Just a memory.

[rictus01]

I was talking to a friend the other day about things we'd done or seen, that future generations wouldn't be able to, things consigned to history now, ranging from Kennedy being shot, the moon landing to making your first crystal radio ( Yeah I know you can still do that, but these day what youth would be interested), anyway we got onto what we'd actually seen with our own eye's and I remembered something I'd seen about 8 years earlier, so decided tonight to write it down, it was enjoyable in the way memories can take you back to a time and place.

Hope you enjoy the read as much as I enjoyed writing it.

Cheers Mark.




The noise the pervasiveness of life going on all around, but wait not just normal life the hustle and bustle of the extra ordinary, signs and sound you don’t hear everyday; from the high whine of a jet plane taxiing into the terminal to the dull sound of the massed people going about their business on their way to or from various destinations.

But not me, why do I find myself here and why now? It’s simple really something awe inspiring, not the first or the last, in fact to most nothing but “another one” and that’s if it registers at all.

The year 2001, I’d just finished a book called “the new era” by Brian Trubshaw, and realized like most this event I could well miss if I didn’t make some effort, so here I was.

I stand above the main terminal on a smallish balcony overlooking the great marvel that is one of the busiest airports of the world; Heathrow, the reason is simple to witness something I’ve admired for a long while.

I wait, it seems an eternity but then it comes slowly into view, a lethal shape, dangerous almost, but blunted by a broken nose, and yet I know when it’s in it’s stride that nose will be straight and true, the movement is ponderous and slow just now belying the awesome power of the four Olympus engine slung beneath the wings, surrounded by the bloated other planes it’s the lightning in a cloudy sky, the single seat race car in a bus park.

I pull my binoculars from my bag and examine every fascist of it as it goes passed consigning the details to memory, in aircraft terms I guess she’s getting on a bit as they have been flying for nearly 20 years, but still looks lean, young and powerful.

This is Concorde, the best, the fastest, never been beaten, designed in a time when computers were the size of a house and phones had a rotating dial, men with pencils and rulers came up with the ideas that beat the world, both America and Russia tried it and failed yet the Anglo-French project won through, everyone knows it cost a fortune and would never make money, but it’s still a thing of both beauty and wonder.

The plane pulls out of sight around the building and I await the next chapter in a few minutes time. Next I see it as it rolls onto the end of the runway, even from this distance you hear the engines building power and yet the aircrafts top line shows no indication of the forces about to be unleashed, then it moves, slow at first building to a rapid speed the undercarriage looks to small to manage the strains that must be involved and you’d think the front wheel would snap, but of course it doesn’t, then it lifts as correspondingly the tail drops, light under the rear wheels shows the machine to have “lifted off” ; and it gains height.
As it heads for the clouds and away I catch the wheels being lifted away to shelter behind the smooth Mach 2 skin; and like an arrow launched from a bow, it pierces the cloud to disappear into the wild blue yonder; away from sight.

I know it’ll climb above the cloud, above it’s contemporary and about the turbulence to 60,000 feet, that broken nose will straighten to slice the air at 1,500 mile an hour, the heat will require 40% of the engine output to keep the cabin comfortable and the cockpit windows will at some stage become to hot to touch from the inside, not to mention the seven inches it will stretch during the flight.

But that’s all from a book, I’ve just seen the real thing, whilst I know I’ll never go on it, it’s enough, I’ve heard the sonic boom and seen it fly over before, this just completes the set for me.

Little did I know at the time a few years later after a Concorde crash, they'd phased them out, but unlike any other planes they weren’t replaced by something better or newer, the sky’s were left to the overgrown buses of today’s airliners, and mores the shame I can’t see anyone surpassing it.

When I first moved to England in the late 60s I went to Elmbridge Primary School in Gloucester, right next to the Walls ice cream factory. One bright day we were all pulled out of our lessons by the headmistress and sat down on the playing field where we were told we'd see something amazing happen in a short while.

I can't remember how long we sat there, but after a while we heard a noise getting louder and louder, and something flew up the route of the River Severn nearby. Whatever it was made a bang noise that I can't entirely recall now, but I was impressed by it at the time.

Looking back on it I was one of a few lucky people who was able to witness Concorde going supersonic for the first time knowing it was going to happen. Our headmistress was a friend and neighbour of Brian Trubshaw, and he'd told her when they planned to do the supersonic flight and to get the kids out to see it happen.

Thank you Cpt Trubshaw, I've forgotten many things from my past, but that one remains embedded in my memory. Many years later when working in Slough I watched as Concorde flew across in front of me as I approached M4 Jct5 on my bike. It was still as impressive and I stopped the bike and sat watching as it flew off into the distance - a truly beautiful aircraft.

[Red Herring]

Minor technical point Lozzo but if she had been supersonic when you saw her you wouldn't have heard her coming..... I do share your sentiment over Concorde though, one of the few instances where man has gone backwards in the world.

Yeah, it flew over Hull once, I was at a car boot, looked up and thought, "No, It cant be!" but it was!

Steve

[Bri w]

An icon of its time, and almost timeless.

I remember the Battle of Britain flight going over our house in the early 70's, in my early teens. The deep rumble of 6 Rolls Royce Merlin engines. The Spitfire pilot throwing it around for fun, whilst the Hurricane flew in formation with the Lanc. To a kid brought up on stories of scrambles, and Immelman turns - Wow, blown away.

It used to fly over our house whenwe lived in Saltash, Cornwall - beautiful aircraft.

Another memorry not to be repeated now - I grew up in south London in the 1960s, and I can vividly remember that on days when we had swimming at Ladywell Baths we'd get back to school in Blackheath a bit late. We didn't mind cos the next train to Eltham was the double decker train. Curious looking thing it was, it was fun riding up tops.

[fizzwheel]

It used to fly over Yeovil now and again.

It made an appearance and Yeovilton Air day once when I was little, my dad had taken me knowing it would be there, sight and sound was awesome.

IMHO Shame they pensioned the old girl off, because theres nothing else like it and I doubt will ever see anything similar again.

A concorde flew over our house once. Me and my mum stood in the garden and watched it. A fleeting moment, but one I shan't forget. Another memory I have is seeing dolphins off the coast of saltdean beach (east of brighton). I was about 13, and me and my friend were cycling along the promenade when we saw these dolphins playing on the bow waves of a boat. We stopped, stood, and watched. My dad says there used to be dolphins more regularly when he was younger.

I like reading back in magazines when they reminise about some of the great motorcycle races. This month in Superbike magazine, the center-spread is a shot of Jeremy McWilliams leading the GP500 field at a sodden Donnington Park in the year 2000. I remember watching that. I remember Jezz, Rossi and Roberts Jnr all powersliding out of coppice, blue smoke pouring off distressed wet-weather tyres forced to work on a drying line. Afterwards I went out in the pouring rain myself and cycled about on my pushbike (I didnt have a motorbike then, i was only 14!).

A memory I have that many people will never get to experiance now is the noise and smell of a grid of 500cc GP bikes blasting under Starkey Bridge at donnington park in 2001, up to schwantz curve, tipping into mcleans. I'll never forget the roar from the crowd when rossi stuck it under valentino rossi - a sea of yellow erupting in a wave of volume to rival even that witnessed at brands hatch. What a feeling, what a site, what a smell! Seeing rossi sideways out of the old hairpin, amazing, truely amazing. I'll always thank my dad for taking me to donnington park, it was a hell of a trip but one that I'll never EVER forget.

Man, I have so many memories, so many great memories from all the times I've been to race meetings.

I like this thread

[Nick_69]

i used to live under tjhe concorde flight path, made a hell of a noise but was truly amazing.

Also i will never forget millenium that wont be witnessed for a while lol

[anna]

I remember taking the day off work to go up to the Downs in Bristol to watch her last flight, I wanted to see her flying over Bristol Bridge. A fantastic moment shared with so many like minded people, truely emotional.