On January 21, 1976 a teenage John Tye was amongst crowds of onlookers clinging to a sequence hyperlink fence, cheering as the first industrial British Airways Concorde flight departed from London’s Heathrow airport.
Tye was exhilarated, amazed and impressed as he noticed this glossy, supersonic airplane of the future climb into the skies and make historical past.
Little did Tye know some 20 years later, he’d be sitting in the Concorde flight deck for the first time, pinching himself that his teenage dream was coming true.
Tye vividly remembers his first moments flying Concorde. Sure, he’d gone by way of intensive coaching, he’d practiced on the simulator — however this was the actual deal. It was a sense he might by no means have totally ready for.
Tye and his fellow coaching pilots had been in Seville, Spain. It was a lovely Thursday night — “the sun was just setting, you could see a big ball of fire at the end of runway,” as Tye places it.
“We got in and started the engines, and to feel those four Rolls-Royce Olympus engines starting up and the airplane vibration for the very first time was just absolutely mind blowing,” Tye tells NCS Travel.
Tye synchronized his watch with the coaching captain and the flight engineer. Then, they counted down and ready for takeoff.
“It’s ‘three, two, one — now,’ and I pushed all four throttles fully forward in my left hand and I was just shoved back into my seat — an experience I could never describe, the acceleration as you shot off down the runway,” he says.
Then, the Concorde was in the air, constructing top.
“That 20 minutes was the most incredible experience in my aviation career. It was just absolutely unbelievable,” says Tye.
For practically three many years earlier than it retired in November 2003, Concorde plane sped by way of the skies above the Atlantic in slightly below three and a half hours, flying at twice the pace of sound.
Most of us can solely think about what it was like to be on board — in spite of everything, these plane had been small, with room for simply 100 passengers per flight, and ticket costs had been steep.
While comparatively few individuals skilled what it was like to journey on Concorde, even fewer know the feeling of piloting the quickest passenger airplane ever to enter industrial service.
British Airways and Air France had been the solely two airways who operated the plane. It’s stated that in the plane’s 27 years of service, there have been extra certified American astronauts than there have been British Airways Concorde pilots.
When Tye first piloted Concorde in the late Nineteen Nineties, the airplane had been established for twenty years. Peter Duffey was there at the very starting, as considered one of the first British Airways pilots chosen to trial the plane. Duffey handed away in 2024 at the age of 98, however he spoke to NCS Travel in 2023 about his expertise on Concorde.
“I was involved in the development — flying with the test pilots,” Duffey instructed NCS Travel. “We flew to Australia and Canada, carrying a lot of passengers.”
Duffey discovered to fly as an Royal Air Force pilot throughout World War II. He later flew the de Havilland Comet, the first commerical turbojet engine plane, and considered one of its successors, the de Havilland Comet 4. When Concorde got here calling, Duffey was a longtime British Airways coaching pilot on the Boeing 707.
“We knew Concorde was coming, and most people felt intrigued and wanted to get onto the aircraft. So I put my name down for it,” he recalled.
Duffey helped mastermind the first Concorde coaching scheme, and flew the plane till he retired in 1980.
Also there at the starting was pilot Jock Lowe, who shares a birthday with Concorde — he turned 25 the day the supersonic airplane first took to the skies in 1969.
Concorde made supersonic journey a actuality 50 years in the past
Lowe remembers watching the plane on tv that day.
“I thought to myself, ‘Yeah, that’s what I’ll do. I’ll go and fly Concorde — not really realizing what was involved,’” Lowe tells NCS Travel.
Like Duffey, Lowe was considered one of the first British Airways pilots to take a look at out supersonic flying at RAF Fairford, a navy airbase in southwest England.
“It was quite a shock because I walked around the hangar on a foggy February morning at RAF Fairford — and I’d never even seen the aeroplane for real before,” says Lowe.”
An hour later, Lowe says he was “let loose” with the Concorde, and it felt “amazing.”
“We went up to about 63,000 feet and started to throw the aeroplane around,” he remembers. Lowe says the feeling, an analogy usually echoed in Concorde circles, was “like going from a bus to a Formula One sports car.”
Lowe ended up on the first BA coaching course in 1976 and was nonetheless on the Concorde fleet when he retired in 2001, incomes him the accolade of the longest-serving British Airways Concorde pilot.
“I flew it for longer than anyone else, by quite a margin. But, because I had lots of office jobs as well, I didn’t do as many hours as some of them,” says Lowe, who additionally served as BA’s flight operations director.
Richard Westray, who first piloted Concorde in 1998, echoes Lowe’s “bus to Ferrari” comparability. He says commanding a Concorde was in contrast to the feeling of flying every other plane.
“Racing down the runway for the first time, accelerating to climb into the air was one of those experiences you never forget,” Westray tells NCS Travel. “The feeling of speed during acceleration phases was just tremendous. The plane performed like no subsonic plane could perform.”
Once the Concorde was in the air, it would climb quick, “at 100 knots faster than an ordinary subsonic jet,” as former Concorde First Officer Tony Yule explains.
“You would probably climb somewhere around 2,000-4,000 feet a minute, which is really very, very fast, until initially you hit 28,000 feet,” he tells NCS Travel.
Concorde couldn’t fly supersonic over land, so after the preliminary ascent, it would function subsonically — though the velocity was nonetheless “well over the speed of a 747,” as John Tye explains.
When Concorde reached the Bristol Channel, an inlet to the west of London main to the North Atlantic, pilots would give passengers a heads up after which the plane would break by way of the sound barrier.
There was, says Tye, “no banging, no crashing, no rattling and rolling.”
Yule describes the second the Concorde hit Mach 1 as “rather like putting a hot knife through warm butter — it slips in just like that.”
But the subsequent shock wave would create a tiny blip that may briefly impression the devices.
“The vertical speed indicators in the flight deck would do a little dance as the supersonic shockwave passed over their external sensors,” explains Tye.
That, says Yule, is the way you’d “know you’re supersonic.”
Then the pilots would make an announcement to passengers. “Ladies and gentlemen, we’ve just reached the speed of sound, Mach 1. Welcome to the world of supersonic flight.”
“And then we’re up to twice the speed of sound and nearly 60,000 feet on the ‘edge of space,’” says Tye.
Tye distinctly remembers that second on his first-ever Concorde flight.
“I saw that curvature of the Earth, and the black sky above us, leading to infinity,” he remembers.
As for Lowe, he spent practically three many years flying Concorde, however he says the feeling of “exhilaration” at the plane’s technological marvels by no means actually pale.
“The tension, the excitement of the first flights, of the first year, it gradually reduced, obviously, but it never lost its excitement,” says Lowe. “It was always exhilarating.”
It was additionally, he says, all the time “fun.” The environment on board was all the time electrical.
“Everybody that worked with it, from the hangar floor upwards, everybody had a great deal of pride in the aeroplane and getting it right,” says Lowe.
The small pool of Concorde pilots additionally meant everybody knew everybody. Operating different plane, you’d not often fly with the similar staff, however with Concorde, there have been all the time acquainted faces in the crew, says Tye.
“There were only ever 134 BA Concorde pilots the whole time the airplane was in service, so it really was a day out with your mates every time you went to work,” he says.
Around 20 minutes after take off, cabin crew would begin serving the passengers. Many of them had been frequent flyers, enterprise individuals “commuting” forwards and backwards throughout the Atlantic. The crew would acknowledge acquainted faces and know their drink of selection by coronary heart.
After offering for the passengers, the crew would pop into the cockpit.
“They came in with three mugs of tea for each of us — the captain on the left, me and the flight engineer sitting behind,” remembers Tye.
So far, so customary. But there was a Concorde twist.
“Also on the same tray were three pots of some of the finest caviar in the world with a mother of pearl spoon each to eat them with.”
The Concorde’s supersonic standing additionally afforded pilots a vantage level like no different.
“By the time you’re at 60,000 feet, you could see a quarter of a million square miles,” says Lowe. “So you could actually see the things that you saw on maps — there they were, for real.”
For Tye, it was additionally surreal to take off and land and see crowds of individuals lined up to watch. It would take him again to the day he stood at Heathrow, watching the first industrial Concorde flight take off.
He remembers one event when an American Airlines pilot who was cleared to line up and takeoff earlier than Concorde asking if he might skip his place in line, in order that he might watch Concorde depart as an alternative.
“To operate a Concorde out of Heathrow was just incredible, you could feel the eyes of the other passengers in the subsonic airliners around you at Heathrow watching you, you could feel the pilots of those other airliners watching you,” says Tye. “And here I was, taxiing Concorde out, towards runway 27R at Heathrow.”
Before the flight deck was closed to vacationers post-9/11, Concorde’s on board philosophy was “a very big private jet that was being shared by up to 100 passengers,” as Westray places it. “So we had very much an open flight deck policy.”
The majority of the passengers had been enterprise individuals, and the remaining 20% had been the wealthy, well-known and necessary. Westray remembers displaying pop star Sting the flight deck on a couple of event. It was surreal, however mingling with celebrities was half and parcel of engaged on Concorde.
“The very first big name I met — I walked out, opened the curtain into the cabin, and there was Elton John sitting there in the front row,” remembers Tye.
Tye remembers being surprised by how weird the second was: “I’d been to Wembley Stadium to see him with 100,000 other people in concert just a few weeks before.”
Tye and John had a short interplay however Tye can’t recall any of it. “I was too starstruck to be honest with you,” he admits.
After that, Tye made a psychological word to himself that, earlier than heading out to greet passengers on future flights, he’d first verify “if any of my other heroes were out there,” so he may very well be extra ready.
This technique served him properly — he later met superstars Mick Jagger and Paul McCartney.
As for Lowe, over his decades-spanning Concorde profession he transported everybody from Muhammad Ali to Richard Nixon — “many people I would have never, ever, ever dreamed of meeting — pop stars, film stars, businessmen to royalty.”
As properly as scheduled flights, Concorde additionally flew constitution flights for the VIPs.
The essential distinction with these flights, says Lowe, was “there was obviously just a little bit more tension and pressure to make sure that the aeroplane left on time and arrived on time.”
He remembers one event when he was flying Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip from Canada again to the UK.
“We had to slow down because the temperature in the upper atmosphere meant that we’d reached the limits,” explains Lowe.
The Queen seen, and requested Lowe what was happening — why was the plane slowing down?
The interplay, says Lowe, was “quite fun.”
“I was able to explain a little bit — that we weren’t slowed down much, and we’d still arrive on time.”
Sure sufficient, they did.
The Concorde story resulted in November 2003, when the final industrial flight landed in a Bristol airfield.
There had been a variety of elements main to Concorde’s retirement in 2003.
In 2000, a deadly Air France Concorde accident led to an investigation and numerous modifications to the plane.
Westray means that whereas the airplane had an in any other case glowing security report, some passengers by no means regained confidence in Concorde.
He remembers assembly a former Concorde frequent flyer at New York’s JFK airport not lengthy after the crash. This passenger was checking onto a Boeing 747 flight as an alternative.
“He apologized to me and said, ‘I’ll never fly Concorde again,’” remembers Westray. “He said, ‘I’m frightened of it.’”
Concorde was very reliant on these common prospects who crossed the Atlantic continuously for work. Westray and Lowe say a number of Concorde frequent flyers labored in the World Trade Center and had been killed on 9/11. These terrorist assaults additionally impacted world confidence in air journey extra usually.
And by the early twenty first century, Concorde was getting outdated, and there have been important prices concerned in the plane’s maintenance.
“I wasn’t surprised it was retired, they kept it going as long as possible,” mirrored Duffey. “But the maintenance costs were very large.”
“It was going to have to go sometime,” agrees Lowe. “I think it was a little premature, but it would have stopped when the banking crisis came along in 2008, because we’d have lost half our passengers.”
Tye says his Concorde profession got here to an finish with out him realizing. In August 2000, he was about to take off at Heathrow when he bought a name telling him to return Concorde to the gate as a result of BA was grounding the plane.
“What I didn’t know then was I wouldn’t ever get back on Concorde,” says Tye. “Because of that, I didn’t have any mementos. I didn’t have any significant souvenirs, and I was planning to carry on flying Concorde for the rest of my career.”
While Concorde did return for a few years earlier than its closing goodbye, in the interim, Tye turned a BA Airbus captain and by no means returned to supersonic flying.
Concorde’s closing flight was, for Tye, a “a very, very sad, emotional day.”
“It was a very emotional period, a lot of tears were shed,” echoes Westray, recalling an “emotional farewell” from air visitors management on his closing Concorde flight from New York in 2003.
When Concorde ended, Westray was grateful he was nonetheless younger, and will prepare on one other massive plane and proceed his aviation profession.
But different Concorde staff misplaced their jobs — significantly the flight engineers. When Concorde launched, this was a key aviation position, however by the early twenty first century the position was changing into out of date thanks to advances in know-how.
Lowe was amongst the Concorde pilots who retired when the airplane was grounded.
“It was a point of reflection,” says Lowe of this era. “I wasn’t totally sure that it would come back — even though I had absolute confidence in the aeroplane.”
As for Tye, he carried on piloting British Airways plane till 2022. As the years went on and the numbers of still-serving former Concorde pilots dwindled, Tye was more and more peppered with questions on his supersonic days.
“You weren’t a celebrity, but you were known as a Concorde pilot,” he says.
On flights, he’d often be quizzed by a youthful co-pilot eager to know all about Tye’s time flying supersonic.
Tye all the time loved these journeys down reminiscence lane.
“I’d be delighted to share my passion and privilege with them and tell them all about it — and I’d try and get it right and know when to shut up and not hog the limelight.”
There had been solely ever two feminine Concorde pilots: British Airways’ Barbara Harmer, who handed away in 2011, and AirFrance’s Béatrice Vialle, who nonetheless works for the French airline.
Tye knew Hammer and says she was “absolutely wonderful.”
While aviation continues to be recognized for being a predominantly male, predominantly White business, Tye says he’s heartened to see progress in the twenty years since Concorde’s closing flight.
“We are definitely becoming more diverse,” he says.
Almost twenty years since Concorde’s closing flight, the attract of supersonic flight hasn’t waned, with corporations resembling Boom Supersonic working to build Concorde’s successor.
The former Concorde pilots have blended views on the chance of supersonic flight’s return.
Lowe cites the roadblocks of “the cost of development, the cost of materials, the cost of fuel.”
Tye reckons it’s “something that could definitely happen again,” however factors out engines would wish to be quieter and extra gas environment friendly.
“We couldn’t have Concorde engines now, they’re far too noisy and use far too much fuel,” he says.
Westray says it “could be a reality, but I think it’s a lot further away than people think.”
But one factor he’s assured about — there’ll all the time be forward-thinking aviation improvement occurring someplace, in some way.
“Scientists and aviation enthusiasts never stop and they’ll always be people pushing to expand the envelope,” he says.
Today, Tye says he’s simply grateful to have had the alternative to fulfill his teenage dream. Piloting Concorde was an unbelievable job and each morning, he’d get up excited and grateful.
“Most of the people in my street would be walking off to the station with their briefcases, and I’d be getting in my car to drive to the airport to fly Concorde to New York. So that was just a thrill and an excitement every day when I went to work.”
EDITOR’S NOTE: This story was initially printed in 2023. It was up to date and republished in 2025 to mark the fiftieth anniversary of Concorde’s first industrial flight.