the wings look like the fins off a giant Tuna

maybe some of the newer ones will find their way to Thomas Cook, when i flew on one of their 300 series recently, the pilot seemed to oversell the virtues of the TC 757-300, to the poor 280 souls CRAMMED in behind him, it was not so wonderful 😀

the concordski bit was the TU-144 crash at Paris in 1970something, saw a documentary about that, the french would not admit a fighter aircraft of theirs was in vicinity and made the TU-144 turn abrubtly, which caused a framework failure, and break up.

i agree the french are expert at lifting the carpet
just like the crash in tunnel blamed on the photographer’s!!!!!!

its a strange world we live in
DC9s first flew carrying about 90 passengers, and were eventually stretched to carry double that
the regional jets began from executive jet size until the carry 60 people
this new chinese plane looks like its filling the gap left by the now retired DC9/737 early series planes

BAE Systems are not part of Airbus any more

i can remember when i saw A380 fly past Filton July 2006 i thought it looked short and stubby, given the A340-600 treatment A380 would look better proportioned and would a capacity near a 1000 i would say
the Dreamliner should be a sleek looking bird i think

i use Filton for business, and have heard that it has lost its capability to hold an airshow, because planes cannot turn with in the boundary of the airfiled anymore, so much has been sold off. But on day when i was there RR rolled out their Griffin powered Spitfire and did a few fly pasts for Saudi people leaving on a Gulfstream.
as for built up areas, yes the “Stokes” are close, but recently part of the RR plant at the North East end of the runway has been flattened, so both approaches are now building free for at least 1/4 mile at each end.