Coventry / Baginton Airport

Not necessarily (the names are different) but they suffer from the same problem, the fundamental cost of the raw materials and where they're sourced from.

What a terrific shot of Concorde at Baginton sometime in the early 80s thanks to Dean Nelson on FB. Don't think they would even let it fly that low today if she was still going. I remember watching it and the red Arrows displays from my Aunt's back garden in Green Lane. It still looks so futuristic even now.

When Dennis John Richard Howell was killed in 1944, he was flying from Baginton, to RAF East Kirkby, in Lincolnshire......the Lancaster and a Blenheim Bomber collided in mid air at Welby, near Grantham, Lincolnshire.....he was 27 years old......

Some years ago it flew over lowish when we were at an air show at old Warden. It was on scheduled flight and we knew a friend of Roy's was flying on it that day. Roy was able to give him a photograph he had taken and he gave us a menu from the flight. I think Concord and the Vulcan are my favourites to watch.

Both Aircraft had the Bristol Siddeley 'Olympus' Engines. The Vulcan Engines were eventually overhauled at Ansty, and after the Vulcan was de-commissioned as a final farewell an Aircraft flew over Ansty (the Employees came out to see it), and it landed at Baginton to become part of the Aviation Museum there. On the following Sunday after the flypast, R-R Employees were invited to Baginton to go inside the Cockpit (which I took advantage of), and remember the Flight crew telling us not to pull on the yellow/black cables as the Ejector system was still operational !

Aside from the fact that we lived at Baginton Fields Hostel until I was about 4 - for years after that we'd go to any event at the airport. I have a lovely photo of me with Amy Johnson's little plane. My dad worked for Rolls Royce, helping to make engine parts (and a nice titanium bracelet for me!). We went down to Bristol to see a test flight. Talk about 'the crowd went wild". Many many years later, we went to see the Pope there. We now live near Dulles airport and in the early - mid 80's we loved to watch Concord take to the skies. We always hoped we might be able to afford to fly on it one day. Mind you, when we climbed aboard one at Duxford Airfield airport museum, we had second thoughts. A much shorter flight but no real comfort. We didn't enjoy hearing the Sunday evening flight of a huge Russian Antonov plane that rumbled and rattled out windows when it took off from Dulles.

We took our caravan to Bishops Itchington in 2014 when the Vulcan flew over Gaydon. Sad it is not flying anymore. We used to go to Castle Donnington quite a lot when the kids were younger, before they moved the old aeroplanes to the other side of the airfield (there used to be lovely big field where you could watch the planes taking off and sit and have a picnic). Roy was in the AVA there. They sometimes used to start the Vulcan and Lightning engines !

The day Jeanette and I got married - Concorde flew low over Hearsall Common and All Souls just as she stepped of the Roller (which was ex Shirley Bassey!) If we had paid BA a gazillion pounds it could not have been any better. Our friend managed to capture it on the Sony VHS Handycam he used to film our special day.

In 1970-71, my wife and I both worked at a company in Camberley that designed some of the avionics in Concorde. As a very junior analyst, I had a small part in working out how to land the plane. When they took it up for its very first flight, they flew several tight circles around our office with the wing-tips almost at ground level (at least it seemed that way!)! Quite deafening, but an awesome sight! Years later we lived in Reading for a few months, and you could set your watch by the deafening roar as it headed off overhead to the USA!

I was there that day, too, as I was for all of the displays from the early '70s to '82. My father took this shot, I guess a second or so after the one shown. He was Press, so we were allowed to watch the display from the flightline, or for one or two of the more spectacular displays, from the flanks of the runway.

What a wonderfully captured photograph of a beautiful plane.

Couple of pictures I took at the Concorde exhibition at the Paris Airshow. Cockpit and cabin were so cramped.

Concorde was the victim of a series of devastating events including 9/11 but I think that ultimately it was the choice between a cramped 3hr flight against a 7hr luxurious flight. With modern communications and tech, travel no longer means an unproductive period of time.

It almost looks like a troop carrier.