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Lisa Miles
2 minute read time.

There are many people in the world who have a fear of flying, although to be honest I think it’s more a fear of crashing!  I, however, am not one of these people as I adore flying!!!!  Heart eyes 

Being in an aircraft at 35,000ft and looking down at the world is one of my favourite things to do. On flights I’m usually superglued to the window watching the world below go by and night flying is my absolute favourite. On a recently journey we flew over London at dusk and the view was spectacular with the city lit up! You also get a good idea of just how large London really is…

 

One of my regrets is that I never got to fly in Concorde (although in reality I would never have been able to afford it anyway) and had to make do with watching it land and take off from Heathrow every once in a while.

 

One of the test Concordes (Concorde 101) is housed at the Imperial War Museum at Duxford which is not far from us at Michael Faraday House in Stevenage. Luckily this was also chosen as the venue for this year’s IET Staff Christmas Party.  As a special treat we were able to look around the museum out of hours and also had the opportunity to sit inside the cockpit of Concorde 101, which is usually out of bounds to the public!  Slight smile

 

The cockpit itself is very small and I can imagine that it would be quite uncomfortable to have to sit in it for any great length of time but then as a flight from London to New York only took around 3 hours anyway I expect the crew were able to bear it…

 

However on Wednesday 18th December I’ll be able to find out if it was as uncomfortable as it looks as the IET London Network in collaboration with the IMechE Greater London Region are hosting a Christmas Lecture: Concorde – Flying Supersonic where Captain John Hutchinson (an ex Concorde pilot) will give us an overview of what it was like to fly Concorde at supersonic speeds.

 

The event is currently fully booked with a waiting list but the volunteers in London will be looking at holding a repeat event in the future for those of you who haven’t secured a place this time around.

 

If you’ve been allocated a place, I’ll see you there!

 

….. I wonder if Captain Hutchinson uses this as his theme tune …? Wink



 

Parents
  • Lucky you on all counts - getting to sit in the Concorde cockpit and getting to the London lecture.


    If you get a chance when the Vulcan is at an air display, they sometimes let you walk around it when its on the ground on payment of a donation. While you can't go onboard, you can look up the steps and its amazing - very cramped and confined. Not much fun flying across the Atlantic in one of those (and it was a lot longer than 3 hours!) or even down to the Falklands and back.


    You can also get a taxi ride in a Lancaster at Lincolnshire Aviation Heritage Centre. Try www.lincsaviation.co.uk.
Comment
  • Lucky you on all counts - getting to sit in the Concorde cockpit and getting to the London lecture.


    If you get a chance when the Vulcan is at an air display, they sometimes let you walk around it when its on the ground on payment of a donation. While you can't go onboard, you can look up the steps and its amazing - very cramped and confined. Not much fun flying across the Atlantic in one of those (and it was a lot longer than 3 hours!) or even down to the Falklands and back.


    You can also get a taxi ride in a Lancaster at Lincolnshire Aviation Heritage Centre. Try www.lincsaviation.co.uk.
Children
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