Armstrong - Vintage champagne on the edge of space: the supersonic world of a Concorde stewardess

Dedicated to JD for his inspiration
and to Rob, my son, to give him inspiration.

I would like to give my thanks to all the crew who willingly volunteered their stories about their careers on Concorde. Certain episodes will always remain strongly etched on the mind and it is those episodes of an extraordinary life that I have happily recalled.

In particular, I would like to thank cabin service manager Dick Bell, Scarlett Geen, Louise Brown, Dee Bull, Jill Channon, Annie Carter, Carol Cornwell, Steve Brennan, Sue Drayton, Bernadette Forrest, Jeannette Hartley, Robert Bailey, Maggie Sinclair, Maggie Coles, Captain John Hutchinson, Captain Jock Lowe, Chief Pilot Mike Bannister and, last but not least, Purser Julia van den Bosch, who has flown more supersonic miles than anyone on this planet!

I would also like to thank all the crews who flew with me for all the special memories we shared. Thanks to Amy Rigg and all at The History Press for their help and support. To special friends Jilly Cooper and Fred Finn and to Richard Noble for their kind contributions to the book.

Finally, this book is not intended in any way as a technical narrative on Concorde so any omissions on its performance, handling and statistics will, I hope, be forgiven by the readers of this book.

Front cover photos thanks to Mike Bannister and Frederic Carmel.

Its June 2009 and I am standing under the wings of Concorde Delta Golf at Brooklands. There are crowds of people around and we are here to launch the cockpit simulator which had been rescued from Filton, where it had been irreverently trashed when Concorde flying ceased. There are quite a few children present and it suddenly occurs to me that they will never see or experience Concorde fly. They must be wondering what all this is about and why they have been let down by technology and our current less-than-amazing culture.

Im a lucky one. I was asked by British Airways (BA) to set a record for the fastest ever triple crossing of the Atlantic to celebrate ten years of Concorde transatlantic flying. We were taking G-BOAA to Kennedy (John F. Kennedy Airport, New York), and it was the same aircraft and crew who made the inaugural flight on 22 November 1977.

We are BA 001 and we leave at 10.30 a.m. to the second. I change Concordes at Kennedy, running across the tarmac to G-BOAG which is waiting for me, and by 1830 hours I am in the cockpit and on finals to Heathrow, Runway 27, when a message comes through for me, Richard please pick up the BA chairmans baggage on your return flight it got left behind!

Armed with the chairmans cases I am on my way back to Kennedy for the second time that day and on arrival we all have a humongous party at Mortimers in New York. The next morning I am on a Concorde flight back to London and then I am immediately off to work in our office, selling our production light aircraft to Brazil. I have absolutely no jet lag. Including stops, the three trips took 11 hours and 22 minutes. The average speed, including stops, was 864mph.

Do anything special over the weekend? asks our chief designer, Bruce Giddings.

Well, yes, I can claim to be the only person ever to have crossed the Atlantic three times in 12 hours

Sally Armstrongs book tells you all about the very special Concorde people who kept the service running to the very high standard that BA demands. It was a lifetimes experience to fly with them.

But there is another, even more important story. Concorde was a dramatic symbol and a source of huge pride to the British. I remember standing outside our dentists surgery in Teddington, Middlesex, and seeing Concorde make its standard low level U-turn overhead to set off west for Kennedy. The whole street had stopped and everyone was looking up. Of course, this happened every day and every day the Brits took enormous pride in their truly beautiful aircraft.

What Concorde did was inspire and encourage a vast number of people to become engineers, scientists and flight crew. It was a symbol of outstanding achievement by an extraordinary generation of very capable and focused people and now their children will never see it fly. Even worse, the reality of Concorde has been replaced by singing, cooking and dancing on television and fakery in computer gaming. Concorde and its service was real. No wonder that today there is a critical shortage of engineers and scientists in our country. Could we ever do this again? I doubt it.

So, Concorde was a very special programme in a very special age. Just how special? Well, read Sally Armstrongs book and youll find out. I promise you wont be disappointed!

Richard Noble

Kingston upon Thames

Land-speed record holder, 198397

Fred Finn, the worlds most travelled man.

When I was asked to write the foreword to this wonderful book, Vintage Champagne on the Edge of Space , I was thrilled to accept. I flew with Sally Armstrong on the Queen of the Skies many times.

I was privileged to belong to the Concorde group of friends. With 718 flights in Concorde, I got to know the wonderful cabin crew very well during a thirty-year love affair with this extraordinary, beautiful and graceful lady of the skies. As a result we became good friends there was always a chilled bottle of DP [Dom Perignon] shampoo under the seat in front when I boarded into my seat, 9a.

There were occasions when I was asked to give my seat to someone they didnt want to leave behind. On those occasions I used to sit in the jump seat behind the captain, most of whom I got to know socially, having played cricket for the Concorde cricket team in the annual match in Allworth village at the local pub. It was the home of the first captain, Brian Calvert, who organised the very first Concorde charter with the gamekeeper and the poacher on board.

Concorde was the only aircraft that had this friendly, fun and yet extremely professional atmosphere, where it appeared that everyone knew the regulars and, in my case, I was known as Fred. I used to look forward to being on board and, of course, it was quicker than a rifle bullet. I got so used to the atmosphere on Concorde flights that I began to think the flights were too quick. I didnt ever want this part of my life and world ever to stop.

Thank you to my many Concorde crew friends, some of whom I still see and continue to enjoy that special relationship that only Concorde could have created, and to Sally for this real account of life on Concorde.

Where else could you have John Denver playing Country Road, Paul McCartney drawing happy faces, and the boss Bruce Springsteen asking how many flights for Fred now? to the crew?

Concorde, and my friends on Concorde, I miss you it was a disaster that it was pulled out of the skies so prematurely, nothing else comes close. It was so much, much more than just an aircraft. The aircraft lived and breathed Concorde was alive.

The world has gone back to those ubiquitous bi-bodied impersonal sons of Boeing and Airbus, a retroactive step. Nothing will ever be the same again in the world of aviation.

Fred Finn

718 flights in Concorde, 16 million miles Guinness World Records held since 1983

Director of Livingstones Travel World

Co-founder of Quicket, the mobile travel app

President of Save Concorde Group