Concorde 
in Bournemouth
 To mark the
completion of the runway extensions at Bournemouth International Airport, Palmair
chartered a British Airways Concorde, callsign Speedbird Concorde Alpha Fox, to
make an historic first-ever touchdown on April 21st 1996.
The flagship of the British Airways fleet, Concorde
was the world's only supersonic passenger airliner. Parts of Concorde's
nose, which is lowered during landing and takeoff, were originally
manufactured at the airport, located at Hurn near Christchurch, and
a variety of events to celebrate the occasion were organised including
flights and displays by other historic aircraft.
Supersonic Flight
 On
Sunday May 17th 1998, four hundred lucky passengers joined Concorde when it flew back to
Bournemouth International Airport.
There were four flights by
Speedbird Concorde 98 Charlie:
- Heathrow to Bournemouth flying subsonic arr 0905
- Bournemouth to Paris flying supersonic dpt 1110
- Paris to Bournemouth flying supersonic arr 1715
- Bournemouth to Heathrow flying subsonic dpt 1937
(All times UTC)
Concorde supersonic flight was above the Atlantic where the aircraft
flies at Mach 2, making two supersonic booms 50,000 ft above sea level
- nearly ten miles high. Most passengers onboard the supersonic flights
have the opportunity to see the flight deck during the flight.
On August 12th 1998 Concorde flew back yet again to Bournemouth -
this time out of John F Kennedy Airport, New York, a flight of just
over three hours and the culmination of a holiday which included a
trans-Atlantic cruise on the QE2 ocean liner, which sails regularly
from the nearby Port of Southampton.
On this site you can still hear for nostalga the pilots Ready for
take off message.
Listen to "Ready for take off" audio file.
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