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It's sad in reflection that I did not realise how fortunate
I was to be working on such a prestigious project.
Looking back over the many years of the Concorde programme
I have been fortunate enough to have a number of unique experiences
and memories of which a little detail is provided here.
Most
of all I remember the fantastic working atmosphere on the
aircraft, a few names that stick in my memory - Tommy Greenhill
who I worked as an apprentice to for around 6 months, Cliff
Mansfield the hard man that everybody loved and Mervyn Thompson
and Andy Williams the foremen in charge of section S38.
Cut
hands
A simple but painful lesson taught to me by Cliff, that has
stuck with me all my years, is how to break waxed string without
cutting your hands to shreds.
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| A
flight certificate to Cairo alongside a ticket for the
first Concorde flight from Filton. |
Whilst
the cables were being laid in the aircraft during build-up
they were temporarily tied with wax string. The balls of string
were left dangling throughout the fuselage.
The
trick was to quickly pull off a length of string, wrap it
around your hand and with a quick tug, and snap it.
What
you could not see was the special way it was wrapped around
the hand, which stopped it pulling against your skin. There
were quite a few of us apprentices around with cut hands for
a while until we cottoned on to how to do it!
Secondly,
I remember being asked
to
leave the cockpit around two-and-a-half hours before the aircraft
took off for its maiden flight by Freddie Price, the Works
manger at that time. The aircraft was about to be towed out
onto the runway for more taxiing trials (or so we thought!)
Pre-production
work
Soon
after the maiden flight I was transferred to GW Division where
I worked on a Flight Tape recording system for the pre-production
aircraft 01 and was fortunate enough to be tasked with demonstrating
on the aircraft a 'tape write-in unit'.
This
piece of equipment allowed the programming of a "core
store" (an early form of computer memory) using fanfold
paper tape that enabled the Flight Test engineers to select
the frequency at which sensors were measured and recorded
during flight.
This
demonstration was done in the cockpit where other detailed
system test were being undertaken at the same time and hence
was in a fully operational condition with numerous displays
all lit up.
In
October 1985 I was fortunate enough to have a commercial flight.
My wife was working part-time in a travel agents office and
a special offer came up to fly from Cairo to Heathrow.
Jumping
at the chance we flew down to Cairo in an Airbus, spent 2
days there and flew back on Concorde with people who had flown
down to the Pyramids for a 'day trip'.
Sports
car
I'll
never forget as we passed over North Africa the captain advised
us that his speed had been restricted overland but as we now
commenced crossing the Mediterranean he would be increasing
his speed to Mach 2 - the feeling was like being in an accelerating
sports car - pushed back in your seat as he increased the
throttle.
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| Enjoying
the high life on-board Concorde. |
As
we approached Heathrow the captain advised us that we were
about to set a record for the fastest flight from Cairo and
that Air Traffic Control had given us direct clearance to
land without any queuing to ensure the shortest time possible.
What
now turns out to be my final experience happened around seven
years ago. A sales manager at my present company worked for
BAe as part of the Concorde sales team.
Whilst
we were exhibiting at the Farnborough Air show he met a colleague
who had also been part of the Sales team and was now managing
the Pilot Training facility at Filton and was invited to visit
him at the facility.
I
shall be eternally grateful that our sales manager invited
me to go along with him for the visit. Of course the main
part of the facility is the Concorde Flight Simulator and
I was fortunate enough to spend around 15 minutes at the controls
including trying to land at Hong Kong airport.
All
that I have been able to do in recent years is marvel at that
little white arrow that passes over my house on a Sunday morning
around 11.15am whilst I am working in the garden - she will
be sadly missed.
Dale
Jeffreys
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