Concorde at Heathrow

[glenwilson]

Just some old pics I found from when I worked at BA and you were able to wander around the hangers. The hanger used for Concorde was originally built for the Comet and then Boeing 707 but when Concorde came along it was too long. It couldn't fit straight in so it had to go in at an angle and they still had to cut a hole out of the wall for the pointy bit! Was a fun place to work as I got to fly from Heathrow to Oslo in the cockpit of a 757 (which you couldn't do now) and also flew a 757 on one of the training simulators - managed to land it too (just and not quite on the runway).

 

[lakaelo]

we know what happens after you fumbled around at all the switches :jet:

 

[benji475]

Re : Concorde at Heathrow

when the concord has crashed on france , i was in the plane to corsica. i know where we landing .....frightened ^^

 

[Art_Br83]

mmm, great plane, but too expensive maintananse

 

[Bond76]

Wonderful plane & wonderful times ! Went for spotting trips over to LHR and LGW few times back then good memories.

Glen, you worked at BA ? Great Airline ! It was and still is my favourite Airline since I flew with them first time when I was 11. That is also why I have that huge model of them (in the thread About what People collect).

 

[Bond76]

mmm, great plane, but too expensive maintananse

That was in the end I dont think the biggest Problem. I recall it was more something about Airbus (as successor of BAE, Aerospatiale etc) didnt want to provide the spare parts they used to provide for the whole time anymore.

 

[glenwilson]

Wonderful plane & wonderful times ! Went for spotting trips over to LHR and LGW few times back then good memories.

Glen, you worked at BA ? Great Airline ! It was and still is my favourite Airline since I flew with them first time when I was 11. That is also why I have that huge model of them (in the thread About what People collect).

Was there for a few years as a tape ape (had to load the round tapes for the Mainframe) and then as Mainframe operator. We had about 14 mainframes at the time. Some even used punch cards. Filled one of my colleagues car air vents with the punched out bits so when he switched it on he had a nice Christmas scene . Didn't appear to see the funny side and threatened us with his then brother-in-law who was Frank Bruno! I did enjoy working there as did my Dad (30+ years) and Mum (25+ years). Never flew on Concorde but my Mum did - she worked for the Exec and had to deliver a note by hand to New York. She was there and back in a day!

When I was young and Concorde was just being developed I went around the factory at Fairford and went on the mock up and also onto 002 which was being built. My dad also got me through security at Heathrow and on to the first Pan Am 747 that landed at Heathrow in 1970!

Remember as a kid flying to New York and going up to the cockpit of the 707. There were about five kids in there (I didn't sit on the captains lap) - no way that would happen now!

 

[FortunaMagica]

mmm, great plane, but too expensive maintananse

seem to remember the concord for being banned due to hazardous mechanical build XD

 

[RIZLOID]

Great plane way ahead of its time but losing bits in mid air and crashing are not a good advert. Never mind it'll make a great bowling alley

 

[glenwilson]

Re: Re : Concorde at Heathrow

when the concord has crashed on france , i was in the plane to corsica. i know where we landing .....frightened ^^

We were due to fly out on the Saturday after 9/11. We went and were on the first United flight out of the UK and I doubt anyone slept on that flight! Everytime you got up to go to the loo you felt everyone's eyes were on you. I flew out of Edinburgh in a Cessna 172 and that was interesting dodging between 737 and A320's. Scariest moment I had was on a Lufthansa flight from Munich to Manchester and I'm sure the pilot aborted the landing because he was in the wrong place as second time around the football pitch I saw close up the first time was much further down the second time!

Was doing a tour at Southend airport and the controller went pale and muttered something like "Oh F**k!" cause he thought an Air Malta (I think) flight was going to get stuffed into the runway!

Not sure which feeling is worse though aborting the take off as you are halfway down the runway and being told they are going to try again as the warning light has gone out or the just about to land and lets go around again.

Have been on a plane where they had to reboot the systems to get something working again. That makes you wonder if the are running Windows XP, counting 10 seconds and switching it back on again!

Talking of XP, I was at an ATM which was running XP and it was running in Windowed mode so you could see the desktop. It also had Windows Media Player running! Decided I wouldn't put my card in there.

 

[samoz83]

Yep loads of ATM's run embedded Windows XP (apparently around 95%)

 

[tousledmonkey31]

Aaah the Concorde. Good piece of metal, would have been so successful by now. Lots of technical innovations were quite expensive and did cost much blood (how many broken noses until they invented the airbag...) but nowadays they tend to be overprotective and reputation greedy. Major accident = project cancelled. As seen with this beauty and the transrapid train...

 

[Steffos666]

Aaah the Concorde. Good piece of metal, would have been so successful by now. Lots of technical innovations were quite expensive and did cost much blood (how many broken noses until they invented the airbag...) but nowadays they tend to be overprotective and reputation greedy. Major accident = project cancelled. As seen with this beauty and the transrapid train...

yeap only outcoming things are supersonic private jets for ultra rich noobies who camp their villas

in my opinion it should be time for a highspeed jumbo again

but i think something like this will come next 10 years so be patient ^^