Is there a pilot alive whose pulse has not raced upon seeing Concorde’s lithe shape part the sky? Of the many airliner cockpit rides I have been fortunate enough to take over the past 25 years, uppermost in memory have to be seven flights aboard British Airways Concordes, six of them viewed from the jumpseat in that decidedly cozy cockpit.
The first one was a swift sprint from New York JFK to Miami in 1985 when British Airways briefly operated that leg as a continuation of its service from London Heathrow. Capt. John Hutchinson was in the left seat. If I recall, there were only 11 passengers in the back (and some of those were travel agents on “familiarization” rides), so for the one-and-a-quarter-hour run down to south Florida we were light on fuel, too. Having read that at light weights dry thrust can suffice, I asked “Hutch” if he would still use the afterburners for takeoff. He looked over his shoulder and, with a wry smile, said, “Oh, yes. It’s much more fun that way.” And off we sped in what is affectionately known by BA crews as Goldenrod, the Bionic Tea Tray and the Bionic Toothpick.
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