Any first hand Concorde experience?
 

Dear all,

I read a bit of a discussion of the on-board Concorde experience here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16758812
It was mentioned that it was not possible to stand up straight in the cabin for tall persons and that there was less legroom than you have nowadays in some LCC.
Can anyone confirm here that actually sitting and flying in the Concorde was less glamorous than people might think?

I am 181cm tall and never had any problem standing up. For a 3.5 hour flight, the seats were very comfortable with sufficient pitch. A comparison to a densified LCC737 is nonsense, if you want my honest opinion.

https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...3e401f72a.jpeg

Sorry it’s not a brilliant photo.

https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...25c582f40.jpeg

This is me getting a run through of the controls by a former pilot
https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...801b1b75b.jpeg
https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...64e17f8e7.jpeg

Yes. I could not stand up. Had to bend over. There was just enough knee room. . A bit like Club in the pre flat bed days.

It was a bit of a surprise when you entered the cabin, I remember my first impression being that it all looked very small. I don’t remember my 6’ tall husband having a problem though it must have been tight. We had gone on a day trip to Bergen which included a separate flight over the ffords. It was pointed out that we would be a group of very select people who had flown on Concorde twice in one day. As we could never have afforded to be regulars I thought that fact was quite the thing.
I will never forget that trip. As a once in a lifetime experience it was phenomenal. When we landed at Bergen it was quiet and when we left a few hours later there were thousands of people up in the multi-storey car park all waving and just everyone on the ground standing and staring. What a day that was.

The diameter of the fuselage is quite small, so it did feel small when you got on board. A little tighter than a 737 I'd say. The overhead lockers, as in most short haul aircraft (yes, Concorde was counted as short haul, given the longest trip was about 3 1/2 hours!) would prevent people from fully standing up in the window seat positions. The aisle was fine though. The seats were nice though , 2 - 2 configuration, I think 34" or 36" pitch (?), plenty of room for your knees and wide enough for comfort and not jostling your neighbour. Good seat cushions too, so I found it quite comfortable for the length of flight.
Often on a lightly loaded plane, the seat next to you would be kept empty.
A delightful experience, very glamorous, I'll never forget it :)

A lot of Concordes have ended up in aviation museums around the world, so you can go on board and see for yourself. Manchester, Edinburgh and Seattle all allow you inside, doubtless the others do too.

Not unlike an E190 - full headroom only in the aisle, 34" seat pitch, 2x2 leather seats....Bit faster, though. And it was a long time ago.....

Don't forget Barbados where you can certainly go on board and try the seats.

Also you can go on board at Brooklands (Surrey) and Sinsheim (Germany). The best thing about Sinsheim is there is a TU144 adjacent to their Concorde, and you can board both and compare...

IIRC, the one at the Fleet Air Arm in Yeovilton (Somerset) does not allow you on board.

Same in Edinburgh, well it's East Fortune really and you can go on board etc but the seats are tensa barriered off so you can't officially sit down in them.

Manchester when I was there, an FT Do, you could actually sit in the seats.

Thank you for all the beautiful pictures.

It was certainly not flying in luxurious roominess like in a modern first class seat. But that was not the point - think of taking a flight to Athens in a premium economy seat on an aircraft that would take comfortably take these seats in a 2 x 2 configuration. The description that you heard is a significant exaggeration.