I painted this watercolour in 2016 to celebrate the work of Heritage Concorde and the Duxford Aviation Society with Concorde G-AXDN. After the aircraft had spent nearly 30 years still and silent, the volunteers in these groups have brought many of the aircraft’s systems – and the famous nose – back to life.
G-AXDN (construction number 101) was one of the two “pre-production” aircraft produced just after the prototypes first flew. (The other such aircraft was the French F-WTSA, or “02”.) This aircraft first flew on 17 December 1971. She did a lot of the test flights carried out to refine various elements of Concorde’s design for use in the production aircraft. During her 574 hours of flight she reached a record Mach 2.23 and a maximum height of 63,700 ft – a feat that was never equalled even by the production Concordes. She finally retired to Duxford on 20 August 1977.
My painting shows the stunning result of the Heritage Concorde and DAS volunteers’ work. Concorde is seen here lowering the nose and visor, while DAS volunteer David Hands explains to spectators what is going on. It took more than two years of painstaking work to get the aircraft to this status. The nose and visor movements now take place for public display on the last Sunday of every month.
I have made prints to commemorate this sterling achievement; these will shortly be available on my Store page.
