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October,
the final month of Supersonic Concorde operations, has arrived!
Enjoy the pictures ...
AB-C-050
British Airways G-BOAC October 17, 2003
Concorde
was on everyone's mind during its last
month of operation and the house would fill up with
visitors from out-of-state looking to get that final
photo of Concorde before she rode off into the
history books forever.
One friend, Ben Wang from San Jose, Ca., made arrangements to fly in for a weekend of shooting, and I agreed to pick him up at the airport. His flight was due in at 4:30 p.m. and the inbound Concorde was due within an hour. Ben had expressed a desire to catch it that evening, but I was my usual negative self thinking it impossible. I picked him up at the terminal and we immediately headed for 31R to catch her. I still didn't think we'd make it, but we did. Seeing her we jumped the curb, stopped, got out and grabbed the shot at left. The weather wasn't great at all, but we got a shot and that's what counted.
The morning of October 18 we all converged on Howard Beach and made the walk out
beyond the tracks. From L to R: Art Brett, Josh Akbar, Jin (Jean) Nakashima, Josh Rawlins,
Brian Futterman, Ben Wang, Tyler and Mike McLaughlin, Alan Ling and his cousin Johnny.
AB-C-051 British Airways G-BOAC October 18, 2003
Luck
wasn't with me the morning of the 18th. It was
a bit gray, as you can see in the picture left, but that
wasn't the problem. It seems that the lens wasn't
seated exactly right into the camera body and it
only allowed me two shots before registering an
error. Oh, well, another missed opportunity :(
But
the afternoon inbound shots were terrific. Forgive
me for including almost the whole series.
British Airways G-BOAE October 18, 2003
We watched and waited as she first
appeared in the distance.
British Airways G-BOAE October 18, 2003
Her distinct "Bird of Prey" profile slowly came
closer and closer as we snapped away.
AB-C-052 British Airways G-BOAE October 18, 2003
I know I held my breath as the roar of her engines
got louder and louder indicating just how close
she was getting.
AB-C-053 British Airways G-BOAE October 18, 2003
There are those who don't like clouds in pictures
(you know who you are), but I couldn't have been happier with the dramatic cloud formations that day.
AB-C-054 British Airways G-BOAE October 18, 2003
We watched in awe as she passed by for one of
the last few times.
AB-C-055 British Airways G-BOAE October 18, 2003
A deep blue sky and the warm glow of the setting
Sun, what more could you ask for?.
AB-C-056 British Airways G-BOAE October 18, 2003
I was, to say the least, very happy with this series
of "AE" arriving at JFK. They were beautiful.
Our
group had grown by the time the afternoon
rolled around and we headed over to another location
to shoot for the afternoon and then over to Costco
to catch the Concorde arrival.
From L to R: Jin (Jean) Nakashima, Neil Smith, Brian Futterman, Josh Akbar, Matthew (the Canonite) Smith,
Matt Celmer, Ben Wang, Josh Rawlins, Johnny and Alan Ling.
The group in action shooting around some definite obstacles.
AB-C-057 British Airways G-BOAE October 19, 2003
AB-C-058
British Airways G-BOAE October 19, 2003
Even
if the photos weren't great it was still
very enjoyable for us to watch. Fortunately we
were treated to a beautiful arrival later that day,
almost identical to the one the day before.
AB-C-058 British Airways G-BOAG October 19, 2003
AB-C-059 British Airways G-BOAG October 19, 2003
We were there for the last arrival of "AG" on the 23rd of October, but the flight was late arriving and the pictures aren't worth including on the pages ... blame British Airways. Speaking of blaming British Airways ...
Unlike the French, the British took the Concorde out in style. For months they celebrated Concordes ride into the history books by scheduling additional commemorative flights to cities that she'd served over her useful life. And, to that end, the last day of commercial service for Concorde promised to be something special. However, there was a problem. Concorde's normal departure time of 9:00 a.m. meant arriving at Heathrow in the dark. British Airways wanted, however, to have a big send off by having the coordinated arrival of three Concordes one behind the other and, to our misfortune here in the US, they wanted those arrivals to be in daylight. To solve the problem they moved departure time for the last British Airways Concorde flight to 7:00 a.m. Sunrise on October 24th was scheduled to be just a few minutes before 7:00 a.m., and we all wondered if there'd be enough light to take a shot. We quickly did the math in our head figuring the water cannon salute, taxi to the departure runway and all would take approximately 25 minutes and, hopefully, by that time we'd have enough light for to take some photos. We were lucky. They weren't great photos, but they were a nice addition to out scrapbook.
AB-C-060 British Airways G-BOAG October 24, 2003
AB-C-061 British Airways G-BOAG October 24, 2003
AB-C-062 British Airways G-BOAG October 24, 2003
We were definitely out in full force that cold October morning. Meeting at Howard Beach we took the walk beyond the subway tracks to get inches closer to the action. It was a difficult walk because the tide was in and we virtually had to crawl under the bridge on our hands and knees. But we didn't care. We were there for the history and we were a band of "brothers and sisters" who all enjoyed aviation and photography.
From
L to R: Mike Primamore, Matt Celmer, Mario (Mirrodie) Craig, Phil Derner,
Justin Cedarhorne,
Corey Robinson, Brian Futterman, Ron Peel, Josh Akbar, Neil Smith, Matthew
(the Canonite) Smith,
unknown, Anne (completely shaded), JFKSpotter and myself. Kneeling in
the front: Chris, a friend of Mike's.
The departure of "AG" from JFK to Heathrow was the last scheduled commercial service of the British Airways Concorde, however, we weren't quite through with her just yet. Two more flights in November would arrive at JFK, but only one would depart. "AG" would arrive on November 3rd, an intermediate stop on her way to the Boeing Museum of Flight in Seattle and depart the morning of the 4th. "AD" would arrive at JFK on the 10th, her final flight for all time as she was scheduled to be decommissioned and taken on a barge to the Intrepid Museum on the Hudson River in New York City.
AB-C-063 British Airways G-BOAG November 3, 2003
AB-C-064 British Airways G-BOAG November 3, 2003
OK, I accept full responsibility for virtually screwing this opportunity up. The weather on the 3rd of November was beautiful. Clear blue skies without a hit of a cloud anywhere. And they were finally using 13L for arrivals and not 31R as they had for the last few visits. I wanted to get something different, a different perspective and angle than the previous shots so I positioned myself in the cargo area near the landing lights for 13L. I envisioned a beautiful overhead underbelly shot with the landing lights in the picture and selected a 12mm ultra wide angle lens for the job ... the problem. To ultra wide for the job. When she got over me she was to small and at that speed it was hard to adjust to get a picture. I managed to squeeze off just two shots that I was happy with (above). But neither matched what I'd hoped for.
I returned to JFK the afternoon of the 4th to try and catch "AG's" departure for Seattle, but the weather was miserable with a 300 foot ceiling. At most you would have had two shots before she went into the clouds. They were departing 04L so I waited and listened to pre-taxi clearance before positioning myself figuring they wouldn't let her depart 04L, and I was right. They cleared her for a 31L departure. I only had time to get to the other side of the airport to a place I'd never been before and hope that I'd pick a good spot. I didn't. I heard her beautiful noise as she departed and passed me by, but I saw absolutely nothing. The highlight of this day for me was just listening to the conversation between the tower and "AG." It was nice knowing that she was attempting a speed record between JFK and Seattle ... and she did it.
AB-C-065 British Airways G-BOAD November 10, 2003
AB-C-066 British Airways G-BOAD November 10, 2003
AB-C-067 British Airways G-BOAD November 10, 2003
British Airways G-BOAD November 10, 20033
My very last shot of a flying Concorde forever :(
Visit
my photo of British Airways Concorde G-BOAG at the Museum of Flight,
Seattle, Washington
which appears on the exhibit placard stationed by the aircraft.
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