frosty Christmas morning in the early 1970s - no traffic at all and the air was still. We distinctly heard a jet spooling up and taking off from Gatwick a dozen miles to the south; I've always assumed a freighter 707 or similar as I seem to recall pax flights were virtually non-existent on Christmas Day back then. Never heard one since, always too much background noise.

Treadigraph - It may have been BCAL/BUA VC10 that you heard. With Concorde I lived near the south coast in 80's/90's and around 9pm on many evenings heard a sonic boom in the distance which I assume was the Air France evening arrival into CDG.

Super VC10
 

Bracknell in the 70s/80s
I used to go out into my garden around 1900Hrs most Mondays/Tuesdays/Thursdays/Sundays.
To enjoy the sound of the East African Super VC10 climbing out of Heathrow for Nairobi.
I even have a very amateur sound recording I made of it, still very evocative and goes on for ever ,especially as it was a cold still winter night.
OPF

One of the things the recent spate of Antonov 12s on freight flights over London recalls is past distant sounds.

Late 1950s as a child in Somerset, after bed time, distant, slightly eerie aircraft noises, which I now attribute to transatlantic DC7s and Constellations from Paris/Frankfurt etc heading for Shannon.

Edinburgh in the 1970s, the last BA Vanguards even manoeuvring at the airport were quite audible at Edinburgh Castle, about 6 miles away.

Ah, repeat it I must; just a few years ago the occasional grumble of Air Atlantique's DC-6 heading out to Europe (probably from Coventry on the same route as the AN-12s) in the wee hours when it was quiet - maybe 1am or so, a wonderful sound as the radial reverberations gently faded into the night. We'll not hear their like again, more's the pity.