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Photo Album
Concorde pays its very last visit to Cardiff
| It was one of those bitter sweet days that one
will remember for a very long time. That beautiful aeroplane that has ferried the great
and the good across the Atlantic Ocean so many times in the last thirty years or
so was making it's final visit to Cardiff, Wales. I just had to be there; so
many times I have been working in the garden and knew without looking up, or at
my watch, that it was 7 minutes past 11 am as 'she' passed overhead on her way
from London Heathrow to New York each weekday morning. |
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Fortunately, the rain and low cloud of the
previous day had cleared and a misty moisty morning dawned with promising
sunshine. I called on my friend Ed Cloutman, also a member of the Vale
Photographic Club, and we headed towards Cardiff Wales Airport with our two identical
Canon EOS 10 D cameras.
Having reccied a couple of 'adequate' viewpoints a mile
or so from the airport, I remembered a contact of mine at Fonmon
Castle where I had taken pictures on a couple of occasions.
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This
picture was taken by Ed while I am on top of the tower with a
'long' lens. |
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We were greeted by Sir Brooke Boothby himself,
who introduced us to Sophie, his assistant, in the office and then Alan who
showed us a roof top position which gave a clear view of the incoming flight
path. Magic! A perfect elevated position with no hassle about parking cars or
avoiding heads. Ed took a look and decided to do a wide angle shot from the
lawns. Concorde was due to land at 1145 am. Well, in truth, it was a little late
but when Ed (with the benefit of his multiband receiver) shouted up that
"It's 13 miles out" I looked hard and long without seeing anything.
Then, a builder who was repairing the roof nearby shouted: "There it
is!"
It was approaching from the east (virtually
over my house) before making a big loop for its final approach from Porthcawl
direction. Sophie, who had also been warned from us above, took some of the
kitchen staff out into the cold autumn air to witness its final arrival. I found
out later that they stood shivering in the shade wondering why they were there.
Until: "It just soared over the tree and filled the sky!" I heard the
shrieks from my exalted position!
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Flying over my house (some 8 miles away)
before turning for its final approach. |
A bit of an 'old smokey', which is one of
the reasons that the 'Old Lady' is being retired. |
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| That great landing posture; undercarriage down, nose
down |
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still doing 250 mph... |
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just a few hundred metres to go. |
within sight of the runway and its waiting
crowds of admirers. |
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I have just received some pictures from a
good friend of mine, John Pugh, who took some pictures from a light plane
in which he was flying recently. here you can see the tower (ringed) where
I was stood to get the close up shots above. |
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The view of runway 12 as seen from the
cockpit of a Piper Warrior from approximately the same position as the
previous shot. |
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John took this one looking back over the
starboard wing. You can see the coastal road and Aberthaw power station. |
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Seconds later, lined up for runway 12. |
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Just like a PC flight simulator, I don't
think! John is doing something I always wanted to do.
It looks a pretty small strip of tarmac
from this point of view. Even smaller to Concorde or a jumbo jet. |
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| Later, we made our way over to the other end of the runway
in the belief that we would be in the best position to take pictures of the
takeoff over the Bristol channel. Ed's radio burst into life telling us that in
spite of the fact that all other lesser aircraft were taking off to the east on
runway 120, Concorde would be taking off in the other direction. Either we had
pictures of its rear end through chain link fencing, or we moved. 20 minutes later, we had navigated through a mixture of
Concorde/school pickup traffic and were back on our Fonmon Castle roof.
Eventually, the 'Old Lady of the skies' was 'In Line' with the runway and a
gathering roar told us that Concorde's mighty Olympus engines were pushing her
towards take off. We had heard the tower thanking Concorde for its many trips to
Cardiff Airport and in return, Concorde thanked Cardiff for it's hospitality.
Both agreed; it had been a memorable day.
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People went to all kind of lengths to get a
good view. |
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but I think we had the best view. |
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So sad to think that this was the last
time. |
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The afterburners can clearly be seen here.
Re heat as it is officially named.
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Probably wouldn't pass an emissions test... |
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Taking its 100 competition winners on a
trip round the Bay of Biscay and a touch of Mach 2. |
| A few technical details
which, sadly, should now be written in past tense.
Concorde flies at Mach 2.02-2.04
(approx. 1350mph) and carries 100 passengers to the edge of space at a
cruising altitude of 55,000 feet (16765m). On the ground Concorde is
203ft 9in long but stretches by almost 10 inches in flight due to
heating of the airframe and the famous swing-nose reaches 127C - a
stark contrast to the outside temperature of a subsonic aircraft of
-50C. This also accounts for the excellent condition of the plane
because the corrosion effects of moisture in the air are significantly
reduced.'
Concorde's four engines - specially designed
Rolls-Royce/ Snecma Olympus 593s - gave more than 38,000lbs of thrust
each, with 'reheat'. This added fuel to the final stage of the engine to
produce the extra power required for take-off and the transition to
supersonic flight. They are the most powerful pure jet engines that flew
commercially.
It's fuel consumption at full power with
reheat was almost 6180 gallons per hour, (almost 2 gallons per second).
Turn off reheat and we are talking slightly less than 2900 gallons per
hour. For a typical transatlantic journey, that worked out at 17 mpg per
passenger!
I recently heard an anecdote said
to be from the flight deck of a Concorde on its way to New York.
"16,000 feet below us we can see a 'lump' (747) flying backwards at
500 mph!"
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Check
out her last flight into Filton airport, Bristol on November 26th, 2003.
| Hi Mike,
Just came across your footage on the
net, great stuff, I was lucky enough to work on THE ONLY REAL PLANE
till the very last, Regards, |
Peter. |
| I work for B.A., and I am a ground engineer, now
based on 747-400 "blunty noses". I worked on THE PLANE right up to
the end and was on ALPHA FOX on that sad last flight to Filton.My
work on her was very varied, routine maintenance (nothing was
routine on such a machine), heavy maintenance, i.e., engine changes,
they were the best, because I have been in the left hand seat on the
throttles into re-heat.....awesome! on ground runs. We all still
miss her. However, the "bean counters" knew best, or did they?,
history will judge them. Anyway, a majical time, great guys and gals
to work with, we are all still there, I managed to take some unusual
photos and video, in fact your sonic bang clip has been e-mailed to
quite a few of us ex "pointy noses" last week. Thanks for the reply,
Kind regards from an ex ROCKET MAN!! |
Peter. |
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| I have now had those two presents, one was the
flight in a Warrior II.
The weather was perfect; anticipation high. |
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