Did you ever fly in The Concorde?

Never had the money to fly The Concorde. It's my biggest regret. If I still could, FUCK YEAH!!

Never had the chance, but certainly would have wanted to.

Yes, I did, from Paris to NY. Very cool. You could actually see the curvature of the earth from 60,000 feet, and the window got really hot from the friction. I took off from Paris at lunch time, and arrived in NY at breakfast time, a bit drunk from the champange and wine...

R3 >>

LOL R4! One of DL's faves. I take it as a compliment!

[quote] I take it as a compliment!

Good! It was meant as such.

I was too young... now I'll never get the chance. The world is really going backwards.

That's what I thought R7 - when they abandoned it.

I had a friend who flew in it. She had a sort of sinus reactin due to the pressure and looked like she had two black eyes when they landed for their elegant wedding event in New York.

It's just "Concorde", not "The Concorde", OP.

Ha, ha! ^^

I thought the flight was three hours one way

Who cares now R10? - it's about as contemporary as a rotary telephone.

It was, R12. I took off from Paris at noon and arrived in NYC at 9 am.

Did you dress for the flight, R14?

Something comfortable and dressy, no doubt.

A breezy caftan and opal earrings, R15. I wasn't under-dressed.

People used to complain that the cabin was so pokey the three hours felt like eleven.

I've only got a faint memory of hearing the "BOOM" when I was a very young kid but they've been banned ever since. It'd be fun though. They should be allowed to do a flight every year. A retro 70s themed flight for charity or something.

Yes. Great idea, R18!

R19 it crashed because some part of another jet broke off on the runway. There were no crashes due to mechanical failures. It was over engineered. The ripoff Russian Tupolev was a disaster though.

Richard Branson wanted to buy one or two for Virgin, to keep the brand going - but they wouldn't let him.

So petty!

R17, the cabin was very small. it only sat 100, in 25 rows. The center aisle was pretty tight.

Yes, Eddie and I did and it was tremendous.

Air France's Andrée Putman designed Concordes were creamy and dull, with a permanent dirty feeling. British Airways were basic economy car black interior, and prison like. There were classy people though and my young body didn't mind the crampiness. All classes of regular intercontinental jet travel were comfortable and pleasant so there was no reason for the Concorde except showing off and saving time. And not many rich people needed to save the time. The last comfortable normal feeling economy class flights I had were late 90's early noughts Qatar Airways. Economy was old fashioned style with big seats and lots of space and professional generous service.

Did you know? The aircraft used in The Concorde: Airport '79 was the same aircraft that crashed in 2000, bringing an end to the Concorde era.

You made that up. ^^

r26, did you look at the link?

I flew it in '79.

Cuchi cuchi!

I flew it once, NY to London. The quickness of the flight was glorious, of course. But it was also noisier and more cramped than standard British Airways business class. Still, I'm glad I flew it just to say I did.

I'm too young, but my dad used to fly it often, just because his company would pay.

He said it was great if you were getting off at JFK, but it was too early for most international connections.

My Dad did too - but only a few times. I'm sure I had some things with Concorde printed on them.

I had a friend that had flown in it a few times and she loved it.

I had always wanted to fly on the Concorde, but of course I couldn't normally afford to spend that much money on a single airline ticket. However, in the spring of 2000, a read about a new offer from British Airways -- a NY to London round trip ticket where one way was on the Concorde and the return trip was on a regular jet. It brought the price down considerably. I contacted British Airways, and they sent me a large beautiful brochure outlining the offer. I was literally a week away from booking my trip when the Concorde crashed. So, I missed my chance to do it.

I flew my best reporter on the first Concorde out of here.

R13 it never hurts to know the preferred nomenclature. Why does that offend you so???

The Concorde crashed because they did not follow ordinary safety protocol. A safety protocol (inspecting the runway) which was necessary because the equipment's design flaws.

I flew on it from NYC to London. Tiny assed restroom that I shit in.

The flight's only three hours, you should have shitted before or after.

The interior pictures just don't look all that tony. I get that you're only flying for three hours,

After a certain point, aren't you just paying for the name? I get why high-speed business travel would be advantageous, but we have Skype now.

Concorde Flight-New York to London with detailed Captain's commentary 2003 (No music, best video!).

New Yorkers tried to block Concorde because of 'the noise'.

In England everyone said the Americans were just jealous that it was a British/French plane and we beat them to it.

Yeah well, you limeys and frogs -- ain't flying now, is it?!

Initially it just flew to Bahrain.

I remember thinking "who the hell wants to go there?"

What does "over-engineered" mean?

The accident was used as a justification to ground the fleet because the design was outdated and I guess it wasn't profitable to create a new one. This was before China became big business. I think an updated version would do very well today.

I heard that a big factor that did it in was spare parts. It became increasingly expensive simply to maintain the small fleet.

I saw it take off & land many times from Brooklyn & Queens.....never tired of, sublime. When it would fly over the beach everyone would stop and stare.

None of my fellow "oh dears" are going to point out that it wasn't called "The Concorde" but just "Concorde"? I remember people making a point of that back in its heyday.

Oh dear, myself. R10 pointed it out. Sorry!

No but jet engines are still flying people everywhere and it was a Brit named Frank Whittle we've got to thank for that r42.

And it blowed up! It blowed up real good!

Yeah, great r49, but this thread is about Concorde.

Is that why you put in the cuntitude about French and Brits r51? Because you're sticking strictly to Concorde and nothing else?

What's it to you, jerkamo?

my wife had a baby on the Concord and since we were going from England to New York it was born before she went into labor.

Everything Concorde-related ends too soon.

In 1973, I went on an educational tour to France with my high school French teacher and other students. When we landed at Orly, we taxied past an Air France Concorde on our way to the terminal. That was four years before the first trans-Atlantic flight because of the lawsuits in New York. As we passed the plane, a man sitting in the row behind me started loudly telling his wife that the French and the British were really stupid for building it and would never make their money back. We were on an Air France plane. A French man sitting in the row behind him overheard what he was saying and started to argue with him. The argument became so loud that a flight attendant had to ask them to be quiet so the other passengers could hear the disembarkation announcement over the intercom.

Everyone knew it was a boondoggle, R56. Maybe the French still had their pride and stupidity about such things. The US wasted billions going to the moon. Grand old Europe had to do something snazzy too.

Supersonic passenger flight is set to make a big comeback. They've engineered some great solutions to the major drawbacks of the Concorde. I'd love it.

Going to the moon. Are you serious, r57? LOL

Once I arrived at Heathrow after an all night flight and as we were stumbling our way to immigration, we passed it docked at its gate. *Everyone* stopped to look. It was smaller than I expected. The nose was really pointy.

I wonder if they try it again, will it be wider? I think after the A-380, everyone will expect it.

because what the world needs now is more ways to waste fossil fuels....

If you look at that they are hiding federal government support for this commercial aerospace development in the NASA budget even though that is not NASA's task, to make money for aerospace entrepreneurs. Socialism for the scammers who build shit for the rich and only the rich.

R62, most of the private research on this has nothing to do with NASA and public funding. Everything is privately funded, no tax dollars. And if you can fly business class (I do and I'm not rich), you'll be able to afford this.

R57, whether it was a boondoggle wasn't the point I was making. I was just relating my memory of my closest connect to Concorde.

I also meant to say that like R60 says, it seemed surprisingly much smaller than I had assumed it would be, especially much smaller than the 747 we were on. And like the passengers around R60, most of the passengers around me sitting near a window on the left side of the plane seemed to comment on it and people in the center section were craning their necks to try to see it.

My aunt crossed the Atlantic by Zeppelin for her honeymoon in the early '30s, then by Pan Am in a plane just before WW2. Her daughters treated her to passage by Concorde for her final European visit in 1989. I wonder how many people can claim to have used all three methods?

[quote]The US wasted billions going to the moon. Grand old Europe had to do something snazzy too.

The US wasted billions pretending to go to the moon.

Voice of reason, r66. Thank you.

I love you R50!

R33 You still could have gone. The structural flaw that led to the crash had already been identified and fixed in the British Airways fleet, and they kept running for a couple of years after.

More Concorde. Fasten Your Seatbelts!

OMG - dreadful music @70.

They're celebrating the 50th anniversary of the first flight. I don't see why. Bit like people who wish dead celebrities Happy Birthday on Facebook and such.

Didn't Phil Collins use it to travel between London and New York to play in both Live Aid shows?

I'm not a snob - but dreadful trashy looking people flying Concorde in that video @ R70

I'd expect to see Anna Winataur and Helen Mirren - not those plebs.

I used to see it on the mornings when I commuted from NYC to SUNY Stony Brook. I just happened to be on the road when it took off and could see it from a spot in eastern Queens/Western Nassau with a wide open view of the sky. I loved it. I had a boss whose mentor was a French heart surgeon and they would take the Concorde back & forth to visit each other and operate on tough cases.

I am celebrating 30 years since I took my Concorde flight from New York to Paris. It was on a deal like R33, combined with a first class return ticket. I think it was $5,000 round trip. My boyfriend (now husband) paid because he had done it previously and thought it would be a treat to me. Since I was extremely frugal, it bothered me a lot in concept, in fact I don't think I have ever told anyone but you, dear DataLounge, as I preferred not to be Marie Antoinette'd .

You could easily write about the flight in the Underwhelm Me thread, as is shown in the video at R40, except that the flight length is half, but seems more like 5 times easier to manage.

On problem someone mentioned above is that the flight got in very late at night, and as we got to our expensive hotel (The Meurice, I think), we were informed that we had no room due to a large party of celebrities crashing the place. We were unceremoniously tossed in a taxi and taken to a far, far inferior hotel, but the next 2 nights we were back in a beautiful suite at our original hotel.

I cannot make myself splurge on first class unless I am using miles, so I think I am relatively safe from being rounded up and beheaded.

Yes, but I had to be near the restroom.

I think I would take the Polaris or other first class full bed experience - in exchange for 3 hours. As long as I can knock myself out and sleep all the way in a comfortable bed, I’m good. Waking up from a good sleep just before landing in Europe is perfect. A full productive day upon landing.

Polaris isn’t first class, R78 - it’s barely business class.

They're celebrating it as part of our national flag carrier's 100th Birthday.

The video is great, 2 Oscar winners, a few Olympic champions, the first Brit in space , 2 gay boys holding hands and rather a lot of tea!