The BA Concordes at Heathrow lived in a hanger at the eastern end of
the main runway.
The perimiter road intersected the main runway so the bit with the
hanger was to the left and the main runway to the right.
No fences no gates.
The Concordes would be towed by the usual tug to and from the terminal
area to the hanger.
A guy in a little hut (moreof him later)would switch on a sign saying
'Aircraft crossing - STOP'
Cars would stop and the Concorde would be towed across and the the sign
would go off.
I had this happen loads of times as the DEC wharehouse was on the south
side of the airport .
Well one fine day I drive down and on goes the light and I stop and yes
here comes the Concorde and across it goes
and out goes the sign and I start to move with the queue across the gap.
Then it hits me where is the tug? OMG its taxying on engines and is
about a hundred yards up the runway.
They wouldn't would they. Oh yes they did! Full throttle full
afterburner and off down the runway.
The guy in his little hut passed me going east at about 30MPH and those
of in
cars got about 7.9 on the Richter scale in shaking.
Piles of rust and dust were left behind when the cars moved off.
Rod
On 19/06/2015 13:26, Peter Cetinski wrote:
On Jun 19, 2015, at 7:50 AM, jwsmobile <j...@jwsss.com> wrote:
The closest I came to an aircraft in this class was an almost on a Concorde
Ticket in the late 70's when an upgrade to first class could get you near to
the Concorde fare, and then on a visit in the 90's I got to see one take off
like a rocket @ Heathrow.
thanks
Jim
I remember the first time I saw Concorde as a boy. I was at JFK, I think to
see off my grandmother who was taking a trip back to the old country. I’m
standing at one of the large windows looking out at the flightline when all of
a sudden, from the right, at what seemed to me to be just a few hundred feet
above the terminal building, comes this giant roaring bird at what seemed to be
a 30 degree bank after just taking off. My little boy jaw just dropped as I
watched this screaming monster white dragon fly by.
What the heck has happened to us that we can build these planes 50 years ago
that are unsurpassed even today? Sad.
