Anyone here flown on the Concorde?
 

Been watching videos about the Concorde...Prime has a few.
Very interesting about the years of research which led to it's 27 years of use. 1954 was when they started planning it....2003 was the last flight.

I wish I would have been able to fly it once.

Surprising how narrow the fuselage was. One aisle...two seats on each side.

One of it's first flights was from France to West Africa...a normal 6.5 hr flight.

The Concorde did it in 2.5 hrs. at Mach 2 in 1971

I saw the Concorde on display at Heathrow as we taxied past. It is TINY. Agreed. It would have been totally badass.

Sidenote. I was born in 1966. We had some sort of encyclopedia in my house when I was a kid. It showed super sonic air travel as being "normal" in the future. I think the book was published in 1973.

So, I have been disappointed in most all of my air travel as an adult, having my childhood expectations raised considerably.

It was still in service when I had my first chances at flying. (I was born in 53) I remember checking prices in hopes of booking a flight on one.....but the lowest prices were over $2500. I couldn't do that at that time.

$2500 was a lot of money then.

Johnny Carson described it as flying inside a cigarette. It did have a tiny fuselage.

It was much more expensive to fly in than a regular airline.

I was on a runway at Dulles in the late 80s in Jan or Dec. It was snowing and there was only one functional runway worth about 20 planes backed up waiting to take off. The Concord was one of them. That's as close as I've ever come to riding the Concord.

It only seated 100 or so.
The coolest feature was the mach-meter that showed the speed.

There is one on static display in Seattle.
I was at Boeing Field when it landed. Quite the experience seeing it on final approach with the nose down, then taxiing in.

They wanted to set a speed record from New York to Seattle, but US wouldn't allow supersonic flight.
So....
Subsonic north into Canada, throttle up and head west, then subsonic again to cross back into US airspace into Seattle.
Still set a record.

You can tour SSTs at the Technic Museum Sinsheim South of Frankfort. Great place to spend an afternoon.

https://sinsheim.technik-museum.de/en/

There is one on display near the USS Intrepid in New York. Unfortunately we were not able to get a look inside . . .

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1732945789.jpg

4 minutes. The final flight.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4zeDsSJmcpM&ab_channel=SmithsonianChannelA viationNation

Supersonic travel hopefully coming back. Research has been going on with NASA on quiet sonic booms so there would be travel across the United States. The proposed aircraft is only slightly slower and American, United and Japan Airlines have put in orders.

Environmental concerns might kill it and the "Flygskam" movement in Europe could be difficult to overcome with legislators. The lack of an engine supplier may do them in before anything else. Boom Supersonic has already flown a demonstrator on several test flights...

Concept and test aircraft:

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1732964733.jpghttp://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1732965315.jpg

I read a book on the crash a few years ago...I forget the name of it.
Along with the bad luck of hitting the debris on take-off, there were several other mistakes the pilot and crew made that led to it causing the fire....sad.


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My wife and I were sitting on the tarmc in 2000 waiting to leave France when she grabs my arm and points to the window, there was a Concord at full thrust taking off, quite the sight looking like a rocket blasting off

Been in one…

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1732971373.jpg

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1732971405.jpg

Watched a Concorde take off from Heathrow in March '03. Impressive climb out!
In the Annapolis Valley in western Nova Scotia, on quiet Sunday mornings, we used to hear a rumble that sounded like distant thunder. It always occurred at the same time, just before 10, if I recall correctly. Finally I checked the Concorde schedule and it coincided with the passage of the Speedbird 30 miles off the coast of Nova Scotia, which meant it was 90 miles away from where we were hearing the sound.

Best
Les

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I saw one at CDG in 2004 or so. It was sitting on the tarmac as we walked past as we got off our plane.

Jackie Stewart and Mario used to fly on it regularly when the competed in F1 and the Can-Am. They've written about it in their books. That must have been some ride.

That is one crammed cockpit!

I looked into it around 1992 and think it was $3,000 then.

About the same cost as a semester of graduate school.

Too rich for me.

My dad and I saw the Concord when the new terminal at YYC opened in 1977.
We were able to walk through it as it sat on the apron.

My father in-law had flown on it several times.

We lived in Herndon Va for a few years in the mid 70s when I was around 5-7 years old. Our house was directly under the flight path the Concorde took leaving Dulles airport and we could hear it coming from inside the house well before it was overhead. It was pretty impressive hearing and seeing that fly right over us and we always ran outside to watch.

A co-worker flew to the UK from Toronto years ago. His only comment was 'that is one small cabin, tight quarters, and not tall'.

I saw the Concorde fly overhead at the Toronto air show in the 80's. To this day, I still say it is the loudest thing I have ever heard.

I never flew on one but I did walk through the interior of one in France, in the early 70's, before it entered commercial service. Pretty narrow inside but you could stand up in it. A little wider than a G650.

Used to see them takeoff all the time from the cockpit at JFK when we were in the taxi line. The entire airport stood still/quiet and watched when they started rolling.

44 minutes on the crash investigation...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=swR9c2AkM90&ab_channel=SmithsonianChannelA viationNation

And 50+ years later it still takes 5+ hours from coast to coast. Air travel remains a technological disappointment. It’s gotten safer, but no better otherwise.

witnessed a fly over. while it was landing in Vancouver.. 1988.

I agree.
About like the Apollo moon landing....why has it taken us so long (60 years..maybe?) to even equal that?

My best friend flew in one with his parents when he was young. I forget where from and to. But they lived in england and austraila for a while working for lockheed

There's one I walked around in at the museum of flight in renton. Spooky small, had to stoop my head. Makes me think I might be claustrophobic. I remember going half way down the aisle and needing to get out asap. Like I was in a big sewer pipe.

Maybe it was fast but that'd be a hard sell to get me to think it was luxury.

To me its a canonical example of following through on a dream and building something even though it is incredibly stupid.

Nope. I wish. When I lived in long beach, NY it used to fly over the apartment often. You would hear it and recognize that sound and look out the 2nd story window and it would be going by wheels down approaching JFK. Amazing site. Also had it fly over me quite a few times while I was stuck on Sunrise Highway. Air force One also flew over the apartment quite a few times. Amazing site too

Supersonic flight is expensive and pisses people off on the ground. Trans-sonic flight is no bueno. 747s are pretty fast the old 707s were even a little faster.

It's a complicated issue. Look into what they call coffin corner. At the altitudes and speeds airliners fly, there's a smallish speed window where things are happy and the plane isn't close to stalling.

I googled flying time from New York to London Heathrow on the Concorde. Three hours flying time. Amazing.:)

This looks nuts to me. It’s hard to believe that this is the best way for a human to monitor the aircraft, but I know virtually nothing about aviation. The learning curve to develop the ability to sense an unforeseen scenario and find the right gauge to confirm a suspicion must have been huge.

My supervisor “won” a trip to London after closing a huge deal. It was very close in time to when the last one crashed b/c I remember discussing it with him and how he thought he had dodged a bullet of sorts.

It is disappointing, you'd think we'd be farther along.

In the late 1990s, Boeing, long before their current woes, was seriously considering development of the Sonic Cruiser that would fly at Mach .98. This would have made a nice reduction in long distance travel. There was some serious interest but ultimately the airlines wanted better fuel economy. It's a shame this never happened.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_Sonic_Cruiser

There has been improvements in speed if you can afford it; the fastest private jets cruise around Mach .9+, your typical airliner at Mach .70 to .78

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DC to London Nov.26 1976

https://live.staticflickr.com/3102/2...fbb7082b_c.jpg

Ken, you have to remember when the Concorde was developed. What you see in that image was the best available at the time. You are absolutely right regarding the high knowledge and awareness levels needed to crew such a beast.
Take a look at YouTube videos by Ron Rogers. He was an air force pilot, , an engineer and flew for an airline. Some of his episodes deal with the complexity of the aircraft he flew and some of the factors which set the stage for cockpit management training and AQP.
Fascinating stuff.

Best
Les

I had seen this before, but I watched it again..interesting how they found the cause.

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