1 November 2023
Do you remember 26 November 2003? Is it a day etched into your memory? It should be. Coming up soon is the 20th anniversary of the final flight of Concorde on that day and there’s a new film to commemorate the iconic aircraft.
Concorde – First To Last is the first complete film history of the supersonic airliner. It’s released as a DVD and an HD stream in time for November’s 20th anniversary of that last flight.
Surely you remember now? It was just under a month after British Airways withdrew Concorde from its active fleet, and the aircraft was headed for the airfield where it was manufactured, Filton. The airliner left Heathrow, flew out across the Bay of Biscay, and back over Bristol’s Clifton Suspension Bridge, prompting the famous photo by Lewis Whyld.
Fifteen years ago, photographer Lewis Whyld took an instantly classic photograph of the Concorde on its last ever flight, soaring over the Clifton Suspension Bridge in Bristol, in the UK. Here’s the story behind that incredible photo: https://t.co/lWQ7wD6VPl pic.twitter.com/PqPGQEOpEE
— CNN (@CNN) November 25, 2018
Concorde – First To Last, sponsored by ten members of the Bristol Aero Collection Trust, including Sir George White, great grandson of the Bristol Aeroplane Company’s founder, uses rare archive footage to chronicle this fascinating story as never before.
Test pilots Godfrey Auty and Brian Trubshaw are seen pushing the limits to exceed the sound barrier and pave the way for an aircraft that shrank the globe and turned heads wherever she flew.
Behind the scenes in the Filton and Patchway factories, the designers of the airframe and the engine reveal their secrets and the shopfloor workers tell of their pride in helping to make this Anglo-French project a reality.
The first flights from Toulouse and Bristol in 1969 are shown as is the final flight on 26 November 2003, when Concorde Alpha Foxtrot returned to her birthplace at Filton.
British Airways Chief Pilot Les Brodie, who was at the controls, tells of his emotions as he made a farewell flypast over the North Somerset coast and the Clifton Suspension Bridge to land in front of a crowd of thousands.
And Concorde Alpha Foxtrot is seen in the purpose-built hangar, where she has become the star attraction in the Aerospace Bristol museum.
There is also the chance to watch a British Airways journey from Heathrow to New York on the flight deck of Concorde Alpha Foxtrot.
A further 90 minutes of bonus extras, include Concorde Around The World, a continent-to-continent account of a never-to-be-repeated journey, and a flight deck tour of Concorde Alpha Charlie in Manchester.
The 150-minute film, priced £14.95, is available as a DVD or an HD stream from www.bellevuefilms.co.uk
