An Amazing Evening To Celebrate 50 Years Since The Maiden Flight Of Concorde

In January of this year, Old Brutonian, Callum Thorner contacted the Maths and Physics departments with an offer that was too good to miss.

Callum is part of the Airbus Early Careers GenA (apprenticeship) team and was one of those involved in organising a dinner on the 9^th April to celebrate the 50^th Anniversary of Concorde’s maiden flight out of Filton. He offered King’s the chance for a member of staff and three 6^th Form pupils to attend this dinner, which was held in the presence of HRH the Princess Royal.

The dinner was held at Airbus in Filton, Bristol, where we were welcomed to the Concorde hangar and directed through an ‘Inspiration Exhibition’, hosted by the Airbus Early Careers ‘GenA’ team. The exhibition aimed to inspire the next generation of engineers, and we were also invited to add our own pieces of advice for aspiring engineers to a ‘Wall of Wisdom’.

During the reception, we had the opportunity to go on-board Concorde, before dinner was served. Drinks and canapés were served downstairs underneath Concorde before we sat down at our table. Alongside us were top engineers from Airbus, who provided scintillating conversation and a real insight into what it is like to work for a world renowned organisation such as Airbus. It was a real surprise to us that OB Callum actually addressed the diners, talking about the inspiration and aspiration of being an engineer with Airbus, before HRH The Princess Royal also addressed us, sharing her memories of Concorde through the past 50 years.

Just prior to the dinner, Airbus operated the Concorde droop nose for the first time since Concorde Alpha Foxtrot landed in 2003. The whole evening was amazing and the four of us who were lucky enough to be there felt incredibly privileged!

Angela Ashworth - Head of Physics