Home of Jason's Concorde Experience Journal & Photos

     I have always been absolutely fascinated by Concorde: its beauty, its capabilities (click here to see BA's specs.), its (perceived) luxury, and its distinctiveness.   I've always wanted to fly on Concorde. Once, while leisurely biking along the Potomac River in the Wash., D.C., area in the mid-1990's, I recall looking up and seeing Concorde against a clear blue sky on its way to/from Dullas Airport. I was mesmerized. As a British Airways flight attendant reminded us on my recent Concorde flight, it is still the world's only supersonic passenger aircraft. It is also the only way for civilians to fly across the Atlantic in about three and one-half hours, at Mach 2 (twice the speed of sound) near altitudes of 60,000 feet. The only way to fly higher is to be in a military jet or to be an astronaut. It only carries 100 passengers. Up until now, Concorde has been practically unaffordable for tourist travel, for those who are not descended from royalty, not independently wealthy, or otherwise affiliated with scandalously wealthy Hollywood stars. However, recently, due to British Airways' and Air France's announcements to permanently cease all Concorde flight operations, and their aggressive attempts to fill normally empty seats, deeply discounted fares suddenly became available. This changed everything. Here is the sequence of events. Soon, I hope to post a detailed journal of my experience (if I can find my notes from the trip!) via this webpage. For now, you can see the general details and all my Concorde photos.

     My recent awareness of Concorde heightened in July 2000, when an Air France Concorde flight AF4590, loaded with fuel, crashed on takeoff about 10 miles (15 km) outside Paris, near the town of Gonesse, killing four people on the ground and all 109 people on board (96 German passengers, two Danes, one Austrian, one American, and nine flight crew). A Federal Express pilot eyewitness, Sid Hare, reported that one of Concorde's engines on its left side, either the #1 or #2 engine, appeared to fail catastrophically with flames shooting 200 - 300 ft. behind the aircraft during takeoff. He theorized that this likely damaged and rendered the other engine inoperable, making gaining altitude very difficult. He reported the aircraft had trouble gaining altitude, eventually causing a stall with the nose pitched straight up in the air. The aircraft starting rolling over and backsliding down towards the ground. Eyewitnesses described a huge fireball when it hit the ground, "like a mini atomic bomb" explosion. The investigation that followed revealed that the crash was apparently caused by the tires on Concorde's landing gear striking a metallic object on the runway (that had apparently fallen off a Continental Airlines jet), which jettisoned into and breached/pierced a fuel tank, causing the aircraft to erupt into flames and plunge into a hotel-restaurant complex (Relais Bleus). The plane had been chartered by Peter Deilmann River and Ocean Cruises, a German tour company, and the passengers were on their way to New York to join a cruise ship.

     Both British Airways and Air France had operated Concorde flights in recent years, and both resumed service about a year after the accident after making expensive changes to their aircraft fleet (in part, lining the fuel tanks with a Kevlar™ liner). British Airways has seven and Air France has four Concordes. BA has invested over £1 billion in 27 years of operating Concorde fleet. Unfortunately, the global economic downturn (the collapse of the "e-bubble") combined with rising maintenance costs of the aging Concorde fleet (developed in the late 1960's, with maintenance regime supplied by Airbus), coupled with the economic/social/political chaos following the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, resulted in decreased demand for business travel and for "premium travel" which Concorde offered. Concorde fares had typically been in the range of US$10,000 - US$12,000 for a roundtrip transatlantic flight. It became economically unfeasible for both airlines to continue operating these flights. With flights at ~10% capacity this year, British Airways suddenly announced on April 10, 2003 the permanent discontinuation of Concorde flights in Oct. 2003. In press releases, BA said that their decision was made "for commercial reasons with passenger revenue falling steadily against a backdrop of rising Concorde maintenance costs."

I suddenly learned of this abrupt end of BA's Concorde service o/a April 17, when I immediately visited BA's website to look for promotional fares. I was shocked to find roundtrip fare packages at roughly 50% of the normal prices, but with added bonuses of roundtrip package deals (with one-way or roundtrip on Concorde and other segments in other classes of service). BA's lowest price booking was a transatlantic roundtrip bundle in the JFK to Heathrow route, with one segment on Concorde and another segment in BA's economy class. So, I immediately called BA to book a flight within this category of service, with just one segment on Concorde. Only 1,000 seats were being made available at these discounted fares, and seats were selling quite fast. Within a day I made a change to the booking and finalized it. It was very difficult to make this change, but I finally found an itinerary with seat availability (thanks to a very patient BA customer service phone rep.). I believe all 1,000 available seats were sold-out within about a 12 - 24 hour period.

On May 30, 2003, I flew on British Airways scheduled Concorde flight, BA001, from London's Heathrow to JFK airport. The flight was sold out, and every seat was filled. It was also the last day (or next to last day) of service for the Concorde fleet operated by Air France. We enjoyed a delicious meal, with salmon/caviar appetizer, and a choice of duck (salad?), bass, or steak for main course. Dessert was a raspberry tort. I had the duck. A mysterious, unspecified "problem with the intake on one of the engines" forced us to slow down, make a U-turn over the Atlantic, and return to London. In garbled murmuring over the intercom, the pilot explained that the cockpit crew had been dealing with this problem for some time on our flight, attempting to "nurse" the engine, but could not resolve it. The pilot soon ventured back into the passenger cabin to comfort disgruntled, confused passengers and to explain why we had to head back to London. He said we had journeyed about ~1,000 nautical mi. into our trip, which was about 45% of the distance to New York. This was apparently not far enough to continue to JFK at sub-sonic speeds. Had we continued at supersonic speeds (about MACH 1.7) for another 34 minutes, we could have continued on to New York at subsonic speeds. Apparently, this was highly unusual (to effectively "abort" a Concorde flight) and an embarrassment to British Airways, for whom Concorde is their flagship. As one news writer explained, "Without Concorde, BA would be just another common airline." We returned to Heathrow about four hours later ("a roundtrip to nowhere"), in a flight that was described by one guy behind me as "the most expensive meal [he has] ever had."
The next day, Sat., May 31, 2003, our rescheduled flight took off in mid-afternoon about half-full. Apparently, many passengers rebooked on subsonic flights or cancelled their itineraries. Some claimed they aborted their entire trip because their "weekend in New York City" was ruined. This time, I had the bass main course for dinner. The flight was smooth and uneventful, and I didn't smell as much jet fuel when we took off or landed.

On both the original May 30th and rescheduled May 31st flights, Eric Clapton was quietly seated in seat 1A, by the window. He was traveling alone, and no one seemed to bother him.

[More details from my flights (menus from the flight, time/altitude/speed tables) will be posted here soon.]

My Concorde Experience Photo Archive (Click on Photos to View Larger Images)
Aircraft Exterior Views	Sky and Wing Views from My Window (seat 12A)	Cabin Interior Views	Cuisine Photos	Press Photos

		BA cabin seating config.	Loch Fyne smoked salmon appetizer with caviar, dill, and crème fraîche (and with Corton Charlemagne Grand Cru 1996, Labouré-Roi white wine)
My aircraft at Heathrow gate (view from Business/First Class Concorde lounge)		Cabin Interior (BA press photo)	Grilled Sea bass main Entrée with poached asparagus and creamy Champagne sauce (and Corton Charlemagne Grand Cru 1996, Labouré-Roi white wine)
			Raspberry creme brûlée tart dessert with Warre's 1982 Colheita Port
Our aircraft for the rescheduled 5/31/03 flight		Interior view with no passengers after our unsuccessful May 30th flight returned to London
		Jason posed beside altitude/speed/temp. bulkhead indicator placards (which indicate "Mach 2; 54,500 ft. altitude")
	Left-side view, looking aft, over the wing at engine exhaust area (very difficult to photograph due to narrow width of the window)	Bulkhead indicator placards are displaying "Mach 2; 54,500 ft. altitude"
Close-up of tail section and right-side engines on our Concorde aircraft at Heathrow	Sky view outside my window on the rescheduled May 31st flight.	Bulkhead placard displaying "Mach 1.9 @ 46,000 ft altitude"
	Another sky view on the rescheduled May 31st flight.	Entire passenger seat with battery-powered emergency floor light
		Forward-facing cabin view on rescheduled May 31 flight BA001
		Forward-facing cabin view on May 31st flight		Cockpit panel switches (BA press photo)
				Concorde cockpit (BA press photo)
		Bulkhead placard displaying 54,500 ft. altitude
		Bulkhead placard indicating "Mach 2; 55,000 ft. altitude"		1967 unveiling on Concorde
		Bulkhead indicator placard displaying "Welcome to Concorde" after initial boarding
		Bulkhead placard on original 5/30/03 flight welcoming us to Concorde (before takeoff)
		Bulkhead placard welcoming us on board the rescheduled 5/31/03 flight (before takeoff)
Miscellany