September 30, 2023 with Sierra Alpha.
A little report for those who could not come to remember that all the transatlantic flights for 27 years by the Concorde of Air France and British Airways were preceded by our SA, on 09/26/1973 between WASHINGTON and ORLY in 3h33 min. We are very proud to remember this event here.
We dedicate this report to Mr. Yves PINGRET who was the flight test engineer for this 81st flight; unfortunately he was prevented from joining us for our day of remembrance.
The sun and friends from Bordeaux, Nantes and Toulouse, to name only those who came from far away because they wanted to pay tribute to the SA.
On the front line Mr. Claude MONPOINT, who was seconded by Air France to Aérospatiale in 1973 to prepare the service on board the SA for all presentation flights and who served as cabin manager for this historic crossing.
He wanted to come and honour with his presence this day which he spent among the visitors to talk about his memories with his usual kindness. He left a small dedication on the base of this model of a Concorde whose manufacturer declined our invitation and which we present to you here because we do not hold grudges...
Some images of the exhibitors present: APCOS, Aérodoc, Philippe Bianco, Cap Avenir Concorde, JNB Maker, PNCA, Boramy Thong, Le Trait d’Union.
The crew of the APCOS association and these visitors chatting in front of the stand
while this young visitor is very interested in front of Philippe Bianco's simulator.
Our friends from TU French branch of Air Britain.
JNB Braker
Jean Noel is able to transform all drawings into “magic lamps”
and manufacture them in Seine et Marne.
François came to present the PNCA association (Nantais Heritage of Aeronautical Construction) the Nantes factory manufactured important elements of Concorde.
The mannequin in the flight test suit hides Philippe and Christian who presented the data of a technical flight between Paris and New York carried out by Marc Alidieres.
And as always, great encounters :
Mr. Jean Jacques GROUSSEAU Mayor of Athis Mons participates in the exchanges between Nicole MENEVEUX Concorde hostess from 1976 to 1992 and Claude MONPOINT former head of cabin crew sector.
Mr Robin REDA MP for Essone in discussion with Mr Claude MONPOINT.
By a happy coincidence Jean Michel GALLET passed through the N7 with his 1977 SM Citroen modified into a “centipede” to transport an SM2a modified by his company. Without much hesitation he accepted our invitation to show his cars to our visitors.
And as J.M. GALLET told us “Concorde and SM go well together”.
Alexis Rocher, author of the article on the SA in the Fana de l’Aviation September issue, came to visit the cockpit followed by the charming Miss Youth Occitane.
But as we are all jealous of the most beautiful photo taken on his stand by our friend François, we are finishing this report with her.
Epilogue:
It is still a shame that on the occasion of this 50th anniversary, with the exception of Le Parisien and Le Républicain de l'Essonne, in the media, no one spoke about it with as much enthusiasm as these two newspapers of the time :
This quote from the article by the Paris Match journalist who describes the entire flight in detail in a four-page article which begins with:
(I did Washington-Paris in 3h33)
And ends with:
“He has completed his historic flight and it is exactly 3:19 p.m. The Atlantic crossed in 3h33. This is when another adventure begins; It took 1h48 to go from Orly to “Paris-Match” near the Champs-Elysées. JEAN MEZERETTE.
Upon their descent, the journalist from France-Soir Monsieur CHAKI in a light suit followed by Jean FRANCHI slightly hidden by a guest and just behind him Gilbert DEFER.
We didn’t put the effort to translate this article from France-Soir, please accept our apologies in advance.
The final word of this article goes to Mr. Yves PINGRET, who declared with his usual modesty to the journalist from Le Parisien who mentioned in his article “a day of historic dimension”:
“Given that we had done a whole series of evaluation and presentation flights, we experienced it like an ordinary flight. »
Our thanks to Mrs. M.F. DEFER for introducing us to the articles from the personal archives of Mr. Gilbert DEFER SA test pilot.
Thank you to the 352 visitors and all the association and individual participants for honouring Sierra Alpha during this beautiful day.
Photo credit DR: Cédric Duday, Bébé, Alexis Rocher, François Suteau
And some links to consult without moderation :
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