I took this shot of Concorde landing at Heathrow in the month it terminated flying. (Shot on a simple point and shoot digicam.) It took me a week of driving down each day to catch the afternoon arrival from New York before I got this shot. Either the weather was crap, or I missed-timed the shot, catching the plane in the wrong place. This was due to the long shutter-lag of the camera. Not only did I have to time the position of the aircraft, but also anticipate the shutter release to coincide. It was press the button and hope!
I never did manage to afford to fly her despite my desire to do so and love of aviation. And now I've spent the last two years trying to get a ticket from NASA to view a shuttle launch. But my number never came up so now I'll never see one lift off. I can't help feeling we are going backwards. No supersonic flight and no re-usable space craft. Where's the vision from a leader who cancels the exploration of the Moon and Mars on 'budgetary' grounds yet maintains a grossly overfunded military? An opportunity to inspire a new generation is lost to the bean counters. The knowledge and expertise of the teams who maintained and launched the shuttle will be broken up, thrown away. That's progress for you ...
I never did manage to afford to fly her despite my desire to do so and love of aviation. And now I've spent the last two years trying to get a ticket from NASA to view a shuttle launch. But my number never came up so now I'll never see one lift off. I can't help feeling we are going backwards. No supersonic flight and no re-usable space craft. Where's the vision from a leader who cancels the exploration of the Moon and Mars on 'budgetary' grounds yet maintains a grossly overfunded military? An opportunity to inspire a new generation is lost to the bean counters. The knowledge and expertise of the teams who maintained and launched the shuttle will be broken up, thrown away. That's progress for you ...
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