Pictures from Heathrow, Concorde's last flight to Filton, 26th November 2003

Version 1.2 : 29 Nov 2003 Add more text, tidy layout, correct e-mail address



At the road crossing - 08:15

I left home early, in pouring rain, and drove around near to the local tube station. As I was turning into a side road an overtaking car clipped my car's wing mirror with a loud bang and drove off. It looks like the mirror is actually OK but the glass was hanging out of ir when I stopped! I parked, checked the mirror as best I could in the dark then headed off to the station with my bag and camera tripod. I caught a train just after 6:30 and got to Hatton Cross tube station about 8:00.

When I got to the exit I found it was still raining - if anything it seemed harder. After a quick look around I set off for the road crossing, a quarter of an hour's walk away. As I got close I peered over at the British Airways hangers, trying unsuccessfully to see Concorde amongst the parked aircraft. Then I saw her - she was already lined up ready to cross the road. So it was out with the camera, trying to protect it from the worst of the weather, and I started taking pictures as you can see below. Click on the pictures to see a larger version of them.
Concorde waiting to cross the road; Copyright Peter Sheil 2003
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Concorde waiting to cross the road; Copyright Peter Sheil 2003
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Concorde waiting to cross the road; Copyright Peter Sheil 2003
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Concorde waiting to cross the road; Copyright Peter Sheil 2003
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Concorde waiting to cross the road; Copyright Peter Sheil 2003
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Concorde waiting to cross the road; Copyright Peter Sheil 2003
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Concorde waiting to cross the road; Copyright Peter Sheil 2003
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Concorde waiting to cross the road; Copyright Peter Sheil 2003
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After a few minutes the warning sirens sounded and we had to leave the crossing area ... well that was the theory. In fact we edged over a bit and carried on taking pictures. The airport security man sat in his car and waved us away ... so we edged a bit further away but stayed the "wrong" side of the road barriers which had come down by now. Lets face it, it was going to take a lot to make him get out of the car and get wet. The barriers across the taxiway opened and then Concorde G-BOAF crossed the road for the last time.
Concorde waiting to cross the road; Copyright Peter Sheil 2003
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Concorde crosses the road; Copyright Peter Sheil 2003
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Concorde crosses the road; Copyright Peter Sheil 2003
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Concorde crosses the road; Copyright Peter Sheil 2003
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Concorde crosses the road; Copyright Peter Sheil 2003
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Concorde crosses the road; Copyright Peter Sheil 2003
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Concorde crosses the road; Copyright Peter Sheil 2003
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Concorde crosses the road; Copyright Peter Sheil 2003
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Concorde crosses the road; Copyright Peter Sheil 2003
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Concorde crosses the road; Copyright Peter Sheil 2003
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After taking these pictures I scurried off to a local hotel where I ate a lovely cooked breakfast, drank several cappuccinos, dried out my camera and arranged for a room at the front of the hotel with a good view of the airport. This last took longer than I expected as the receptionist and I visited several rooms to compare the view before I settled on one. The view wasn't perfect (the planes vanished behind buildings almost as soon as they had started to take off) but it did have a good view of the airfield area.
View from the hotel room - 11:00 to 11:30

The weather had just started to clear up a bit when I go my first view of Concorde across the airfield. Then she wended her way across the airfield, through the salute from the fire service and eventually on to the runway.

Concorde in the distance, takes a photo call; Copyright Peter Sheil 2003
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Far across the airfield I caught a glimpse of Concorde's distinctive tail. From other pictures I've seen I think this was a photo call for her.
View from the hotel window; Copyright Peter Sheil 2003
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This was the view from the hotel window. To give you an idea of the zoom I was using the street lamp on the horizon line to the right of this picture is the same one that is just caught on the edge of the previous picture.
Concorde on Heathrow airfield; Copyright Peter Sheil 2003
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Concorde on Heathrow airfield; Copyright Peter Sheil 2003
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Concorde on Heathrow airfield; Copyright Peter Sheil 2003
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Concorde on Heathrow airfield; Copyright Peter Sheil 2003
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Concorde and water arch; Copyright Peter Sheil 2003
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Concorde and water arch; Copyright Peter Sheil 2003
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Concorde and water arch; Copyright Peter Sheil 2003
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More by luck than judgement I managed to catch the start of the water arch tribute from the Heathrow fire service.
Concorde on Heathrow airfield; Copyright Peter Sheil 2003
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Concorde on Heathrow airfield; Copyright Peter Sheil 2003
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Concorde on Heathrow airfield; Copyright Peter Sheil 2003
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Concorde on Heathrow airfield; Copyright Peter Sheil 2003
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Concorde on Heathrow airfield; Copyright Peter Sheil 2003
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Concorde on Heathrow airfield; Copyright Peter Sheil 2003
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Concorde on Heathrow airfield; Copyright Peter Sheil 2003
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Concorde on Heathrow airfield; Copyright Peter Sheil 2003
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If you'd like a copy of any of these pictures then drop me an e-mail (peter <underscore> sheil <at> hotmail <dot> com Put "Concorde pic" in the title and tell me which number(s) you are interested in and which size.)

The original images are 2048 x 1536 and are between 500 and 900 KB each.
The larger images on the web site (click the small ones) are 683 x 512 and between 28 and 85 KB in size.
The thumbnails are 200 x 150 and between 5 and 10 KB in size.

The camera is a Minolta Dimage Z1, 3.2 M pixels, 10 x optical zoom, 4 x electronic zoom.

All images © Peter Sheil 2003