Concorde

Bahrain Raft Race 1979. Note the 2 attractive bearded stewardess's in vintage BEA uniforms. The raft was built by the BA aircraft engineers based at Bahrain-it won the novelty prize but was last in the race!

I watched a documentary last night on BBC 4 about Concorde. Harold Wilson went mental at the spelling and demanded that all ours were spelt Concord (which is the English spelling), and in the sixties the British government wanted to pull out of the project. And when it went in to service with BA the fare was just a normal first class fare, it was only in the early eighties that the fare went to the eye watering levels.

At Paya Lebar, Singapore on push back prior to departure for Melbourne during the 1975 Concorde Endurance Flying Programme. Ground handling by BA and Singapore Airlines with engineering support from Qantas.

Just above the engineers station in the Concord(e) cockpit was nice little hole perfect for the engineers hat. So on their first flight on type thats where the engineer would stow his hat. Of course Concord(e) stretched in flight and the engineers hat would be bashed about by the expansion, the engineers only did that once!

Apparently on the last flights the engineers put their hats there, and apparently theyre still there.

I was at RAF Fairford on that day. We watched the take off at Filton on T.V. and then saw the beast arrive at Fairford to do its test flying.

Why was the test flying done from Fairford and not Filton?

Ever watch Whickers World? The shots at the beginning with Alan Whicker walking alongside the runway and Concord(e) rotating by him were shot at Brize Norton. Alan Whicker says in his autobiography that he was deaf for the rest of the day!