You wait ages... then two come along at once!
THE arrival of Concorde at Newcastle International Airport would always draw a crowd and make local headline news.
While the magnificent supersonic passenger jet was never part of a regular scheduled service in and out of the region, it would touch down here from time to time.
So when 35 years ago, in December 1986, there were two visits on the same day, 90 minutes apart, by two separate aircraft, it caused an even bigger stir.
Concorde’s first visit to the region had come on August 28, 1982, but the jet had to share our sister paper The Chronicle’s front page that day with another superstar, Kevin Keegan, who was making his debut for Newcastle United at St James’ Park.
Almost exactly a year later, on August 29, 1983, under the headline ‘Magic In The Air’, we reported how more than 10,000 cheering people descended on Newcastle Airport to witness the plane’s arrival after it flew in from Heathrow.
During the 1980s, the aircraft’s visits to Newcastle became an annual fixture, with the Chronicle running popular competitions giving readers the chance to win short flights, complete with a champagne lunch, across the North Sea and back.
Thirty-five years ago, on December 10, 1986, there was a double visit.
The first Concorde due in at Newcastle was a substitute aircraft drafted in to use when the original airliner on a flight from Heathrow was taken out of service. The second Concorde was a charter flight from Edinburgh.
But, as we reported: “Airplane enthusiasts will not be treated to the sight of the pair of them nose to nose on the Tarmac at Newcastle because the substitute plane was due in an hour and a half before the second Concorde and is expected to have left before then.”
The ultra-stylish Concorde symbolised the technological confidence and prowess of the age.
The aircraft first took to the skies in 1969 and the name ‘Concorde’ reflected the agreement between the UK and France who had jointly developed the plane.
It entered service with British Airways in January 1976. Only 20 were built, and passengers could fly in the lap of luxury from both Heathrow and Paris across the Atlantic to New York and Washington in less than half the time a regular airliner would take.
It was finally retired in November 2003 as passenger demand fell following an air disaster in 2000 that claimed more than 100 lives, and after the 9/11 terror attacks of 2001 made transatlantic travellers nervous.
A symbol of the age, being distinctive, ambitious and stylish, those who flew on Concorde, or those who witnessed the plane’s visits to Newcastle in the 1980s, will never forget it.