Trip Report - Concorde

[Adrian B]

As a kid I remember watching on TV as Concorde touched down in Sydney. I was fascinated with its speed, its sleek shape and the awe it cast over all whom saw her. Never ever did I think that I would ever see one. Today, I have touched it, walked around it, preflighted it, and sat in it. Here is the story.

I am in Surrey in London for a Christmas holiday with the family, flying QF9 from Melbourne to London via Singapore. My three year old has a fascination with aviation, something that I use to every advantage where I can. I jumped on a website called dayoutwiththekids.uk and found a local museum that had some aircraft, cars, buses and bikes, and thought I would take her there. Clicking on the website took me to a fascinating world of transport and history.

The Brooklands museum is a large indoor and outdoor hands on museum. When it comes to buses and aircraft, you touch it, you climb in it, you learn all about it by helpful and knowledgeable volunteers. It also was a production line for Concorde fuse components. It was a major site for the automotive industry, with a banked track and long straights for high speed testing.

The website for the museum is http://www.brooklandsmuseum.com and will give you a greater history. It has a fantastic Grand Prix, motorbike, bus and engine museum as well as the flightline.

Taking two visits to the site, the aircraft on display is very large and covers a full range of middle age commercial, private and military. The full list is here (http://www.brooklandsmuseum.com/inde...kpit-sections/) but some highlights include Vickers Viscount, Wellington, Hurricane, BAC One Eleven, Vanguard,Varsity,VC10 plus a Harrier and of course Concorde. There are other Concorde frames around, but this (I am told) is the only one globally you can touch, feel, and enter. In addition there is a fully functional static simulator which can be flown upon arrangement and cost.

G-BBDG was Concorde #3 of the UK line and used extensively as a testbed and flight training bed for some time. She was handed over to the museum some time ago, which included being cut into several sections and transported to the museum, then rebuilt.

Walking around this beauty gives you a strange sense. It is high off the ground, long, sleek but it just looks fast. From the massive reverse buckets to the long and slender main gear, and the manta ray type wing, it is truly a unique piece of aviation history.

An additional entry fee gives you a guide tour outside and onboard. The tour starts in a shuttle bus, talking about how it came to be, construction and other basics. It then takes you up an external stair to the rear starboard galley door, where the galley and rear luggage area is removed. You then go through a display with internal panels removed, various parts and pipes visible. There is a short video about the construction of Concorde, the demise and the donation of the frame to the museum, and the major works to relocate it to the museum. You then move forward into the main cabin with real seats and controls. Each seat costs the museum $3000 pound, so they have removed the ability to recline. After the video you move past the toilet and coat locker, forward to the cockpit door and the forward doors. The cockpit on this frame is nearly complete, but glassed off. The photos in the link below are from the simulator in the tour after the main aircraft walk through.

I have taken a few photos and placed them on my Fotki site
http://public.fotki.com/agb06/concorde/
The quality is average due to wrangling a 2 y/o, 3 y/o and an 8 year old, associated bags and a D90 with external flash.

If you do go to London, make sure you visit this museum.

[Kieran Wells]

Thanks Adrian. Must be one of the only Concordes that you can actually sit in. Ive seen/been in 3 - Yeovilton, Toulouse and Seattle and you can't sit in any of these.. Very interesting, and my next visit to England ill go to this museum.. Also must be one of the only ones in the old BA Livery...

[Adrian B]

Definately worth a day out here. I believe that the Barbados frame is being prepared for tours, but no idea of details.

[Alan Dent]

There is another Concorde at the Imperial War museum site at Duxford,near Cambridge. This also is worth a visit especially when they have their frequent air displays. Be prepared for traffic delays at the end of the show.

[Michael Arentz]

There is also a Concorde at Sinsheim Auto & Technik Museum in Germany. It was Air France F-BVFB. It is mounted on the roof and you can climb inside it however the majority of the seating has been removed and what is left is enclosed in perspex, the cockpit is also sealed off with perspex. Still it is a great experience to go inside.

The best part about Sinsheim is that right next to Concorde is a TU-144 that is also open for viewing so you can compare just how similar they are.

[A McLaughlin]

I got a private tour of the interior of the Concorde at Duxford in 06 including the flight deck...might have had something to do with flashing my media credentials though...

[Philip Argy]

I'm old enough to have flown trans-Atlantic on Concorde a few times in the 1980s. My initial and lasting impression was of a super fast Fokker Friendship based on seat dimensions and window size but with a Mach meter and better catering! Sounds odd I know but if you've flown on both you'll know what I mean.

Basically it was a long lunch to go from London to New York, working half a day in London then flying to New York and finishing the working day there. The return trip was much less cost effective, as you had to stay the night in a hotel instead of on the aircraft if you'd flown in a subsonic plane. OK if you lived in the UK but not as a traveller.

[David Ramsay]

There is one (G-BOAD) at the Intrepid Museum in New York, I was there yesterday.

Again you can't go inside it, though.

[Robert S]

Originally Posted by David Ramsay

There is one (G-BOAD) at the Intrepid Museum in New York, I was there yesterday.

Again you can't go inside it, though.

This isn't correct... you simply have to ensure you go at times it is open or better still, do the tour.

If it is available for general viewing, you will only be able to walk through the forward section where the seats are protected by perspex. Entry is via the mid-cabin door and exit is at the front.

If you do the tour, you will sit in the rear section seats (which are open, as the general public isn't permitted back there except on the tours) and get to go into the cockpit. When I did the tour in May, I was the last one to file into the cockpit and therefore last one off - the guide happily invited me to close the forward cabin door myself (so it definitely "touchable").

http://www.intrepidmuseum.org/The-In.../Concorde.aspx

Kieran, I wouldn't say it was in bad condition.

I haven't been to Duxford since 2001. At that time their Concorde was open for general viewing and you could walk from the front to the back, but not sit in any seats. You could see the cockpit, but not get right into it. Their website suggests this is still the case - saying the aircraft is open from 11am to 3pm, but suggests visitors call to confirm hours.

http://www.iwm.org.uk/exhibitions/airspace

[Kieran Wells]

David, Id heard that one was in pretty bad condition.. Is that correct or have they cleaned her up?