For the aeroplane loonies

I have flown out of Heathrow more times than I can remember, I often
would park on the airport. While walking from the car to the bus stop
Concorde was the only plan on take off or landing would have everybody
in that car park stop and turn to watch it go by. No other aircraft has
ever had that effect on people at Heathrow.

 

Quite - thus the reason for me thinking they're not any closer in HK than
they are over parts of this country.

 

Quite - thus the reason for me thinking they're not any closer in HK than
they are over parts of this country.
[/QUOTE]

A couple of Tornado GR4s went over my house this morning on the way to
the ranges (which is normal) but only one came back (which is not
normal.

http://new.edp24.co.uk/content/news/story.aspx?brand=EDPOnline&category=N
ews&tBrand=edponline&tCategory=news&itemid=NOED24%20Oct%202006%2012%3A24%
3A20%3A993

 

A 747 isn't a 707.

Much more use to me than a tired old airframe with a couple of ships
engines strapped under the wings.

 

Eh?

 

I think Andy got a tad confuzzed there. I knew what you meant.

Ali

 

Damn shame that we did the first jetliner. If the sceptics had doen it,
they'd have got the bent planes, and we'd have perhaps gpot the successful
one.

Yep. ANd the Riff raff only retired theirs about two months back.

Ali

 

It used to set off car alarms nicely in Pink Elephant. Who had a taxi with a
battery charger, cars for the starting thereof. I saw Concorde on her first
London test flight. Never to be forgotten. Flying on her was very very very
deeply cool.

Ali

 

http://tinyurl.com/yh3nyj

 

My parents[1], during the Virgin/BA 'dirty tricks' war, got upgraded to
Concorde on the way back from the US.

Concorde also did charter and joy-ride flights, the latter for a very
reasonable sum, IIRC.

But yeah, I get your reasoning and agree.


[1] And thus not immensely rich

 

Mick Whittingham wrote

I dunno if they continued to do it in later days but in the early years
of Concorde it used to fly straight up the Marylebone Road on it's way
into Heathrow, many Oh's and Ahs and much camera clicking from the
Nipponese tourists waiting to get into Madame Twoswords and much envious
muttering from the merkin ones.

 

I did look into those flights after Concorde's[1] retirement was
announced but they were still very expensive for what amounted to a
quick[2] trip over the sea and around some obscure West Scottish
island. I think it was a couple of grand or so but I was very tempted,
just not quite *that* tempted.

Obviously at that point demand was outstripping supply.

[1] I'm not sure about the 'apostrophic' grammar here. I mean, there's
more than one Concorde but it is frequently referred to in the singular.
[2] OK, very quick.

 

Coo. I had no idea I was immensely rich.

Ali

 

Well, doomed as in "not widely adopted in its current form". I suspect
that there's a lot of spin-off technology from it, though.

One can enjoy the benefits without directly using something; that that
crick in the neck could perhaps be seen as enjoyment of simply seeing
the aircraft. Sure I'd love a ride on Concorde. I'd also love a ride
on the Space Shuttle, or perhaps more safely on a Soyuz!

While this is true in itself, it slightly misses or dodges my point.

Look at it this way: Seeing Concorde, I've wondered what it was like
to fly her, fly _on_ her, or even what it was like to work in the
aerospace industry.

I've never looked at a mobile phone and wondered what it was like to
become a telecomms engineer.

 

Yeah, kids writing coursework in txt spk and sending SMS all the way
through a movie are fucking marvellous phenomena.

 

How about the fact that the engines used to power Concorde were made
for the good old Avro Vulcan sometime in the mid fifties. They ended
up as ships engines so advanced technology didn't really enter into
the most important bit.

 

I did it four times. No, not immensely rich; I don't have children, we've
got two incomes and we bought our house thirty two years ago, so no
mortgage. And never went for a larger house, as we a) save a lot and b)
spend on holidays.

Ali

 

The fact that they could be adapted to maritime use is neither here no
there.

The fact that Concorde was capable of Mach 2 'supercruise' as it's now
known, while using an admittedly enhanced version of the subsonic
Vulcan's engines, suggest that while obviously important, they weren't
the single most important bit.

Look at the aerodynamics. The design not only allowed this relatively
economical supersonic cruise with these not-very-advanced engines, but
also allowed low enough takeoff & landing speeds for operation from
commercial airports.

ISTR that Concorde was one of the very early adopters of electronic
control systems (engines?) too.

 

They certainly are making changes but I'm not sure about profound.
Then again I have these odd Luddite moments.

It's amazing how quickly mobiles got adopted: it's as if there was a
mobile-phone shaped hole in society that needed filling at just the
right moment.

 

And they could pump out enough power to run a reasonably sized town...
Mick Whitingham could prolly ellucidate on this...