Yesterday marked 121 years celebrating the Wright brothers who changed aviation forever.

Last week, at British Airways Waterside I was fortunate enough to meet Captain John Tye, one of only 134 pilots to ever fly Concorde for British Airways in the whole 27 years of service.

Captain John Tye’s story was nothing short of inspiring. From an orphan, a rare medical condition to a downturn in the industry – he continued to persevere and eventually got flying onto the Concorde after almost 10 years of bids.

From a short 12-second Kitty Hawk flight to soaring the ‘edge of space’ flying over twice the speed of sound with supersonic Concorde – we have come so incredibly far!

One thing I learnt was how Concorde differed to subsonic aircrafts that follow the North Atlantic track. Concorde travels at 60,000 ft so it doesn’t need to worry about winds or jet-stream. It’s above weather!

My favourite part was when John talked about the day-to-day flight as a Concorde Pilot bound for Barbados.

– Leave home at 7am having had a light breakfast.
– Depart Heathrow at 9.30am with breakfast served in-flight.
– Fly at Mach 2 across the Atlantic – faster than the Earth’s rotation.
– Arrive in Barbados at 8.30am local time… oh and just in time for breakfast again! 😅

3 breakfasts for one day sounds like a pretty cool perk. In reality this highlights just how fast Concorde was!

Captain Tye is an inspiration. Thank you for choosing to spend your evening in our company. It was enlightening to hear about your experience on the Concorde and one that I was really looking forward too… it didn’t disappoint.