Concorde is associated with one route more than any other…
The London – New York shuttle was the perfect route, making possible for the rich and famous, the transatlantic day trip ! So it’s only appropriate that New York is home to one of the three Concorde aircraft preserved in the United States, G-BOAD is at the USS Intrepid Museum.
Alpha Delta is the Concorde which flew the most, retiring in November 2003 having flown no less than 23,397 hours in service with British Airways and jointly with Singapore Airlines, but was a regular on the transatlantic route.
This particular airframe also holds the record for the fastest atlantic crossing of any Concorde, on 7 February 1996 JFK-LHR was flown in the amazing time of 2 hours, 52 minutes and 59 seconds, for comparison the usual supersonic crossing was three and half hours and my flight home from this trip on a BA 747-400 was a very fast 6 hours 5 minutes.
G-BOAD may also be the most photographed Concorde as it took part in the Queen’s Golden Jubilee flypast in June 2002.
Funny enough the rest of my family seemed quite keen to join me on this trip, something to do with shopping, broadway shows etc..