Feature - Concorde by By James McCarthy

ARABIA

ICONS OF LUXURY

From Steve McQueen's Tag Heuer to Grace Kelly's HermĂ¨s bag, SLT looks at truly timeless elegance

n. 33

J E TS E T

FLIGHT of FANCY Once, it was the only way to travel for both constitutional monarchs and Hollywood royalty, alike. James McCarthy recalls the rise and fall of a true luxury icon: Concorde.

Words: James McCarthy Pictures: Dennis Gooch / Getty / Corbis

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This page; Concorde 002 takes off from Filton Airbase in Bristol on its maiden flight in 1969; opposite left, Queen Elizabeth II is given a tour of the cockpit; opposite right, Pilots, Brian Trubshaw (left) and John Cochrane (right), prepare for the mainden flight of Concorde 002.

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hen the mighty Concorde was finally grounded in 2003, the era of supersonic passenger aircraft fell to earth with it. Since the legendary aircraft’s final touchdown at Heathrow Airport eleven long years ago, humanity’s airborne ambition has devolved, once again, into bloated, subsonic airliners. Where man once soared, skirting the stratosphere, we now cruise lethargically at a paltry 30,000 feet, developing deep vein thrombosis alongside 299 other disgruntled souls. Like the art-deco elegance of the Zeppelin age before it, the jet-set exclusivity of travel on the wave of a sonic boom, the excitement of record breaking flights between London and New York and the promise of bringing hemispheres within a day’s flying time have since been parked on the runways of history. While the status quo with man’s airborne ambition is likely to remain unchanged, as airlines opt for volume over velocity, Concorde will always remain a true icon of luxury travel. It was unadulterated excess. With a round-trip ticket from Heathrow to JFK costing up to $13,000, there was no greater status symbol for the international jet-set. Yes, it was loud inside the cabin; so loud, in fact, that you had to shout to order your Châteauneuf-du-Pape and, yes, it was cramped and hot, but then, so was the Lamborghini Countach, and a significant number of Concorde passengers drove those. People weren’t paying for the comfort, they were paying for the prestige.

Caribbean, but as much for the experience itself. Long before Emirates, Etihad and Qatar Airways started flaunting their respective VVVIP services (long before some of them even started operating, in fact), Concorde passengers were automatically considered “First Class” and had their own check-in desks and a separate lounge in which to relax before flying. The food served on-board was widely considered to be the finest in the air; passengers could enjoy, for instance, a freshly prepared whole lobster on specially-manufactured china plates, eaten with custom-made cutlery and all washed down with fine vintage champagne. This was all done at 60,000 feet, skirting the edge of space and at Mach 2.2, twice the speed of sound. There was a romance to it, a feeling of being part of something pioneering. Concorde had recaptured the public’s imagination for air travel like no other aircraft ever could, consistently setting records that will never be matched. In 1996, a British Airways Concorde, piloted by Captain Leslie Scott, completed the run between London and New York in 2 hours, 52 minutes and 59 seconds from takeoff to touchdown, the fastest crossing of the Atlantic ever. A few years later, in 1999, Spain's Jose Maria Olazabal set a world record for a golf putt during the Concorde flight which was taking the European Ryder Cup team to the USA on the eve of the tournament. He not only holed his 150-foot putt down the length of Concorde’s cabin on his first attempt, but with Concorde travelling at 1,270mph, the ball was actually in motion for 9.232 miles.

Concorde could make the Atlantic crossing in under three hours and was jokingly referred to as a time machine. Flying west, passengers would arrive at JFK a full hour (locally) earlier than when they had taken off at Heathrow. Essentially, you were able to enjoy breakfast at Harrod’s, lunch on Madison Avenue and still be back home in time for supper. For trans-Atlantic business, it was a revelation.

The most elegant and recognisable of airborne silhouettes, Concorde became a global symbol of Britishness, taking part in flypasts with The Red Arrows and, occasionally, Spitfires and Lancaster Bombers at state occasions. The public lapped it up. One famous British Airways poster of my youth had an aerial shot of Concorde flying alongside The Red Arrows in a “V” formation while below them, in the middle of the ocean, the Queen Elizabeth II luxury cruise liner sailed serenely past. It was jingoistic advertising at its finest.

It was the only way for the well-heeled to travel, not only for its speedy transit to opulent destinations such as New York, Rio de Janeiro and the

Such campaigns were driven by then Managing Director of British Airways and shrewd businessman, Sir John King. He recognised the

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While the entire Concorde fleet has been grounded and their airworthiness certificates withdrawn, they are still owned by BA and Air France. The fleet has since taken up residence at museums and permanent exhibitions around the globe.

potential of Concorde as an under-exploited and under-priced premium product in the hands of the British Government. When BA bought the fleet outright from the state in 1983, his research showed that the public believed Concorde’s ticket prices to be much more expensive than they actually were. Ticket prices were gradually raised to match the public perception and, after years of running Concorde at a mammoth loss, British Airways started turning a healthy profit. High ticket prices created an air of exclusivity akin to the hedonistic jet-age of the 1950s and ‘60s. It was a time when you weren’t anyone unless you flew Concorde to the US. As well as the supermodels, rock stars, Hollywood idols, sports icons and business leaders, Concorde became the British equivalent of “Airforce One” on occasion, an airborne ambassador carrying the Queen and numerous Prime Ministers world-wide on official business. Both the French President and the British Prime Minister each flew their respective countries’ Concorde to the second G6 Economic Summit, held in Puerto Rico in 1976, while the Queen chartered Concorde for her trips to Barbados on her Silver Jubilee in 1977, as well as again in 1987 and 2003; for her visit to the Middle East in 1984, and for her appearances in the US in 1991.

and intermittently throughout the day, as more of the sleek, arrowshaped “Speedbirds” would plough their way gracefully through sky. As I watched them recede, the fiery orange glow of its four afterburners leaving me in their wake, I would daydream about the day that I would fly Concorde. Sadly, though, that day would never come. After 24 years of faultless service, on the morning of July 25th, 2000, tragedy struck as Air France flight 4590 caught fire upon take-off due to a ruptured fuel tank and crashed into a hotel in Gonesse, killing all 100 passengers and nine crew members on-board the flight, as well as four people on the ground. It was the only fatal accident involving Concorde, but it was the death knell for the iconic jet. After a suspension of service for investigations and subsequent modifications to the shielding of the fuel tanks, Concorde resumed service on the ill-fated morning of September 11th 2001, and while it was hailed a success, it wasn’t a full flight. Then, just before Concorde touched back down at Heathrow on its return flight, world events conspired to compound the problems of Concorde’s ailing popularity

Wit h a rou n d - t r ip tick e t f rom He at h row t o JFK costing u p t o $13 ,0 0 0 , t her e wa s no gr e ater stat us sy m bol f or t he in ter nationa l je t -se t. People pa id f or t he pr estige . .

When Princess Diana made her first royal visit without Prince Charles to New York in 1989, she flew on Concorde. After Princess Grace died, the National Enquirer chartered a Concorde to get 30 reporters to France before their competition and when ageing crooner Rod Stewart got a lousy haircut during a 1991 US concert tour, a Concorde rushed his stylist in from London to fix the damage. At a time when large airliners like the Boeing 747 had made foreign holidays and travel for travel’s sake accessible to all, and no longer the preserve of the wealthy elite, Concorde was something truly aspirational.

The End Of An Era And aspire the public did. For some, it became a life’s goal. Personally, as a child I used to set my watch by the sonic boom overhead, as at 11:06am, Concorde would roar past on its way to New York. Several hours later, I would rush outside to see it return,

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(Left) Freshly cooked whole lobster and vintage Champagne was the standard fare for Concorde passengers. (Above) A luggage check-in receipt for the Concorde's first commercial flight, London to Bahrain, in 1976.

MakiNg itS MaCh The origins of Concorde hail back to the 1950s, when aviation engineers were experimenting with the concept of a turbojet-powered supersonic passenger liner, however, it wasn’t until 1962, when an Anglo-French treaty was signed to jointly develop the aircraft through Aerospatiale and the British Aircraft Corporation (BAC). The name itself, Concorde, means agreement, harmony or union. Construction of two prototypes began in February 1965: 001, built by Aerospatiale in Toulouse, and 002, by BAC at Flilton in Bristol. A slender delta-wing design was adopted, measuring nearly 204-feet in length. During flight, however, Concorde stretched between six and 10 inches due to heating of the airframe. It was even covered in a specially developed white paint to accommodate these changes and to dissipate the heat generated by supersonic flight.

even further, as news arrived that the Twin Towers of the World Trade Centre in New York had been struck by two hijacked commercial aircraft in an unprecedented and terrifying attack.

Concorde touches in down in Bahrain in 1979; (inset) the speed counter in the Concorde cabin showed passengers when the aircraft reached supersonic speeds.

The incredible thrust required to reach speeds in excess of Mach 2, meant that there was a need for an incredible engine. Concorde employed four Rolls-Royce/SNECMA Olympus 593 turbojet engines, each with a 38,000lbs of thrust and to this day the most powerful jet engines ever fitted to a commercial aircraft. It allowed Concorde to reach speeds of up to 1,350mph, twice the speed of sound. Concorde began operation on January 21st, 1976, taking off from London Heathrow, bound for Bahrain, while the French aircraft headed for Brazil. In October 1977, JFK operations and the scheduled flights, which would become the crown jewel of the Concorde legacy, from Europe to New York began the following month.

A sy mbol of w h at once m a de Br ita in gr e at ; a be acon of r isk a n d e n de avou r a n d t he epit ome of lu x u ry t h rough e xclusi v it y, Concor de wa s t he l a st tech nol ogic a l hu r r a h of a n a iling Empir e .

The ensuing culture of fear and paranoia hit the aviation industry hard and sent the Concorde services of both Britain and France into a tailspin from which the supersonic jet would never recover. In April 2003, both Air France and British Airways simultaneously announced that they would retire Concorde later that year.

On October 24th, 2003, Captain Mike Bannister, to great fanfare, fired up the Rolls-Royce Olympus engines one last time (commercially, at least) and BA002 took off from New York, bound for Heathrow. On approach to London, the aircraft was joined by two of its siblings and the three Concorde planes circled over London at low altitude, before touching down in sequence at Heathrow, where public interest in those final landings was so great, that grandstands were erected

and they were attended en masse. The Queen even consented to the illumination of Windsor Castle, an honour reserved only for state events and visiting dignitaries, for Concorde’s final west-bound departure a day earlier, such was her regard for the retiring jet. Now, all of BA's Concorde fleet have been grounded, drained of hydraulic fluid and their airworthiness certificates withdrawn. While still owned by BA and Air France, the fleet is scattered to the four winds, taking up residence at museums and exhibitions around the globe. While hope springs eternal for the day that the dust covers are pulled away and those mighty engines are brought to life once more, former Chief Concorde pilot, Jock Lowe, estimated in 2004 that it would cost up to $25.5m to make Concorde airworthy again. Even in its dilapidated state, though, Concorde remains an awesome sight and a true icon. A symbol of what once made Britain great; a beacon of risk and endeavour and the epitome of luxury through exclusivity. It was the last technological hurrah of an ailing Empire; the final chapter in the UK’s catalogue of industrial innovations that, for better or worse, changed the world. While that sleek white arrow, with power and purpose, no longer cuts its swathe through the British summer sky, I am grateful that I got to bear witness when it did. When I remember myself as an awestruck boy watching the sky from his back garden all those years ago, I’m reminded of the poem, High Flight, written by Spitfire pilot John Gillespie Magee, Jr., which I think, despite being written 35 years before Concorde’s first commercial flight, is a fitting manner to finish this reminiscence: “I’ve topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace. Where never lark, or even eagle flew; And, while with silent, lifting mind I've trod The high untrespassed sanctity of space, I’ve reached out my hand, and touched the face of God." For 27 years, Concorde allowed anyone who could afford it to do just that.

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