Originally Posted by
exiled tyke
Was there a reason why concorde jumped the queues - i.e. trying to reduce engine time or fuel wastage etc? Or was it simply a matter of respect for such a great machine? I did notice that it didn't always get this privilege though?
As soon as it pushed back from stand it was tight on fuel, especially on the Barbados run, so an expeditious departure was always appreciated. It also occasionally had to depart at a specific time to deconflict with the AFR Concorde departing from Paris. There were only, from memory, a couple of supersonic tracks across the North Atlantic (they were above the weather that affected the subsonic traffic so the SST tracks were fixed, they didn't move on a daily basis as the other tracks do).
It wasn't unusual to get a call in approach from BA, within minutes of the aircraft departing Barbados back to LHR, to advise it would only have minimal if any holding capacity back in London. The JFK flight could usually manage 15 to 20 minutes or so if necessary.
Then there were the calls to say it was on for the record time crossing and any chance of a no delay approach to see if they could break it...
In the terminal area it was an impressive performer. Could fly exceptionally quickly to relatively short final, or could fly really quite slowly as well, though the latter at a tremendous fuel and noise penalty. When light it went up like a lift and could also do a good impression of a brick on the way down.
Sadly missed from an ATC perspective.