In the late sixties my dad did some business with BAC in Bristol. He also had a habit of taking me on business trips with him, so one day an 11 year old boy was ushered into a very big hangar (the Brabazon hangar) and given a guided tour of the outside of Concorde (1)01 - the British pre-production aicraft. Even with the airframe surrounded by scaffolding, the experience defined my concept of engineering elegance and beauty. Nothing before or since has even come close. Every time I heard those engines, I'd look up, and be rewarded with the sight of a piece of fine art. Then, in the Awesome80s, a Concorde flew low over my house on the way to a flypast of the Shrewsbury Flower Show (!) and I got the best view ever (the wheels need to be up to get the fully graceful effect). That reminded me that she wouldn't last forever, so in 1991 I managed to join the supersonic set with a trip from London to Paris using the scenic route - a blast around the Bay of Biscay at Mach 2 and 55000 feet. Last November, I was compelled to go back to Bristol to watch a few minutes of the last flight ever, as G-BOAF returned to the factory. Silly emotional reaction to a piece of machinery? Absolutely, but that's what made Concorde special - she achieves that impossible feat in thousands more people than just me. The world is a poorer place without these aircraft in the skies.

--Graham Skeats