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by Paul Waine » Wed Feb 26, 2020 11:18 pm
Flew Concorde London-New York and NY-London, summer 1994. Firm I was working with at time had London and NY offices, made the rtn trip at least once each month, sometime 2 or 3 times. Summer months Concorde bookings were quiet and BA offered firms with regular travellers the opportunity to book Concorde seats for price of "regular" business class fare - on condition that you fly both directions. Well, it would have been rude not to take them up on the offer.... so I found a reason I needed to be in NY for a couple of days. Thing was the NY-Ldn flight left NY mid-afternoon, so the really serious business people wouldn't choose that flight. That was one of the "extra pluses" lunch in NY and sleep in your own bed back home in London. And, no jet lag.
The other bonus for the trip was that there was bad weather in NY when we arrived, so we were diverted to Hartford Airforce base - about 100 miles out from JFK. (Concorde didn't carry enough fuel to circle while the storm cleared). We sat on the ground there for 2-3 hours. Yes, the regular Concorde fliers just wanted to get off, but I was in no hurry, pretty sure they were serving drinks, again, while we waited.
Then the time came to complete our journey - with enough fuel to take off, but no more than enough so we were ready to land in 10/15 mins time. The pilot advised we would take off "like a fighter jet!" Wow, what a "kick in the back" from those plush leather armchairs that were the Concorde seats!
Yes, I was very lucky. What a beautiful machine.... but, more than a "little heavy" on fuel consumption, designed and built when oil was less that $6/barrel - no 10 times that.
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