Flying on the Concorde - The experience of a lifetime

Since the Concorde is no longer in existence I have started to realize that having the opportunity to experience it was the chance of a lifetime. It has become a gem in my bucketlist.

A few years before British Airways and Air France decided to discontinue the Concorde, British Airways was promoting a special deal to fly from London to New York. We decided to take advantage of the offer and book the trip. At the time, the full fare tickets were costing about 6,000 USD.

Terminal 4 at Heathrow had a special lounge dedicated to the Concorde, aptly named “The Concorde Lounge.” It was lush and luxurious and everything there was complementary. A special dress code required that a suit and tie was necessary. Non conforming customers would be blocked at the lounge, as we were greeted by the host to sign in.

Upon entrance into the Concorde you felt like you were entering a super spatial transporter. It was quite small with two rows of two seats which held roughly 92 passengers. I remember everything being top of the line. The seats were leather and extemely comfortable. The headphones that they provided for listening to music were top of the line Seinheisers. There were no video screens at the time.

Once we took off from Heathrow the plane flew normally. The pilot explained to all the passengers that it was necessary to be clear of the coast and populated areas before he could go supersonic. This is where the Concorde flies at Mach 1 and breaks the speed of sound. When that happens there is a sonic boom.

There were two screens at the front of the cabin which provided the current speed. Everyone waited anxiously as we approached Mach 1 and broke the speed of sound, at which time everyone started to clap. I was expecting to hear or feel something but there was no difference. In fact, the sonic boom happens outside. We heard nothing in the interior. By the time we reached our cruising altitude we had reached Mach 2, or 2,180km/h (1,254 mph). That means flying at twice the speed of sound.

It took us roughly 1 hour to reach the cruising altitude, which was 60,000 feet (18,000 meters). That is roughly twice the height that regular commercial aircraft usually fly at. Looking out the window at that height I could see a constant glow of the sun on the horizon, even though this was a night flight. The most striking experience was being so high that the horizon was no longer flat as we were used to, we could see the curve of the earth.

At that height, above most of the typical weather patterns that could cause turbulance, there was none. I remember the flight being as smooth as could be. It was only upon decent, which took about 1.5 hours that we encountered a few minor bumps.

We were served a three course meal with proper cuttlery and Royal Doulton bone china plates, all emboldened with the Concode name and logo. With our meal we were offered a choice of excellent wines or champagne.

All the time I was clocking the flight time. From take off in London to our landing in New York’s JFK, took 3 hours and 20 minutes.

This was definitely a once-in-a-lifetime experience.