A monument to optimism

[Sysman]

The Yanks were jealous.

Yep. In spades.

It was also quite remarkable for the Anglo-French cooperation that went into it. Who'd a thunkit possible?

It became very popular in the early 90s for short trips as treats for relatives.

Several of my neighbours went on it, mostly as birthday or anniversary treats, and when they asked fellow passengers what it cost, none of them knew either, because they'd also got it as a present.

The trip consisted of a flight from, say, Leeds Bradford up to Scotland and out to sea for the supersonic bit, then land at Birmingham with a coach trip back for the passengers.

I always wanted to do the trip to New York and then back on an ocean liner, but sadly missed the chance.

[v8gaz]

I was on one of those jollys - fantastic machine. Our seats were right at the back, so we got the full noise at take-off. Flying supersonically was slighly disappointing, as it doesnt feel any different freom egular subsonic travel.

Again, it was a freebie, so I have no idea how much it cost.

[Troll]

It was a shame Virgins Branson offer to take the fleet of working Concordes for £5 mill wasn't taken up.
Much better to keep them going than turn them into museum pieces

[Paddy]

It was a shame Virgins Branson offer to take the fleet of working Concordes for £5 mill wasn't taken up.
Much better to keep them going than turn them into museum pieces

Concorde was handed over free to BA by HMG on behalf of the taxpayers. Had HMG leased it to BA for £1 per year they could have got it back and sold it to Virgin. BA scrapped it out of spite. HMG... we squander your money.

[TimberWolf]

Where are they now?

7 in France and 7 in the UK, 3 in America (who first stabbed them to make sure they were properly dead ), 1 in Germany, 1 in Barbados.

Number flyable: 0

Locations of Concorde Planes

[doodab]

It still looks good as a design and made me ponder have we made anything comparable in this country since, or was that a marker of the end of world class design & build in this country.

Airbus wings are still designed and built in the UK. Also quite a few satellites and racing cars and other odds and ends.

[gingerjedi]

She wan't allowed to fly supersonic over land. Most of her flights would have been over the sea i.e. the Atlantic from Paris / London to New York so no more than a couple of hundred miles over land

Living by the Bristol channel I used to regularly hear the booms as she went by, maybe the pilot thought the Severn bridge was far enough down the estuary to be called 'sea'?

I saw the Filton one up close only a few months ago when working at Airbus, they were patching up holes in the wings that had been left to rot for the past few years.

My dad designed part of Concorde, I was born in Cirencester because my parents had moved there to be close to Fairford where the he worked.