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Flight engineer reveals what it was really like to operate supersonic jet Concorde

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As the flight engineer, it was Hazelby’s job to operate the controls – to make the adjustments needed to ensure the aircraft safely punched through the sound barrier to reach speeds of over Mach 2. That first day, Hazelby looked at the floor to ceiling panel and felt “very nervous.” Flight engineer colleagues had warned him Concorde duties were all consuming – he’d barely have time to eat or drink a cup of coffee for the duration of the flight. (www.cnn.com) More...

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CrtMori
Crt Mori 18
Great article and read. If you imagine how we progressed from navigators, flight engineers, etc trying to unburden the pilots to now basically pilot just pressing buttons for computer to fly... I hope we figure out this supersonic flying again (economics of it mostly).
dodger4
dodger4 14
That is a VERY INTERESTING article, with a lot of insights crew these days never deal with. Great story. Thanks.
mgsegal
Mark Segal 11
For passengers it was a wonderful aircraft. 3 hrs and 21 minutes from New York or Washington DC to London Heathrow. It was punctual to a "T", save for really bad weather, the service was excellent and the fact of landing in Europe with no jet lag, no lost sleep and ready for dinner in a real restaurant was a terrific relief on one's whole nervous system. BA and AF corporate specials on the pricing made it affordable to the fortunate few. Supersonic travel does have major commercial and environmental issues to overcome before the technology can be deployed again, but from the perspective of the passenger it was a "godsend".
jkeifer3
Joe Keifer 8
When I worked at Richmond International Airport (RIC), the SFOU manager there was able to get a Concorde to fly in for one of the airshows. Being close to the runway when that beautiful bird did a low pass and then a landing was an experience I'll never forget!
davidnathan
David Rizzo 3
My first time as a paying passenger on the Concorde was the summer of 1980, JFK to LHR, and was sitting next to a regular flier from Detroit who advised me to ask (since it was my first time) to sit in the cockpit after dinner was finished. I was told I could sit in the engineer's seat as long as I didn't touch any of the switches on the panel. I did that until they needed to make preparations for landing and the engineer needed his seat back. I flew later as a courier for TNT but by they put couriers in the last row and probably no longer allowed anyone in the cockpit by then.
masmith57j
Matt Smith 2
Re: “And even people who’ve heard of a flight engineer are not really quite sure what they are or what they do,” Hazelby adds. : Watch Airport (1970). Other than messing with the stewardesses, the FE was actually quite busy on his 707.

My Dad was Structural Dynamics Engineer on Concorde at Filton during the 60's. Because he spoke good technical French he was back-n-forth to Toulouse very frequently.

Saw one take off at an Airshow East of San Diego (airport anybody? - about a mile north of Mexico). it was almost as loud as a Space Shuttle Main Engine (My bread&butter in the 80's) from 1/2 mile away.
lenmalena
len malena 1
I was also at that airshow, Brown Field I think, and the Concorde offered a quick flight over the coast line to break sound barrier, wish I had paid the money for that opportunity.
Also recall they had a AN-124 on display.
lenmalena
len malena 1
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air/Space_America_88
masmith57j
Matt Smith 1
!! that's the show. AN-124 doing Doughnuts at the end of the runway on its castor'd main wheels - all dozen or so of them. Then it took off like an empty C17...
Flight26DW
David Waterman 1
Great article and very well written. I found the point about seeing the sun rise in the west as particularly interesting as I have seen this but in less glamorous surroundings. It was on a flight from Finnish Lapland to London Gatwick. We took off soon after sunset so the southerly trajectory of our flight took us along the line of the sun setting later. We therefore saw sunset, sunrise and then sunset again all in quick succession.
francrimi
francrimi 1
I remember one summer spending a lot of time at Rockaway Beach. I used to get there early just to watch the Concorde take off from JFK over my head and then head out over the water --- and then just when it was leaving eye view out over the ocean, you'd hear the sonic boom.
snow
James Cox 1
Watching the sun set, then rise again in the west must have been pretty amazing.
jmasdenver
jmasdenver 1
Sitting in a TWA 747 at number 2 for takeoff at Charles de Gaulle, the jet blast from the Concorde shook the 747 enough to drop a few baggage trays from their locked positions. Quite the roar too!
SamHobbs
Sam Hobbs 1
I was at the Washington Monument for our nation's bicentennial. There was applause when a Concorde flew over. I think it was the only thing that got applause, the laser show did not work.
georgemcneil
George McNeil 1
Great article Warren. I flew from JFK to Heathrow just before 9/11 and spent more than an hour on the flight deck. What an incredible (but antiquated) piece of engineering. Six pack flying. I lived under the east runways right downwind departure from Heathrow. Every time it went over, you had to stop and look up at a beautiful silhouette with its hair raising sound. A truly remarkable piece of engineering that long term was unable to survive due to its poor economics (it was impossible to ever recover development and manufacturing costs), and the increasing costs of keeping it in the air after 27 years. But what a fantastic aircraft.
Later I flew the Brooklands Flight Simulator with an ex Concorde Captain as a birthday present. Was a predictable aircaft to fly including a landing at Kai Tak Airport. Go try the last remaining simulator at Brooklands Museum in Surrey UK https://www.brooklandsmuseum.com/concorde
CFI/CFII

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