Duxford 40 years ago.

Amid the world wide controversy of Concorde landing rights in the USA, Concorde 101 G-AXDN slipped into Duxford on August 20th with a warm welcome from the local population, at least those who were able to get near the aerodrome! The many anxious months and years of waiting have gone and even though it is hard to believe that it has arrived, nevertheless it has already become a familiar sight at Duxford.
Concorde’s much publicised arrival has put Duxford on the map well and truly but the flight was certainly not without incident.
From the beginning of August 1977 it was known that the target delivery date was August 17th, but with the arrival of the week beginning the 15th of August, the Wednesday delivery looked like slipping. Wednesday came and the weather was awful, both at Filton and at Duxford, and the delivery was put back a day. Because 101 had not flown for some time it had to be air tested and marked 6000 feet runway test landings had to be successfully completed before it could venture to Duxford.
Thursday came, the BAC ground crew arrived with lorry loads of equipment, and it was learned that a ‘602’ engine had been borrowed from the current development aircraft ‘202’ – and Concorde ‘202’ was due to fly to the Middle East on Wednesday 27th! This engine change had been necessary because the fourth original ‘593’ Olympus had blown up during testing with Rolls Royce.
The weather began to clear in the West Country during the afternoon and enabled the test flying to take place, the marked runway tests being successful, word reached Duxford that pilot Brian Trubshaw was stopping the aircraft in under 5000 feet with the aid of a brake parachute, so things looked good for delivery the next day, Friday.
It was not to be, at Duxford it rained all day and there was much standing water on the runway. Saturday came, the now familiar representatives of the local and national media arrived as did many hundreds of the public who had heard news of the proposed flight on the previous day’s TV. At 9.00 o’clock news came from Filton that during the circuit and bumps testing they had burnt out three of the eight brake hub cooling fans, and being a pre-production aircraft replacements were not available. Shortly after 10.00 o’clock another phonecall, and Concorde 101 was in the air and on its way – but there could be problems with cooling of the brakes after touchdown!
The heavy braking on Duxford’s 6000 feet runway was likely to cause overheating and the safety valves in the wheel hubs would blow, deflating the tyres. With this in mind the BAC ground crew prepared to do a wheel change on the runway. At 11.05 Concorde overflew at about 4000 feet and there was brilliant sunshine! After some 15 minutes local flying it joined the circuit and with Brian Trubshaw in charge Concorde made a dummy approach on runway 07 to test the visual approach aid, PAPI (precision approach path indicator) a coloured light system kindly loaned by RAE Bedford. On the next circuit the Tower received ‘Delta November Finals’ – it really was going to happen at last!
Concorde 101 G-AXDN made a perfect landing, on this its 273rd flight, and after a five minute wait on the end of the runway in company with many bulldozers the safety valves held, and Concorde back-tracked to the Western Apron to be plugged into a ground power unit which continued to drive the cooling fans after the four Olympus engines were switched off. The crew disembarked to a great cheer from the capacity crowd.
The flight crew was B. Trubshaw, J. Cochrane, A Heywood and R. Scott.
The formal handing over ceremony took place on 22nd October, with Mr J.N. McEnery, Director-General of Concorde and the Nationalised Industries Division, presenting Concorde 101 to our President, Sir Peter Masefield and Chairman Don Selway. The occasion was attended by some 300 guests of the Society and of the Imperial War Museum.

From Duxford Aviation News Dec 1977

Duxford Tuesday 15th August:

Today’s highlights (and a Prentice):

Duxford Sunday 13th August:

Fox Moth G-CIPJ (‘ZK-AGM’) was a late arrival yesterday:

Sadly not staying for long, this beautiful machine made a few local flights today:

The unveiling of the ‘Sally B’ Roll of Honour took place today, with a series of short flights late afternoon:

There were several foreign visitors today. Stearman OE-AKJ was one of four which made the journey from Germany. The pilot, Jurgen Kraus, performed a DA practice flight which looked (and sounded) stunning against the blue skies:

Visiting from France was Melanie Astles in her Extra EA330SC F-HMEL. The pilot is a French aerobatic champion (despite being born in Rugby!) and the first female Red Bull racer:

Duxford Friday 11th August:

An aeroplane that strongly resembled Hurricane P2902 was out for two sorties today:

Duxford Saturday 5th August:

Rain stopped play for a while at lunchtime, but the Blenheim and Fennec were able to depart for the East Kirkby show (The Fury sadly remained hangared) :

Among the 35 visitors for the LAA Bonus Day Fly-In were scale replicas of Mustang and Spitfire:

Duxford Tuesday 1st August:

The ‘Dunkirk’ Spitfires returned to their previous identities again today:

The Yoxford Boys:

Congratulations to Captain Painless on the first flight of his Europa:

Some of today’s visitors:

Duxford Saturday 29th July:

Harvard III G-BGOR (now based at North Weald) made a short visit this morning:

Duxford Friday 28th July:

Spitfire PV202 was active all day giving rides, but Buchon ‘Black 8’ stole the limelight with a check flight mid-afternoon:

P-51D Mustang ‘Miss Velma’ was being dismantled for transport this morning:

Shweizer 269C ‘Otto’ passed through on the way to Old Buckenham, where it will be part of this weekend’s airshow (several of the Duxford ‘fleet’ will also be flying on Sunday ):