As some will know I went to MAN last month for a mini meet with Lance (Grey Area) and Gareth (gpb_croppers63). After Lance had to leave us on the carpark roof, Gareth and myself caught the bus round to the aviation park to meet with Neil Lomax (Trident Man) for a look round and a chat.
Neil was kind enough to give a us a little impromptu tour of Concorde which was great as it wasn’t officially open to the public that day. This was only the second time I’ve been on board a Concorde and as it was a refurbished one it made a nice change from the old interiored one at East Fortune (see separate report). http://forum.keypublishing.co.uk/showthread.php?t=41511&highlight=East+Fortune
Neil took us round the underside first and showed us the ‘sterling preservation work’ he’d just applied to the port side main wheels ! 😀
By: davforr - 17th June 2005 at 00:00
Great pictures and fond memories of the plane
By: TRIDENT MAN - 16th June 2005 at 23:14
Ill see what i can do chaps,but i cannot promise.Lets see on the day 🙂
By: LBARULES - 16th June 2005 at 19:51
Hope so! 🙂
By: Ren Frew - 16th June 2005 at 15:43
Excellent report and shots Allen 🙂
Maybe Neil can arrange for us to have a tour of Concorde on the 10th? I imagine alot of us are going to be there ?
(Us lot paying of course :D).
I’m sure Neil will delighted to entertain you all…
By: LBARULES - 6th June 2005 at 15:27
Excellent report and shots Allen 🙂
Maybe Neil can arrange for us to have a tour of Concorde on the 10th? I imagine alot of us are going to be there ?
(Us lot paying of course :D).
By: Mark L - 6th June 2005 at 15:12
Great report Allen, some ace photos there!
By: Ren Frew - 6th June 2005 at 14:59
I saw an old British Airways Concorde in New York at the Intrepid Sea, Air, & Space Museum. They allow you to have a walk through. It’s quite a lovely bird, but I had no idea just how small the windows are! I guess there’s not much to look at over the Atlantic, but man were they small! Beautiful interior though, and what a complicated cockpit!
Yeah that was G-BOAD the one they painted one side of in Singapore Airlines livery.
By: Ren Frew - 6th June 2005 at 14:53
A great experience and well worth booking a tour if you’re passing through MAN. Thanks to Neil for giving us the personal touch. 😀
By: Ren Frew - 6th June 2005 at 14:50
Next was the moment I was looking forward to the most… getting into the cockpit. 😀
It’s not the biggest front office in the world, you have to squeeze in past the engineer’s station and a jumpseat behind the captain’s. Once in you get a real sense of the technology involved in this supersonic machine. Dials, gauges and instruments are everywhere. 😮
Neil explained a few of the things to us and showed us some of the interesting ‘graffiti’ left by former flight and cabin crew when ‘Alpha Charlie’ was retired. 😎
And of course Gareth and myself couldn’t resist the opportunity to have our picture taken in the top seat! 😀 Blimey doesn’t Gareth look like a young Tony Blair !!! 😮 :dev2: 😀
By: Ren Frew - 6th June 2005 at 14:42
Next we went onboard, unlike the East Fortune example there’s no restriction to touring the entire cabin and cockpit. At East Fortune access is limited to the forward passenger cabin only. Neil showed us the ID plates above the forward door.
It was nice to see the newer designed interior with it’s blue seats and contemporary carpet. Neil explained that the new seats were of sufficiently light materials that they didn’t have to make any post crash changes to the overall pax capacity, unlike Air France.
Half way up the cabin there is an area where you can hold a wedding ceremony if you fancy getting hitched onboard? I believe East Fortune may be about to try this as well as a way of increasing revenues? 😀
We also had a look out the rear cabin door onto the wing, woooh bring some sunglasses people !!!! 😀
By: PhantomII - 6th June 2005 at 14:37
I saw an old British Airways Concorde in New York at the Intrepid Sea, Air, & Space Museum. They allow you to have a walk through. It’s quite a lovely bird, but I had no idea just how small the windows are! I guess there’s not much to look at over the Atlantic, but man were they small! Beautiful interior though, and what a complicated cockpit!
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June 6, 2005 at 2:33 pm