Concordeconcordeconcorde

[gfish]

The Concorde destined to become the Boeing Museum of Flight's latest lawn ornament arrived today. It was supposed to land at 15:00, so vixyish and I went down with 45 minutes to spare. After some ATM hunting antics, we had 30 minutes to spare. Plenty of time. So we're driving down East Marginal Way, the main access road for Boeing Field, and we start to see crowds of people.

"Heh," we say to each other. "Look at all the people waiting for the Concorde."

"That's odd," we say. "There is 30 minutes to go, yet everyone is facing the same way. Many of them are pointing or shielding their eyes from glare. And some of them seem to be taking pictures of the empty air above the far end of the runway, as if that particular space contained something of interest."

"Maybe it's just me," one of us says. "But I think I see a large plane on final approach."

"You're right," says the other. "It sure has a triangular profile. It kind of reminds me of the Greek letter delta."

So we swerve across traffic into the nearest parking lot that bordered Boeing Field, come to a screeching halt, jump out of the car and see:


(Image links to a full resolution version, 815K in size.)

In conclusion, yay for the minor mutant superpower of amazing timing.

Comments

[shadowblue.livejournal.com]

From what I've heard, it sounds kind of like flying on some rocket from the 60's space exploration.

I of course would like to do that, too...

But using it for actual everyday transport? That was kind of a crazy idea. Mid-20th-century craziness. :)

[randomdreams.livejournal.com]

I hope we'll see it happen again, actually. There are plenty of really-amazingly-close-to-transonic aircraft on the drawing boards and ramps. I'm hoping that if Fallows is right about the revolution of light aircraft and regional jet service, there will be more of a demand for it, and if NASA's destructive-interference-sonic-boom technology takes off, more acceptance for it.

[shadowblue.livejournal.com]

Oh, yeah. I definitely am not discouraging it, I was just sort of making fun of using the Concorde at this point in technological development. We can do really cool *other* things now, and we should.

I dont' think I've heard about this destructive interference thing before. Oh, I might have. The boom without a boom? I'll have to google for it.

I've been mildly obsessed with flight of late. I mean, I am normally obsessed, but it's been peaking lately. If I have any real income next year I am going to have to do some flying. Or explode.