Mikey Mike Mike

In December 2002, I took my mother on Concorde for her 70th Birthday. A promise I made many years previously - thinking she'd never make 70. Unfortunately I made a similar promise of Southampton to New York on the QE2 for her 80th and spent a pleasant week in 2012 on the QM2. ( should really learm ) Part of my childhood was in Isleworth / Hounslow and around 1725 every evening, you'd hear the old lady above you then looking up. I truly believe that no one in West London was annoyed by the distinctive roar, or the beauty of this aircraft on approach to LHR
The Concorde trip was after 9/11 and the AF disaster but before BA announced it was going out of service. For 1800 quid each (from a bucket shop) I got us on BA1 to JFK and back in economy on a 747. We travelled in 10A/B which was the last row in the forward cabin with the toiltets behind. Apparently, the rich and famous only travelled in rows 1-10.
By chance we travelled on either the 20th or 25th anniversary of service starting to NY (can't remember which) , sharing some memories with a retired cabin crew member who was on the same flight to celebrate. On boarding, I handed an envelope to the cabin crew explaining it was my mum's 70th birthday treat. They were great to her throughout the flight. The english breakfast was the best in the sky and I made the crew dust off a can of London Pride ale for the sheer hell of it!
The Captain briefed us before takeoff on acceleration which was fast but manageable. Far better was the landing - I think the old lady had a very high landing speed (due to the design being optimised for speed and height and a high stalling speed). On touchdown, the reverse thrust kicked in and the whole cabin was thrown forward restrained by the belts - way more accentuated than a conventional flight. We stayed behind and the three cockpit crew showed my mum the flight deck, and I have a great picture of her sitting on the centre console with the crew. My treasured momento - a pair of concorde cuffl inks, only available on the aircraft. The timing was good for the flight as soon after BA announced the retirement of the fleet, and you couldn't get a ticket as thousands of bucket lists suddenly had a priority item. I have since travelled on the BA1 from LCY to JFK which was also great - but clearly nowhere near the real deal. The most bizarre and/or highlights, was the sheer height and seeing the earth curve, having a fry up and a can of Fullers London pride, a gent oppostite who slept from take off to landing (clearly a concorde commuter) and landing in NY at 0930 ish, express immigration and having a full first day and no real tiredness.
The worst aspect of the trip - coach back on a 747 to LHR where the indulgence of 4 days earlier was a distant memory and 3-4-3 on a night fliight was pretty much at the other end of the spectrum in terms of glamour!!
Clearly in my top 5 events in my life.

dpherraghty

I achieved my dream back in July 1999 on a charter CDG - LHR flight via Biscay on what is now the "Scottish Concorde" - G-BOAA. It was also the first time I was apprehensive about boarding a flight! All around were 'normal' aircraft and I was about to board the worlds most iconic airliner from the worlds most iconic terminal (CDG Terminal One which has featured in a Bond film).

From what I remember, the cabin service was excellent, additional commentary from the supplementary flight crew was informative/reassuring.Reached 55,000 ft at Mach 2 ........

Been there - seen it - done it! ^

Mightymouse

Many years ago, the Concorde operated a one-off LHR-MAN shuttle flight, to celebrate the opening of a new terminal at MAN. (Naturally nothing supersonic over the UK) Although I was then a BA staff member, I bought 2 full fare tickets for myself and my mother, as a surprise. I told her the day before that we were going out for the day. So I drove her to LHR she demanded to know where we were going as she did not have her passport, told her that we were going to Manchester for the day, about which she was hardly enthusiastic. But when we got to the Shuttle gate, gate 5 in Terminal One, I showed her the aircraft, and she was over the moon.

Boarded the aircraft, and the CSD happened to be a friend of mine. Told her this was a surprise for Mum., and she discreetly brought a bottle of champagne and gave it to my Mother, who was already a trifle overwhelmed. On being given the champers, she screamed "Champagne....for me????" ! Half the cabin heard her, and I wanted to disappear into a hole!!! But such a memorable experience! Mum dined out on that with her old friends for years.

By the way, we had a superb lunch at a MAN hotel.....the Grand?...and flew back in middle seats on a 757.

I was on duty at LHR when the last three Concordes landed in succession, thousands of staff all around the runway, and thousands of tears.

Sadly, my Mother passed away the same day of the dreadful Concorde crash in Paris.........my Mum was French. So many memories.

Lomapaseo

On my first booked Concorde flight, I booked JFK-CDG the same day from a city in Upstate NY. Rented a car and drove to JFK. Dropped the rental car off and asked the shuttle driver to hurry. His remark was that he could see my flight taxing out from the gate to take the runway and nothing could be done. I never gave up hope and rushed into the Air France terminal to the check in gate. They looked my ticket over and feeling sorry for me argued among themselves to bring the flight back to pick me up.

I lost and waited 7 hours for an evening flight. save a bunch of $$$ though.

The next time I tried this I gave up earlier in the drive and hopped a puddle jumper flight to JFK that just made the Concorde noonish flight

LWkitty

Yes. I've been inside the one at the Museum of Flight in Seattle. It was smaller and more compact than I had expected. They don't let you sit in the seats, though, so I couldn't get a true feel for it.

cupsandsaucers

You can sit in the one in barbados

ChamplinAl

At Oshkosh in Wisconsin - 1998 - during it's annual EAA airshow in late July - "the hour flight to nowhere". I believe I was the last one to enter BOAG (tail number). a very special experience. During the flight, each row got to view the cockpit (nose up position) and see how tight it was for the three persons that were needed to fly it. Seats were very comfortable and we were served campaign (no food). I believe we did a fly-by before landing. I did take as much video as I could - an experience I will NEVER forget. The captain actually was able to make the digital mach meter inside the cabin show 1.000, there was no difference in feeling at that time which I would have thought there would be. At the time I took the flight (1998), I had no way of knowing that these impressive birds would be retired very soon afterwords. Just fortunately I decided to spend the money for FOND memories that one can't experience any more.

1Aturnleft

G-BOAE was "my" Concorde experience.
March 1998 for a LHR-LHR supersonic flight to nowhere via Bay of Biscay.

Everyone on board was in the celebratory mood. Champagne flowed, crew were fantastic. We all got to visit the flight deck and chat with the Captain.

Years later I visited the static display of this aircraft in Barbados. Mentioned to one of the curators that I'd flown on the aircraft as a passenger. She later set me up in front of a local school party that someone present had flown on this aircraft and invited me to stand up and talk about what it was like. Talk about putting me on the spot!!! Those kids were 10-11yrs old if that and were in complete awe that I'd actually flown on this plane. What was it like? How did it feel to fly so fast? Are you rich?
I still love to visit the exhibit whenever I go back to Barbs.

Soupdragon62

My father in law was on this flight, I never really believed it was a true story until I read this :-)

SQTraveller

This is a great story!

HPN-HRL

Thanks for uploading that second picture; it's pretty much what I remember from my June 1979 flights JFK-LHR and return. The only thing I remember differently is the placement of the machmeter - I'm pretty sure the ones on my flights were a bit higher on the bulkhead. I was a teenager at the time; my dad paid $1800 pp for the tickets (which he didn't mind, but he thought that paying 8% of $1800 pp tax to cover ATC costs was extremely overpriced). Jimmy Connors was on the flight to London (for Wimbledon); Harry Reasoner (journalist for CBS's 60 Minutes) was on the return flight. The lounges (especially at JFK) were nowhere as nice as GF is today (no hot food, just sandwich meats), and the seats were essentially the same as current "first class" seats on AA Embraer jets, but the experience was absolutely fabulous!

Did anyone here on FT fly Concorde before June 1979, or am I the earliest? ISTR that flyertalker jbcarioca said he flew every Concorde route on both BA and AF, but I don't know when he made those flights...

Reetmafreen

Bantry

JFK to LHR in March 1992 - fuel load restricted by heavy snow conditions and were stopped Gandar to add some fuel. Everyone keen to get home......after extremely rapid take off with after-burners, we were home in just over 2 hours....

Clack

catandmouse

I was fortunate enough to have been upgraded twice to Concorde, once travelling GVA-LHR-JFK-ROC, the other time RDU-IAD-LHR-GVA. On the first flight, the incoming GVA-LHR was running late and I was collected at the door of the aircraft at T1, taken straight down some steps to a car, which raced across to T4 at surface level, no tunnels with luggage trolleys trundling at 10 mph for this guy. I was dumped straight into the Concorde room, where the flight was already boarding. I'm pretty sure I didn't go through any kind of security. An hour after landing at JFK I found myself on a clapped-out "flying coffin" (can't remember what the things are really called) operated by AA for the JFK-ROC leg. Quite a contrast.
On both the Concorde flights, I asked if I could visit the cockpit and on both occasions the captain invited me up front and I spent 20 minutes or so in the cockpit with the 3-man crew during the cruise. This was pre 9-11 of course. I remember the flight engineer explaining that the maximum speed was largely governed by the external temperature of the skin and I seem to remember that the skin temperature was displayed on a surprisingly large display (127°C at 57000 feet).
My memory of the plane itself was that it was certainly quite small and cosy, more like a SH than a LH plane, but that was fine for a 3 hour flight. About half the time was taken up by the meal-service anyway and it was pretty extensive.