CONCORDE and TRAIN
Mum said , ‘quick, get outside!’ We watched Concorde fly above us in a clear blue sky. It had just taken off from London Heathrow Airport so it was still quite low and we could see the shape and delta wing clearly. That sight has stayed with me from that day.
Mike Bannister, Chief Pilot of British Airways’ Concorde fleet from 1995 to 2003 said “beautiful from any angle” And it’s this engineering and design beauty that has bewitched me all these years. I witnessed the last commercial flights arrive at Heathrow on October 24th 2003. Thousands of people full of emotion.
Bannister’s book ‘Concorde’ published in 2022, is a brilliant read. Also, the photographer Wolfgang Tillmans has published a book dedicated to his photographs of Concorde.
The captions give more detail.
The last regular passenger flights landed at London Heathrow on October 24, 2003, from New York, a second flight from Edinburgh, and a third which had taken off from Heathrow on a loop flight over the Bay of Biscay. This is the last time this bird will fly over central London.Take off speed 250 mph. Cruising speed of 1,350 mph. Landing speed 187 mph. Four Rolls-Royce Olympus jet engines. In flight.The vortices around Concorde.Wingspan 83 feet 9 inches.Nose down for landing.....otherwise the pilots can’t see the runway!Some specifications. The Ultimate Design Icon of the 20th Century.Supersonic airliner. British Airways and Air France. Delta wing.Bird or plane.British Airways : International Woman’s Day. March 8th, 2018.
To mark International Woman’s day British Airways brought together 61 woman from across the airline for the U.K.’s biggest ever all-female flight. BA 1484 from London Heathrow to Glasgow included woman working as baggage handlers, pilots and cabin crew, loaders and push-back teams, air traffic control, security and airport teams.
My drawing are the names of the woman and their roles on that day, on that flight.
Paddington Station windows.Paddington Station, London. Constuction started in 1852. Designed by I.K. Brunel.The start of any journey by train. I watched this poster deteriorate over time and had to honour it with a collage.Big Red Beast.A late night passenger.All quiet, headphones in. Last train home, no party on this one.At a station.At the end of every line.