A British Airways Concorde visits SEA – Photo: Seattle-Tacoma International Airport
Today, Concorde is no stranger to the Seattle area — there is a British Airways Concorde sitting just south of Seattle at the Museum of Fight. But back in 1984, a Concorde had not yet visited Seattle. That all changed near the end of the year.
According to HistoryLink.org, on November 15, 1984, Concorde made its first trip to Seattle and it was for a special event.
It landed at Boeing Field (BFI) first to prepare for a special fundraising flight for the Museum of Flight. The plane arrived with a load of recently bottled Beaujolais nouveau wine and Seattle restaurant owner Mick McHugh along with a few guests. The wine was specially brought to Seattle as quickly as possible to be enjoyed, and what better way than via a Concorde?!
A Concorde now sits at the Museum of Flight in Seattle – Photo: David Parker Brown
Two days later, the plane took off from Seattle-Tacoma International Airport (SEA) on a “Flight to Nowhere.” During the flight, the VIP passengers went about 2,000 miles off the Pacific coast and reached Mach 2 twice, while cruising at 50,000 feet.
The first photo in the story was captured with the plane, in classic British Airways livery, taking off at SEA, with a Horizon Air Metroliner III looking on. History rocks!
Seeing, and boarding, the Concorde was the highlight of my visit to he Museum of Flight in February. It was over too quickly, and I went through it a second time!
I was working at Flightcraft on Boeing Field when this visited. I-5 to the east was packed bumber to bumper on the shoulders, and traffic came to nearly a standstill while it made its flyby’s. We serviced it while it was there, and I was struck by how small it actually was. I took some great pictures from the end of the ramp of the arrival and flyby’s but unfortunately I loaned the negatives out and they were never returned.
I will never forget seeing the Concorde flying over my house in Wisconsin on it’s way to EAA AirVenture many years ago. I truly wish I had spent the money to take a ride on it at the time. It was a thrill in any case just to see it.
The Concorde is part of my family history as well. Because of dad’s work being part of the team that performed the Concorde’s avionics design engineering, Boeing brought us to the States to do similar work on the SST. Driving by the MoF’s Concorde serves as a daily reminder of that history. Dad shifted to work on the original 747 as well, so seeing both of those aircraft side-by-side is also a special treat each day.
I remember doing some work for a Cub Scout requirement (around age 10) and calling British Airways to see how much it would cost to book a RT flight on the Concorde from JFK to LHR, in 1st Class. It was a mere $8,500, which blew me away as a kid. Naturally I never took the flight, but I was always fascinated by the Concorde.
Back in the early 90’s I had an unforgettable surprise when Concord was substituted for the normal BA service on our short trip from Heathrow to Hannover. We couldn’t go supersonic and there was no time to give us breakfast but we each go a model Concord when we disembarked. I remember crowds of onlookers at our arrival.
To see the Metro next to the Concorde for me is very meaningful. While it approached SeaTac I was with Jack Leffler (United Captain) in his C185 doing a photo shoot. He chose me to pilot his airplane on many occasions while doing his passion. His photos of Mt. St Helens eruption, Concorde, air to air and many more were very well know. That day he asked if I wanted to help him fly while he took photo’s. We got a clearance to orbit over SeaTac and while it made it’s arrival he took his photo’s and I had visual memories to last a life time. The Metro is unique because I was hired at Horizon in 1985 and spent 28 years as a Captain, Check Pilot & Trainer flying everything from the Metro, Dash-8, F-28 and CRJ700. Great Photo, Great Memories!!!
Thanks for sharing Stu. Do you have any of the air-to-air photos you took that you can share?
David
Sorry no. That’s what I was looking for when I found your website. Jack did have many published and many were placed in the SeaTac terminal. His relationship with Boeing and United was well known.
In 1984 I was working in a building right next to I-5 on the other side directly across from Boeing Field, and the Concorde flew right over us on its landing approach. We heard it coming from far away and all rushed out into the parking lot to watch. The nose was dropped and it was so close we could see the pilots. Pretty darn amazing, and I will never forget it.