Photo Story: Onboard the Concorde in Scotland

There’s a Concorde sitting in a hangar in the middle of the Scottish countryside east of Edinburgh. It is in a museum built on an old WWII airfield called East Fortune Airfield, next to the tiny village of East Fortune, which happens to be disused barracks completely overgrown with vegetation, with the exception of a couple random houses.

It operated as an airfield during the war. Part of the airfield is now an amateur racetrack, and the other part houses the Scottish National Museum of Flight – which makes sense since they can conveniently use the aircraft hangars for their exhibits. Anyway, this unassuming place houses a Concorde.

Not just ANY Concorde… THE FIRST Concorde -flown by British Airways (don't know if she was the actual first!). Allow me to introduce you to a very special lady:

^{Gratuitous hanger shot of the old girl}

Meet Golf-Bravo Oscar Alpha Alpha. Not Georgina, not Suzy, not Vera or Stephanie.. no no, she was christened with the very alluring and sexy “Golf-Bravo Oscar Alpha Alpha” Rawwwrrrr. They were very imaginative with their naming conventions over at British Airways in the 70s.

This lady took to the skies for British Airways in 1976. The first Concorde to fly, she logged 8,064 flights before making her final touchdown at East Fortune. Fun fact: The pilot who flew her here lived in Scotland (don’t know if he still does) and made sure the flight path took him over his town, so all the school kids came out to wave.

Lets go in

Now she’s an exhibit. Not just ANY exhibit mind you. She’s an ‘experience’. So lets go in and experience!

The first thing that really draws your attention is the compactness of the plane. I’m of average height yet I had to bend down to get in the plane. Now the inside of the plane is super cramped. Yes, everyone has a nice business class seat but the whole thing was very cramped. The middle aisle is so narrow you had to almost shuffle down it sideways. The bathroom.. well let’s just say that it’s a good thing transatlantic flights were only 4.5hrs. So you had the option to hold it!

^{Looking down the aisle}

Look at those tiny portholes! So small! Teensy! I complain.. but its all with good reason. Design trumped everything on this plane. It had to be as aerodynamic as possible to be able to handle the supersonic speeds without tearing apart like tissue paper.

^{A view of the Cockpit}

I keep needing to remind myself that this symbol of technological achievement.. IS FROM THE 70s. No fancy screens.. no computers.. back then you still had a flight engineer on deck.

The outside of the plane is far sexier and does a much better job of maintaining the sleek and stylish image of the aircraft. she has a long straight nose that dips down for landing and can be moved up into a straight horizontal position for supersonic flight.

^{Looking right up her nose}

And the tail is so long it has its own landing gear for added balance at take off and landing as well as to prevent the tail from scraping the ground.

^{View from the back of the plane}

And look at those engines! she was one well endowed lady!

Why it all ended

As you can see it is a very short experience but it is impressive none the less. Its a real shame they stopped flying her, but it is entirely understandable. Many people say its that crash in Paris that grounded her, but really that was juts the final nail in the coffin. Remember, this plane had been in service for 40 years already. 40 YEARS! That's a long life. But the problems started to add up. Its hunger for fuel was woefully expensive at 4,800 gallons an hour or twice that of a boeing 707. Furthermore Concorde was not allowed to fly over land as the sonic boom would blow out windows in entire towns and cause all kinds of complaints. So no supersonic flight over land. That's a limiting factor! Then there was the expense.. Tickets weren't cheap and airline customers were more interested in cheaper tickets.

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Thanks for reading/looking!
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