Concorde. The beast that hung in the sky, glinting metal and defying earthly shackles with its supersonic pace. I never got to fly on Concorde although I was close to it several times at Farnborough Air Show where the aircraft took off and landed metres away. You could weep with its beauty.
As a young lawyer at Clifford Chance, occasionally you’d see Concorde tickets on a partner’s desk. There were rumours of clients staying ahead of the sunset by travelling with Concorde’s unique speed.
At home, when the sky started roaring, the children and I ran outdoors into our Clapham garden, tilting our heads upwards looking for the majestic bird travelling at 1350 mph, more than twice the speed of sound. We played a game of who could see it first. The trick was to look ahead of its noise, about 35 degrees to the right, to spot it. Concorde arced over London in its trail blaze to Heathrow. I bet all over the capital there were families like us awed by its phenomenon.
While working at Airbus in Toulouse, France I had the incredible honour of meeting leading test pilot Brian Trubshaw, CBE, MVO (29 January 1924 – 25 March 2001). Brian was the first British pilot to fly Concorde, in April 1969. A humble and lovely man.
Here are the Brunch, wine and bar menus from Concorde. Which would you choose?
Click on the images to enlarge them. Happy dreaming. 🙂
Here are the wine and bar menus:
Follow @save_concorde to support Concorde’s return to flight. Here.
Here is Concorde’s last ever landing https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xddjYJBiQlc
Taking off https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B7wK0cSsJRU