Concorde Nose in KC

[Eric]

I saw this earlier and thought it was interesting. Apparently, there is a suburban house in Kansas City with the nose section of a Concorde aircraft in a glass-walled building in its back yard. I found a story explaining its circumstances.

"While there were 20 of the planes made, only 14 went into service. Seven went to British Airways, and seven went to Air France. One was tested for high-altitude flying and metal fatigue. Later on, this one was dismantled, and the parts were split up and sold.

Azima used to often take the Concorde on business trips from London, where he still has a home, to New York. The jet could cross the Atlantic in roughly three and a half hours.

The jets quit flying in 2003 after 30 years in the air. The reasons include a deadly crash in Paris, environmental concerns with the sonic boom and the impact on the industry from the 9/11 attacks.

Many of the planes are now in museums around the world on display. For Azima, however, all he needs to do to see one of these rare pieces of aviation is walk into his backyard. 

“People come and look at it all the time,” Azima said. “They ask me, ‘Why’d you buy this?’ [I say] ‘I want to be buried in it.’” "

Click Here To Read More

 

[Huaco Kid]

Dad was a Chemical Engineer.  Hired out of college, and retired from Gulf Oil.

Started at testing the oil from tankers.  No two tankers are the same.   They all lie,  and try to rip you off.  Worked his way up to uber-management.

We lived in London.  One year,  he got the invite to the Concorde trip. 

They celebrated New Years in London (Dad knew how to get drunk),  and flew on the jet.  Celebrated New Years in mid-air,  as they passed the time zone.

Landed.  Celebrated.

Flew.  Celebrated.

Landed.  Celebrate.

Flew.  Celebrated.

All the way around the world.

Knowing what Dad could drink,  he probably kept up.

[Huaco Kid]

He flew the Concorde a lot.

It wasn't uncommon to land yesterday.

[Huaco Kid]

Dad would get off work,  fly to Paris with his friends,  so they could get drunk at the Playboy Club,  and be home by dinner.

And get more drunk,  because his cabinet was brilliant.

[Eric]

And here is a Google Earth shot of 29°37'58.3"N 95°16'24.7"W. This guy has a Mig-21 parked in his yard. I wonder if it is up on blocks?

 

[Eric]

Here is another pic. The location is in Houston. This version of Google Earth is using an experimental system to try to render the satellite pic in 3D. All that crap in the air behind the Mig is Google's attempt to take an overhead picture of some sort of radio or observation tower and render it in 3D from the side. You can see the shadow of the tower laying across the roof of the house, in the pic above.

 

[Eric]

Here is the aircraft boneyard, at Davis-Monthan AFB, in Tucson, AZ.

 

[Eric]

This is a field at the boneyard with broken up B-52s. They are left out there for a period of time, so Russia can confirm their destruction, per treaty.

 

[Maser]

5 hours ago, Eric said:

I saw this earlier and thought it was interesting. Apparently, there is a suburban house in Kansas City with the nose section of a Concorde aircraft in a glass-walled building in its back yard. I found a story explaining its circumstances.

"While there were 20 of the planes made, only 14 went into service. Seven went to British Airways, and seven went to Air France. One was tested for high-altitude flying and metal fatigue. Later on, this one was dismantled, and the parts were split up and sold.

Azima used to often take the Concorde on business trips from London, where he still has a home, to New York. The jet could cross the Atlantic in roughly three and a half hours.

The jets quit flying in 2003 after 30 years in the air. The reasons include a deadly crash in Paris, environmental concerns with the sonic boom and the impact on the industry from the 9/11 attacks.

Many of the planes are now in museums around the world on display. For Azima, however, all he needs to do to see one of these rare pieces of aviation is walk into his backyard. 

“People come and look at it all the time,” Azima said. “They ask me, ‘Why’d you buy this?’ [I say] ‘I want to be buried in it.’” "

Click Here To Read More

 

 

The way the back is open, it looks like a huge fancy snap trap. 

[geeorge]

Always wanted to fly on concorde so I can feel going faster than the speed of sound

[Eric]

Look at those poor B-1s.

 

[Eric]

There are a lot more Phantoms left than I thought there would be. I'm pretty sure that the right-hand plane, in the second row of that cluster of big planes at the top of the picture is a B-57 Canberra. If so, that is a real blast from the past. That was built by Martin, under license from English Electric, a British aircraft manufacturer. It only served with us for a few years. Of course, they had versions for a number of different missions, like recon and marine patrol. Those might have stayed in service a while longer, after the bombers were retired.

 

[Eric]

And one of my favorite places to visit: Pima Air & Space Museum. I've been there many times.