Concorde set to ‘land’ at Graffham, West Sussex as the subject of a fundraising talk

Mike knows Concorde better than anyone – from being appointed its youngest first officer shortly after it started flying in 1977 to commanding its final flight as British Airways’ Chief Concorde Pilot 26 years later. Since then, he’s become the best-selling author of the definitive Concorde book – and an in-demand and entertaining speaker.

In a talk featuring videos and photos from his personal library, he’ll outline the history of the world’s most distinctive passenger aircraft and what it was like to fly as a pilot - and passenger, sipping Champagne and dining on lobster while travelling faster than a bullet, at almost 25 miles a minute.

He’ll also touch on Brooklands Aviation and Motoring Museum, in Surrey – where the concept for Concorde first took off and where he is a trustee.

After a break for refreshments, the evening will continue with Mike swapping Concorde anecdotes with former British Airways Chief Press Officer Michael Blunt, who will also invite questions from the audience.

Boarding starts at 7pm for a 7.30pm departure, at the Empire Hall, Graffham GU28 0QB. There will be a bar and Concorde-style canapes before take-off and mid-flight.

Tickets, at £15 each (plus booking fee), from www.ticketsource.co.uk/stgilesgraffham

Proceeds from the event will go towards maintaining the building and churchyard of Graffham’s historic and beautiful St Giles Church.

About Concorde

Concorde remains the world’s only supersonic airliner. Developed as an Anglo-French project, the distinctive delta-winged aircraft entered commercial service in 1976. Scheduled flights to New York from London and Paris followed a year later, enabling business executives to land in the Big Apple at a time before they left Europe, thanks to its speed and the time difference between the two cities.

Powered by four Rolls-Royce Olympus engines, Concorde flew at 1,350mph, or 23 miles a minute, faster than a bullet and twice as fast as sound, at heights of up to 60,000ft, way above regular jets. A typical transatlantic flight took less than 3 hours 30 minutes, more than halving the journey time by regular jet. Its fastest flight between New York and London was 2 hours 52 minutes 59 seconds.

Measuring 204ft in length, its fuselage stretched in flight by between 6 and 10 inches because of the heating of its airframe caused by friction as she sped through the sky. With a range of 4,143 miles (6,667 kms), she could carry up to 100 passengers and 2.5 tonnes of cargo, with two pilots at the controls, a flight engineer and six cabin crew.

Concorde was withdrawn from service in 2003. By then, British Airways’ fleet of seven had completed almost 50,000 flights, taking more than 2.5 million passengers supersonically. They included Royalty, moguls, celebs – and everyman.

About Mike Bannister

Raised in Bedfordshire, Mike Bannister joined British Airways’ forerunner BOAC in 1969 as a first officer and flight navigator on its Vickers VC10 fleet, after graduating from Hamble’s College of Air Training. Eight years later, he was selected as the youngest pilot to join the Concorde fleet, as it entered commercial service in 1977. He became a Concorde pilot instructor in 1986, achieving the rank of captain in 1989, switching briefly to fly BAe 1-11s.

He then joined the airline’s management, combining various roles within its Flight Operations department with his flying duties, then on Boeing 757s and 767s. He was appointed its Chief Pilot Concorde in 1995. After the supersonic fleet was temporarily withdrawn from service following the loss of an Air France Concorde outside Paris in July 2000, Mike played a key role in enabling the aircraft’s safe return to the skies in November 2001. The following year, his responsibilities were extended to include British Airways’ Airbus A319 and A320 fleets together with its Boeing 737, 757 and 767 fleets. As a climax to his Concorde career, he commanded the final Concorde commercial flight from New York to London in October 2003 and then flew five of the aircraft to their final resting places, in Barbados, Bristol Filton, Manchester, New York and Seattle. By then, Mike had amassed more than 9,200 Concorde flight hours – around threequarters of them at at supersonic speeds.

Since retiring, he has written the definitive book Concorde, worked as a consultant and company director and supported countless charitable causes, as a trustee of Brooklands Aviation and Motoring Museum, chair of the governors of an independent school in Surrey and lay chair of his local parochial church council.

About Michael Blunt

Michael started his career as a cub reporter on the Portsmouth Evening News group, with its associated weeklies including the Chichester and Midhurst & Petworth Observer series. He then moved into industry with British Airways, heading up employee communications during its turnaround under Lords King and Marshall and its privatisation. He went on to handle communications with its million shareholders worldwide and, as chief press officer, served as its main spokesman. With dozens of supersonic passenger flights in his log book, he worked closely with Mike Bannister to promote Concorde and, after its temporary grounding following the Air France crash in July 2000, to pave the way for its resumption of services.

When British Airways helped create the oneworld airline alliance, Michael was invited to lead the group’s communications and PR globally. By the time he retired as the alliance’s deputy head nearly 20 years later, it had added some 15 world-class airlines who between them carried 550 million passengers a year on a combined fleet of 3,500 aircraft serving 1,100 airports in 180 territories with 14,000 daily departures, generating US$ 135 billion annual revenues.

Michael served also as Vice-Chairman of the Aviation Club of the UK. Among his many voluntary commitments, he is now editor of Graffham Parish News, the village’s award-winning monthly magazine.