Hacker News Reader

Comment by alan_cx | Hacker News Reader

Me too, and I still miss it.

Likewise. I used to live in Reading, west of Heathrow, and twice a day they'd be this crackling roar and the windows would rattle, unlike anything else that flew; and you'd look up, and there would be that glorious arrowhead silhouette, sliding through the sky.

I don't care if Concorde was uneconomic. Some things you should do just because they're beautiful.

I lived in that area as well and yes, every single time it went over I had to look up at it and watch

And the Vulcan. Beautiful sound, beautiful plane.

Its said that once a USAF pilot saw the Vulcan manoeuvring and remarked that it was awfully big for a fighter...

I was lucky enough to see one of the last two flights and capture it doing a lazy turn at low altitude: https://www.flickr.com/photos/136766297@N06/21457421183/in/a...

Saw a Vulcan doing aerobatics fairly low over the wee Scottish village where I grew up probably late 70s - an absolutely unforgettable sight and the NOISE - like a thousand tormented demons howling at once.

Not sure if the Vulcan was supposed to deter the Soviets with its nukes or simply scare them to death.

Edit: The Vulcan wasn't just loud in the "strategic bomber" sense of loud - it also sometimes generated a completely unearthly howl that it is famous for. Combine the engine noise and the howl and it really was quite a monster.

I think awareness of the Vulcan's purpose coupled with that howling was the big thing for me when I saw it fly after they restored one. What an incredible machine.

Just a shame it was originally built to kill millions of Russians. I know military investment produces all kinds of awesome technology, but... we could be better than that. And that's something Concorde felt like it represented.

Och yes - I passionately hate what these things were intended to do but I can't help be fascinated by the engineering and history of it all.

It was intended to deter aggression, which it did successfully!

And the spectacular TSR-2[1], which would have completely revolutionised things in the air, but the project was cancelled when it was almost finished.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BAC_TSR-2

Reply on news.ycombinator.com