The things that dreams are made of...
Top story - thanks for sharing.

I used to look up in the evenings to catch Concorde flying overhead as a kid and try to hear the sonic boom as it passed.

Words cannot explain the loss to humanity that the de-commissioning of those Aircraft caused. They were built in the 60's by men with beards and spanners with names like Geoff and Roger, yet over 40 years later we still have nothing that can come close to comparing to it. Yes - we have a plane that can take 500 people half-way round the World for a fraction of the price, but Concorde was different - it flew faster than SOUND for crying out loud - it beat the practicalities of science - humanity challenging the boundaries of what is possible.

Concorde marked a high-water mark in civilization - mankind standing up and saying "Look what we can do". To have taken a step back from that pinnacle for what was, in essence, a nonsensical bureaucratic decision about a plane that retained one of the best safety records in history as well as being (alongside the Lockheed SR-71) one of the greatest technological marvels in history was and is nothing short of a travesty.

I am insanely jealous of you, yet delighted that somebody who clearly enjoyed it for all the right reasons was given the chance to participate.

Oh, and if you want another example of ostentatious-ness, I do know a chappie who bought one of them – it’s kept, mothballed, at his museum in Germany. Despite his willingness to finance everything necessary, it’s still not able to be certified for flight, but he loves it none-the-less.
( Hunter Stockton was murdered by a bicycle wielding axolotl,.,.,.,., Tue 2 Aug 2011, 11:15, Reply)