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

[kethet.livejournal.com]

I used to live in a neighborhood that was pretty much under the flight path in and out of Dulles (DC); every day, like clockwork, at 11ish in the morning and 4ish in the afternoon, the air would rumble and groan and a pretty needlenose would be cutting through the sky overhead. I got to see one leave a few times from Dulles, courtesy of my dad. I wanted to see the one going to the NASM annex when it came in a few years ago, but I had to work. I'll happily settle for seeing it on display when the annex opens.

More recently, on the way back from Trinidad in August, we had a stopover in Barbados. It was longer than most, because of the customs procedures et al., so I took the chance to try to doze a little in my seat. I couldn't which was good, because at one point I glanced out the window and parked on the ramp next to us was a Concorde that had not been there when we landed. I managed to get some pictures of it.