As young as I am, it's 50 years since the first test flight in 1969 of a plane from the future.
I saw it take off once from Manchester Airport - a chance passing of the viewing park - and will never forget the roar power and dynamic beauty.
Out-of-sight sleek. Bullet dart-droop nose. Slender delta wings. Four Rolls Royce Olympus engines. 38,000lb of afterburner thrust. Supersonic twice the speed of sound 1350mph at 60,000ft.
Heathrow to JFK in 3.5 hours.
50,000 flights. 2.5 million passengers.
Until it's saddest day July 25, 2000. Air France Flight 4590 from Paris ran over a piece of titanium that had fallen from another aircraft. It burst a tyre, sent shrapnel ignited a fuel tank. All on board were killed, may they rest in peace.
Concorde died.
Her son, the Overture, lives in the development of Boom Technology.
Widen our horizons. Soar, and inspire another generation.
[With grateful thanks to Scarecrow108 for re-editing the original 93militaryreloaded video unkindly removed by Youtube - superb compilation / song edit worthy of rightful retainment merit]
[Should the owner of my prior favourite choice video - with the XX intro music perfection editing - now removed (sob!) pick this up - please consider re-posting - there will be a place here always....missing it enormously.....deserves hall of fame]