Concorde
 

Went with the wife to Bristol today to see Concorde close up and look inside. Still a good looking bird.. both of them :)
The flight deck was amazing, awash with buttons and dials just as the engineers panel was too. They also had what looked like an Airbus 320 flight deck, so clear of dials and switches, it was amazing the difference.

How the Concorde crew knew what everything did is staggering.

macafee2

I thought the same when i went inside the one on display at duxford. Crazy number of dials, switches and gauges. The plane was smaller on the inside than i imagined.

Here you go ..
 

A nice DC 3 Dakota at Yorkshire Air Museum

BBMF Dakota
 

BBMF Dakota pictured through the fence at RAF Coningsby undergoing an engine run during maintenance

There used to be a DC3 that did a flower run from Holland to East Midlands airport and one could hear that droning along for ages, a great sound in the dead of night.

I was employed in the Flight Testing of all of the British built Concorde aircraft and some of the testing of a couple of the French built ones...
When we were operating out of Filton at Fairford we had a DC3; G-AMPO, which was used as a daily shuttle between the sites for staff who had not yet made the move to the Flight Test Centre, in the early days...

Visited the flight deck on a Vulcan recently. Uncomfortable and very cramped. Full respect to the crews who bombed the Falklands runway and fuelled them mid air. Wow!;):bowdown:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e5yAtuYPHK4

A few pictures I took from the Concorde cockpit at Manchester and the Vulcan based at Wellesbourne


https://i.imgur.com/0YZYQ12h.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/WmQXvm5h.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/G1yT0V7h.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/JDngQDGh.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/VC7irIbh.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/iwtvNiih.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/zZhbokph.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/UdC1ToDh.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/gqyO74hh.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/Nvnw88Kh.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/9UjJd2mh.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/EuFCuqyh.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/Ks0Gs9xh.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/BJFgblph.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/Z6DT4elh.jpg

Was that the cockpit at the jet age museum at Staverton (now cotswold) airport. Very cramped to get up in it.

Some years ago, whilst the Concordes were in service, I was in a lucky position where I could take guests on board ones in for maintenance. It was tight, it was claustrophobic for some, it was beautiful.