My local Concorde I suppose, although the Concorde at Heathrow G-BOAB is actually closer (more of the scandal of Alpha Bravo later!).
Delta Golf is perhaps the most accessible Concorde for people living in London and I think the one of the best presented. For £5 on top of the Brooklands Museum admission you can take the ‘Concorde Experience” which includes a guided tour of the Aircraft and a great AV presentation onboard in the front cabin… It’s as close as anyone is going to get to flying in Concorde today anyway.
Delta Golf had a brief, if interesting life, the British development airframe which achieved the type certification and unlike modern development aircraft never entered airline service. Flying for the first time in 1974 and retiring from flight in 1981 after only 1282 hours, it then became a source of spares for the British Airways fleet stored at Filton. In 2004 Delta Golf was acquired by Brooklands and finally put on display in 2006.
Of course it would be amiss not to mention the urban myth that Delta Golf was used by the Ministry of Defence to test UK Air Defences, simulating Russian Backfire and Blackjack bombers, and demonstrating the vulnerability of the RAF in the process…
Update April 2019
Following on from the example set at Duxford, the volunteers at Brooklands have reinstated the nose drop mechanism, demonstrated here on the 50th Anniversary event in April 2019.
The start of a personal quest for me, this year I aim to visit each one of the eighteen preserved Concorde aircraft, to be fair I have visited many of them already – but this time I have a plan and a time limit to achieve my goal. Eighteen aircraft distributed across five countries seems to be feasible, especially at most remain in the UK and France.
So to start, visited on 5th May 2016 the sixth production airframe Concorde G-BOAA housed in the quite impressive dedicated facility at the National Museum of Flight, East Fortune, Scotland. Well worth a visit – this is fitting display of the aircraft with many other Concorde artifacts and an interactive displays.
G-BOAA last few in August 2000 and did not receive the final refit following the Paris crash, and was transported from London to Scotland by barge in 2004.
At just after 9:00 am on the 29th May 2003, I achieved a lifetime ambition and flew Concorde ! Concorde had six months of service remaining with British Airways so the rush was on for fellow Aviation geeks to organise the trip of a lifetime.
The journey was perhaps the last occasion that I could describe as an example of glamorous air travel. The dedicated Concorde lounge at JFK’s Terminal 7 had a real buzz about it, although the usual compliment of banker and celebrity passengers was supplemented my people such as myself who were here for the ride..
Clearly visible through the wall to celling windows was the flagship of British Airways fleet, G-BOAC. After the obligatory glass of champagne it was time to board and I took my seat 6D inside as everyone says the rather cramped cabin, similar to a modern Embraer E jet .
I had specifically chosen to fly back from New York to London on flight BA002 as my Concorde experience for what happened next.. Anyone who flew on Concorde will tell you the take off was like no other experience after all it was the only commercial airliner to take off using afterburners ! But the take off from New York was even more special, because of the need to carry out noise abatement procedures very quickly after take off, Concorde made a hard left turn, enough to make you feel both pushed down and back into your seat from the acceleration – very roller-coaster like !
This video give you some sense of this unique departure..
Very quickly after take off the afterburners are switched off and there is a noticeable deceleration and reduction in noise. After a few minutes and another glass of Champagne and canapés, it was time to really get going.. the Captain made a short announcement switched on the afterburners again which felt like a kick in the back and we rapidly accelerated to Mach 2.0 1330 MPH and an altitude of 56,000 feet.
At such a speed and altitude there was no real impression of speed, other than perhaps from the heat felt when touching the small windows, the heat a product of air friction.
Looking out of the window produced a view quite different to the 747 flying only half as high as Concorde. The sky was much darker and it is possible to just about see the curvature of the earth, and the thin blue line which represents the vital but very fragile part of the atmosphere in which we all live.
I will never in all likelihood be as high or travel as fast again in my life as I did for those couple of hours ten years ago, indeed the captain made the point at that moment there were only five people higher than the 100 passengers in Concorde, and they were on the International Space Station !
I completely understand the economics of why Concorde no longer flies, but is still seems wrong that the technological masterpiece on which I flew now sits in a Museum at Manchester Airport !