Concorde's last flight(Tonight 12/7/10) Ch4

Oscar Bravo

A programme about Concorde's last flight on Channel 4 tonight at 9pm.

irlforum

Looking forward to it!

lord lucan

Excellent programme. Covered a lot of stuff that's been done before but it's always great to see footage of Concorde. I always get quite sad watching programmes about Concorde,one of my great regrets was never getting to fly in her. Maybe some rich Sheikh will be happy to waste millions on making one airworthy in the future and i'll get fly in one but i won't hold my breath.

Discodog

Good program. I was lucky enough to be based in the UK & saw Concorde many times including being under her during approach. Amazing to watch people in the street just stop & look up.

A friend of mine worked on Concorde maintenance. He was convinced that there was far more to the crash than the piece of metal. All of the major incidents happened with Air France planes. It was a commonly held belief that the BA aircraft were better maintained.

The sad thing is it appears that the French Court will not reveal the real cause of the crash.

You can view the program here for 28 days:

http://www.channel4.com/programmes/concordes-last-flight/4od

lord lucan

Discodog wrote: »

Good program. I was lucky enough to be based in the UK & saw Concorde many times including being under her during approach. Amazing to watch people in the street just stop & look up.

I remember being at an Arsenal game at Highbury in 1997 and Concorde flew directly over the stadium as it was on approach to LHR. Everyone looked to the sky and for a couple of minutes no-one was watching the football. It had such a magnetic pull,everyone just had to stop and gaze at it.:)

radar0976

Yes it was a very enjoyable show last night. Always great to watch footage of Concorde racing through the clouds. It was particularly sad to hear Concorde chief pilot talking about walking out of the hangar on the last day seeing 5 perfectly serviceable concordes sitting there never to fly again.

Something I learned last night which I didn't know is that the windows were refrigerated to stop passengers burning their fingers because the aircraft became so hot during supersonic flight due to air friction on the fuselage!

What a feat of engineering she was. The more you hear about her the more amazing your realize she was. Must have been an amazing and all consuming project to work on as an engineer.

Wonder when and if anything comparable will ever be seen again ?

Discodog

I loved the idea that the American's were so against it - until they saw it !. Oh & the insane idea that the crew could jam their caps in the expansion gaps as she heated up.

Best place to view used to be Reading - about 20 miles West of Heathrow. The noise abatement measures meant that they used minimum throttle till they got to Reading then they would open her up. Amazing sound.

We will make technological advances but I doubt that anyone will make a more beautiful aircraft. There was just something about that shape that could stir emotion even in people who had no interest in aircraft. I recall being in the pit lane at the British Grand Prix. Concorde flew over about 5 mins before the start & even the mechanics stopped what they were doing. It was as if everyone had been put in a trance.

Concorde & the SR71. Two planes that should be kept flying at shows - where's that multimillionaire !.

Not

I only once saw a Concorde in flight. Bizarrely, I was in a house in Knocklyon and looked out the window to see it flying over :eek: It was at the same height as aircraft would be that would be using Dublin airport, so I wonder did one of them have an extraordinary occassion to go into Dublin airport, or maybe it was en route to/from a fly past display somewhere in Ireland ? Can't remember exactly what year it was but it would have been around the late 80s or very early 90s.

rob88

we need those arab brothers who are worth 500billion to buy a couple as private jets!!

Grease Monkey

She did indeed back in 96

lord lucan

She looks rotten in that Pepsi colour scheme!:eek:

Plowman

This post has been deleted.

gaz wac

She would look amazing in anything she wears !!!!

A Dub in Glasgo

Good programme, I was not fully aware of the questions regarding the accident.

I saw Concorde a couple of times at Dublin Airport and I was explaining to my 2 sons (11 & 7) about it. I took them to get on concorde at the Scotland Museum of Flight, East Fortune and they were thrilled as anything.

Beautiful airplane

Not

Grease Monkey wrote: »

She did indeed back in 96

Seems Dublin has seen Concordes a few times. The one I saw was white, seen more from the side rather directly up at its belly, and was definitely well before '96. Whether it was AF or BA I have no idea.

vard

I've been living in Manchester for some time. There used to be one parked on show at the airport here, but I haven't seen it for a while.

Discodog

An ex Concorde flight engineer didn't want to say goodbye so he ordered a one off model which cost a fortune. It was about 5 ft long & was suspended above his lounge. At the press of a button the landing gear came down, the plane pitched up & the nose/visor lowered. To complete the effect it had landing lights !.

Blue Punto

A very good friend of mine Mr David Tracey was a F/E for BA on Concorde.Dave had previously served with the RAF on C-130's before his time with BA which saw him through most of the longhaul fleet types.
I have many souvenirs from the aircraft that BA gave out to it passengers including writing paper sets and photos which are kept very carefully.

I have seen many of these beautiful and fantastic aircraft and had the chance to get on "Oscar Delta" many years ago and after a visit to the same aircraft at the USS Intrepid Muesuem not so long ago it was sad to see the state it was in even down to pictures of the instruments in place of the real thing.
We will never see the like again

RIP Concorde
RIP Dave my good friend miss you lots

Discodog

Something to make you smile - especially if you saw the program.

Killinator

Saw it a long time ago on its way in to Shannon(about 15 miles out) and it was so graceful, everyone just stopped whatever they were doing and gazed at it until it finally dissappeared out of view.

More recently saw the aircraft at CDG, was actually excited to land at CDG just to be able to see concorde again!

Wibbs

Not wrote: »

Seems Dublin has seen Concordes a few times. The one I saw was white, seen more from the side rather directly up at its belly, and was definitely well before '96. Whether it was AF or BA I have no idea.

I remember that too. It would have been the early 80's. I remember being in Dublin city centre and looking up to see her fly over. Quite low too.

It was an amazing engineering achievement. Many of the NASA Apollo engineers, reckoned it was as difficult if not more so than sending man to the moon. I mean building a passenger aircraft, that could fly at mach 2, being pushed by a pair of engines that were among the most efficient in history, day in, day out. And between two countries who spoke different languages. In the 60's ffs! :eek:

For me watching her last flight was sad in another way. She was almost the last gasp of "the Future". Sure we write on touchscreens now, but we've not left earth orbit in nearly 40 years and we can't fly supersonically while reading a book, sipping champagne.

There's hope yet though... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concorde#Restoration

Blue Punto

there were a number of Air France Concordes in Dublin in the 80's

The first one to land in Dublin was F-BVFF in 1983 which was for a special charter to bring people to a horse race in France (IIRC)

Over the years they arrived a number of times with the two most notable being
F-BTSD in Pepsi colours in 1996

F-BTSC in 1997,this being the aircraft that was w/o in Paris ten years ago

Blue Punto

A couple of pics of G-BOAD in "Storage" in New York back in 2008

Thankfully she looks a lot better now

Trotter

When I was younger, my parents bought a house in the countryside on the south coast here. At around 6:30pm the first night we moved in, the windows all shook and there was a loud rumble. My mother was very unnerved especially as it became a regular thing at around the same time. Dad rang Met Eireann but they didn't know what it was. They suggested calling the IAA. Long story short, we were on the flightpath for the London Concorde flight and it was Concorde breaking the sound barrier off the coast. We'd often just shrug after that and say.. "She's a few mins late today.." or explain it to others by saying "it's only just Concorde stickin the boot down" Amazing when I think back how mundane it was to hear the rumble and the shake in the windows!