martin102

The only aircraft where you boarded without your jacket as these were taken from you in the lounge and put on the aircraft separately. You got them back on the descent into JFK or LHR.

Always remember just just before it was retired one of the maintenance guys joking as we boarded that they had made sure that the tail fin had its elastic bands fitted. An Air France Concorde had lost its tail fin over the Atlantic the week before.

Rubecula

Flew one round trip on Concorde. June 1989 on a charter to see the midnight sun in Lapland, landed at Rovaniemi. Great trip apart from the midges.Most memorable aspect of the Concorde flight was on the outbound flight when I was towards the back of the aircraft. The reduction in noise as the afterburners were turned off shortly after take off was somewhat disconcerting.Whilst the nostalgia about Concorde is understandable, it was extremely noisy and almost certainly unacceptable today.

beergut

We used to get the double Sonic boom here in South Devon, quite often powerful enough to rattle windows.

Just found this in Hansard from a Commons sitting in 1978 regarding the booms.

https://api.parliament.uk/historic-h...rde-sonic-boom

Flexible preferences

I love your post, and actually felt quite moved by it. The thought of a 10 year old boy being spoiled rotten by the crew, and getting to sit next to James Bond, is simply amazing and very touching. You also conjure up, in your details, some of the majesty of this aircraft, and with that comes a reminder of our loss.

rockflyertalk

sjrk1

Thanks!
This thread has made me a little emotional too because I had forgotten how I miss it. For all it's faults and much like the previously mentioned SR71 (and little known and IMO more awesome A12 OXCART), it is still, in many respects, cutting edge - its sole purpose has yet to be surpassed.

Another memory, is when I was at home and my Dad was staying at LHR he would call the house just before the evening/late afternoon flight was taking off and hold the handset out the window so I could hear it take off. I can't remember the name of the hotel (the chain is no more) but it is/was next to the runway

themax

The boarding door was a bit low, but it was otherwise possible for tall people to stand up inside . The food was good, but not excellent (remember this was a three hour flight!). First Class food today is superior. The seat pitch was like WTP is today, and was comfortable for the length of the journey (the seat itself was leather but MUCH softer then a traditional airline seat of the same size). There were 2 cabins; the forward cabin being for the status and full fare passengers and the back cabin being for the holiday makers and enthusiasts. Aisle seats were better then the window seats because the window seats would get very hot in-flight.

Boarding was straight from the Terminal 4 Concorde Room, which seemed very exclusive at the time. I loved the old baggage tags, many of which I still have today. The "arrive before you leave" element was a great if you had a morning meeting in NYC, and it was also nice to leave NYC in the afternoon and return back to London the same evening (and sleep in your own bed).

I never managed to do the LHR to Barbados trip, but I flew LHR/JFK to many times to remember and quite a few LHR/YYZ flights as well. I also had a few nice surprises flying LHR to JFK when my 747 flight in F was cancelled, and got upgraded to Supersonic Class (Concorde) instead.

In the old days under the old BA Air Miles programme you could fly Concorde for 4X the economy price (Super Club was 2X, First Class was 3X, and Supersonic Class was 4X the BA Air Miles).

Happy Days!

Fraser

In the BA Miles days it was 160,000 return and a tiny amount of tax because it was a one class plane. Availability was apparently very good too.

Sadly because of my age (at the time 18 was the minimum age for BAEC) I was too late to the game to burn miles on the fast plane but I can't think of a better way to burn an Amex 2for1!...in fact my Concorde flight was the first flight to credit to my BAEC account. 250 tier points and about 14,000 BA miles.

Howard Long

I’m 5’8”, and while I don’t remember having a problem wondering about the cabin, pretty much every time I sat down I banged my head on the overhead bins.

I managed four trips, two LHR-JFK, one JFK-LHR and one LHR-BGI. That last one was meant to be a surprise for the then GF, but she was upset that we were leaving at lunchtime on a Saturday (only one weekly rotation to BGI) saying we should’ve chosen another day. Somewhat regrettably I had to “ruin” the surprise.

I could never see the point of the eastbound flight, I always felt I was losing a day, and preferred F over Concorde in the direction, not that I often had the option of course!

Nicoolio

I thought the pitch was 38" or 36" --

LondonElite

I thought I had posted this before, but I can't find the thread now...

To keep it short, in the late 1990s, I was working in M&A for a company that was being bought by a US company based in NYC. Contracts were agreed but needed to be signed in person. For some reason, neither the relevant NY people, nor the London senior partners, could travel before the set closing date. So I volunteered to go to NY to take the plain contracts to have them signed by the buyers at the lawyers' office, to take them back to London so that they could be signed there the same day. The only way to do this was on Concorde.

I was picked up at my flat in Chelsea around 900 on the Thursday morning and was taken to LHR T4 where I arrived at about 935. I was checked in within about a minute and was in the Concorde Room by gate 14(?) a few minutes later. It was a really nice room, in my opinion much nicer than T5 CCR. I don't remember more than 15 people there at the time. Since I really didn't have very much to do other than be 'bag-boy' I had a few nice glasses of Champagne (I honestly don't remember what it was). We boarded at shortly after 1000, directly from the lounge, and taxied a few minutes later. I'd guess the flight was about 40% full.

Others have reported on the take-off experience, but it really is quite something. You feel as though you're on a rocket, with an almost vertical take-off feeling. The 3h20m flight was extremely pleasant. A few glasses of Champagne, a delicious breakfast which I remember featuring plenty of salmon, and just gazing out the window at the puffy clouds below and the black sky above.

We landed around 930 at JFK and were off within minutes. I had no checked luggage so just went through immigration (at that time of day a two minute breeze) and was then escorted to the helicopter connection to Manhattan. We landed on the LES where a limo collected me to take me to the law firm's office, where we arrived at about 1030. I walked into a boardroom full of people eager to close the deal, so out came the contracts (which I carried in an old LL Bean tote bag) which were duly signed and notarised. The lawyers, who earned a lot of money on this, decided that it would be appropriate to celebrate, so we were taken to the Knickerbocker Club for a few rounds of Champagne. I had to take BA4 back to London (departure 1430 I think) so arranged to be picked up at the club at 1215. Back to the helipad, then to JFK, where I checked back in at 1340. I remember quite a bit of Krug on the return flight and a very nice discussion with CC member Zoe. We landed shortly after 2200, and I handed off the contracts to our CEO at T4. They were signed there on the spot.

I was home shortly after 2300, when my wife asked me how my day was.

Genius1

At LHR T4, a stair and lift core led down from the Concorde Room (and the Terraces lounge above) to gate level with direct access to two gates (most recently numbered 20 and 21) for boarding.

As of 2015, the area was still in pretty much the same condition (bar a swap of carpet for vinyl flooring) it was when Concorde services ceased in 2003, including the red BA branding:



But by late 2016, the area had been refurbished (along with many other areas in T4) and no trace of the door from the stair and lift core remains:

tfjim

Here are a few more pics. Specifically, one from the lounge prior to boarding. The suiter service was quite nice as you just hung your suit bag in the rolling closet in the lounge and then it was waiting at the top of the jetbridge upon landing. The flight that these pics were taken on wasn't particularly crowded despite the full rows forward. Maybe 35 pax altogether. There was nobody seated in the rear section. Landing on an international flight at JFK ~9am meant C&I was only there for us so from door open to the empty pickup area was 5-10 minutes max. There, a pack of 777 black cars was waiting for the passengers. Great scene.

Other pics are out the window landing 31R at JFK. That's the west end of Long Beach and the beaches of EAB and Atlantic Beach. The approach path crosses over Lawrence, the golf course of Rockaway Hunt Club and Inwood. Growing up at Rockaway and Lawrence Beach Club you could almost set your watch to when the plane flew over and then again when it took off in the afternoon flight (usually on R22).

frank_poulankh

PITBULL1K