00:00Aerospace Bristol has welcomed its biggest gathering of former Concorde flight crew
00:06to the museum, with over 30 ex-Concorde captains, first officers, flight engineers and cabin
00:13crew coming together to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Concorde's first commercial
00:18flight in 1976.
00:20It felt like work.
00:23It felt very similar to our aeroplanes, except when it was two aeroplanes in one, you had
00:29a sub-sonic aeroplane, but even that was different because we had a lot of vibration at low speed
00:33because of the type of lift we had, which was called a vortex lift.
00:37But once you got up supersonically, twice the speed of sound, up at 50,000 to 60,000 feet,
00:44it felt like you were in space.
00:46It felt like space travel, really.
00:47You looked at the aeroplanes below going backwards, because they were going twice their speed and
00:51more.
00:52Only 800 miles an hour backwards.
00:53Yeah, 800 miles an hour backwards, they look like.
00:56And then you looked out at the dark blue sky, you looked at the curvature of the Earth.
01:01It was like space travel.
01:03And that's why we got to New York in three hours and 20 minutes.
01:06Even in that short live, it really touched a lot of people.
01:09And if you think about it, it was the speed is something that people really loved.
01:13The fact that it was so fast.
01:15The engineering first that were involved in it.
01:17You know, if you're really into engineering, this is a kind of really inspirational story
01:22to find out about, then I also think there's a kind of social history of it, the kind of
01:26glamour of the 80s.
01:27You know, this idea that you go on this plane and you're sitting next to royalty or a celebrity
01:31and you're drinking champagne and eating caviar.
01:34I mean, that's just, you know, it's so entertaining, isn't it?
01:37So there's so many different stories that we can tell.
01:40Attendees included 17 captains, nine first officers and seven flight engineers alongside
01:45passionate Aerospace Bristol volunteers.
01:47When we were flying, the flight deck door was open before the 9-11 attacks.
01:54And to passively come up and see us, especially on a charter, to get all hundreds of them up
01:58on the charter.
01:59We had lots of lovely people.
02:00And we had lots.
02:01We obviously met film stars, politicians, royalty, all sorts of people.
02:05Formula One drivers, Formula One drivers, yeah.
02:08This is the last aeroplane ever to fly.
02:11Well, I haven't been with Roger in this aeroplane since 1996, was it, when you retired?
02:161996.
02:17Because I was on your last trip, wasn't I?
02:19When you go on board, you kind of go, oh, it's just a plane.
02:23And I think you've got to imagine that it was all the extras added on.
02:27It was the fact that you were sitting next to royalty or celebrities.
02:30You were going much faster than you could travel anywhere else.
02:33It was a, you know, a really special experience.
02:36And then when you looked out the very small windows, you could see the curvature of the earth
02:40and, you know, you could really see the world below you.
02:44I think all of that, oh, plus the champagne, obviously, which always helped.
02:48I think it really was this kind of, yeah, amazing luxury experience.
02:53The museums also announced their packed programme of family events for the 50th anniversary year.
03:00Yeah.
03:00Yeah.
03:00Yeah.
03:00It really was good.
03:03Yeah.
03:03Yeah.
03:04Nice.
03:04Yeah.
03:04Yeah.
03:04Yeah.
03:05Yeah.
03:05Wow.
03:05Yeah.
03:06Yeah.
03:08Yeah.
03:08Yeah.
Comments