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History

Concorde

“On September 11th, 2001, the captain received an emergency radio call, stating that all US airspace was closed. We had to make an immediate U-Turn at Mach 2, somewhere over the Atlantic…”

Concorde is probably the most iconic aircraft ever to fly. In 1984, I was part of an acceptance and delivery team for two Airbus A310’s for Cyprus Airways. The pilot for that delivery was John (Jock) Cochrane, who informed me that he was the first officer on the first ever UK test flight of Concorde in April 1969, with Brian Trubshaw as the Chief Test Pilot. After they described what the aircraft was capable of, I knew I had to experience it first-hand.

Concorde began production at Aerospatiale in Toulouse and Bae Filton in February 1965. The first flight of the 001 prototype flew in Toulouse in March 1965, and the second prototype in April 1965 by the two pilots mentioned previously.

Concorde entered service with Air France and British Airways with seven aircraft each. The first revenue service was on the 21st of January 1976. The only competitor to Concorde was the Tu-144 (pictured below), made by the USSR. It was in commercial service from November 1977 until a disastrous crash at the Paris Air Show in May 1978. It never flew again after that.

The only other competitor was the Boeing 2707. Having failed to reach the working prototype stage, it never flew.

My first interaction with Concorde was in 1994. I was the B777 project manager for British Airways, part of the Working Together team – a partnership between Boeing, their suppliers, United Airlines and British Airways.

As part of the Working Together team, we had monthly meetings with Boeing, the major suppliers, including GE – who make the GE90 engine, and senior management from British Airways. The meetings would rotate between Seattle in the US and London in the UK.

During one of these meetings, Boeing arranged for us to travel in the prototype B777, which had a lot of water barrels to move the centre of gravity, a host of computers with the associated sensors, and several passenger seats for us to use. The Boeing test pilot and the BA B777 chief pilot flew the aircraft. We took off from Everett, where the plane was built, and flew over the state of Washington and around Mount Rainier. Whilst on the flight deck, I couldn’t help but notice how close we were to the Mountain. When I brought it up with the pilot, he chuckled, “Don’t worry, David. We’re miles away.”

I looked at him for a moment before squinting back at the wing in disbelief, “Miles away, my arse! There’s snow on the bloody wing tip!”

Concorde British Airways Team Photo

When we landed back at Everett, the engineering director approached me and said, “That was a great experience, David! Everyone loved it, thank you! How could we ever top that?!” I told him the only thing better than that would be to arrange a flight on Concorde. The engineering director beamed and told me to make the arrangements but not to tell anyone.

The next Working Together meeting took place in the Windsor Hotel in England. I made all the necessary arrangements, including a coach from the hotel to the BA maintenance area. First, we took the team through the Concorde major and minor maintenance hangars. After they had a look around, we ushered them outside, where we had a Concorde fully fuelled and ready to fly.

We assembled the Working Together team just under the nose and took the group photo, pictured below. After that, we asked everyone to board the aircraft to look at the interior. As people entered the aircraft, they were asked their names and given a boarding pass with their allocated seats. Once all were on board, we taxied out to the runway and took off for the Bay of Biscay, flying at Mach 2, before returning to Heathrow. I have met some of the team years later, and this is still their most memorable day.

After we landed, the BA Chief Engineer took me to one side and asked why he did not know about this flight. I told him that the Engineering Director had told me not to tell anyone, and he replied that does not include him. Just then, the engineering director walked past and said that it was a test of my integratory and because I had kept it a secret – I had passed!

On the 25th of July 2000, an Air France Concorde crashed just after take-off in Paris, killing all 109 people onboard and 4 people on the ground. This was the only crash that involved Concorde. There was an investigation into the cause of the accident –

A piece of debris from a previous aircraft had fallen onto the runway. As Concorde powered up, the debris – a small piece of titanium with a sharp edge, burst the rear left tyre. The explosion punctured the fuel tank and damaged the landing gear electrical cable, causing a major fuel leak and an ignition source. At this point and speed, there is nothing anyone could have done. Once the tower informed the flight crew of the enormous fireball trailing behind them, they tried to turn back for an emergency landing, but it was too late, and the aircraft crashed into a hotel near the airport. After the investigation, modifications were made, adding a reinforced, carbon fibre fuel tank lining to all remaining aircraft, allowing Concorde to return to service.

Concorde

Concorde had not flown for over a year, so I was tasked with preparing and updating the cabin interior for its return to passenger operations. I was to arrange a flight from Heathrow to New Your (JFK) and return the same day, with staff passengers and cabin crew on board. The flight was on the 11th of September 2001. This was to test out all the ground operations at Heathrow and New York, including baggage, catering, ground handling, lounges, check-in etc.

We boarded Concorde at the scheduled departure time and took off for New York. We were not halfway when the pilot received an emergency radio call stating that all American airspace was closed. We had to make an immediate U-turn at Mach 2 somewhere over the Atlantic and return to Heathrow without knowing why. When we got to our head offices, we saw why on TV with the devastation of the Twin Towers. That is a day we will never forget.

During my working life, I have flown 5 times on Concorde. First was with the Working Together Team, second as a passenger from New York to Heathrow, third as a passenger on the return flight, the 4th occasion was the Mach 2 U-Turn on September 11th, and the final time was in the flight deck from Heathrow to New York and back, what an adventure that was!

Concorde retired in October 2003, most are on public display in the following locations: –

Concorde’s last flight was from Heathrow to Filton on the 26th of November 2003. If you would like to know more, please get in touch via our contact page.