I fly a lot.
I have flown a lot for a very long time.
And still, I am not sick of it.
OK, that period of flying to America every week got to me, but generally, I love the feeling of flying – even though now, as a Dad, it makes me slightly more panicky just in case something happens.
I have to say of all the flights I do, long-haul are my favourite.
Part of this is because I sleep very, very easily on planes and so I get more rest on a plane than I do at home.
Part of this is because I get to watch movies uninterrupted, something that stopped happening when Otis was born.
Part of this is long-haul flights are my ‘normal’, so I don’t see them as long – just flying.
But of all the planes I have flown, I never got to do it on Concorde.
Maybe it’s because my Dad’s dream was to fly on it to NYC.
Maybe it’s because it entered mainstream service when I was at an impressionable age.
Maybe it’s because it flew at twice the speed of sound and so high, that you could see the curvature of the earth.
Regardless of the fact it was – in essence – the first rocket ship for public use, there has always been something about Concorde that was magical to me.
To be honest, I’m not sure why …
It was so quick I wouldn’t be able to enjoy a good sleep.
It was small – only 100 passengers – so I’d feel a bit claustrophobic.
The windows were so minute, you wouldn’t ever get a decent view unless you were next to it.
But regardless of all that, it was a magnificent machine … the likes of which, especially in domestic air travel, may never be seen again.
A few weeks ago, I got to see one.
Not a picture.
Not a model.
A real, refurbished one.
And I have to say, it was pretty emotional.
They had done it very well and in addition to giving you a good history of the rise and fall of the plane, they even included a ‘virtual flying experience’ that was pretty realistic.
However at the end, they showed a video of the last Concorde flight coming into land – Union Jacks flying from the pilots windows – and you felt a real sense of loss.
I know that sounds ridiculous, but it’s true …
Concorde was different.
Concorde was ahead of its time.
Concorde was the embodiment of the glamour of flying.
And while she was noisy, environmentally unfriendly, hideously expensive and the subject of a terrible crash [which, to be fair, was caused by the fault of another plane rather than herself] there was something magic about that plane and while I didn’t get to fly on her, it means a lot to me that I got to sit in her.
Thanks Concorde, you could teach a lot of companies a thing or two about capturing an audiences imagination.
