When the sonic boom of Concorde echoed across the Gulf

Four mighty Rolls-Royce Olympus engines roar, the fuselage trembles, the brakes release and Concorde, in a flash of white, roars out of Bahrain.

The year is 1974. And some aviation magic has come to the Middle East.

G-Bravo Bravo Delta Golf (G-BBDG) has landed in Bahrain for “hot soak” or hot weather testing and to try to drum up international sales for the aircraft.

Assembled by the British Aircraft Corporation with the serial number 202, it was one of the two supersonic test aircraft of the world’s most advanced passenger jet.

Fifty years on from when the sonic boom sounded across the Gulf, one lucky man has recalled what it was like to be one of the first passengers on an aircraft that changed the face of aviation.

Michael Stokes was only 17 when he travelled on Concorde on August 10 that year with an eclectic group of passengers, from former admirals to bank managers, for a test flight across the Gulf, over the Indian Ocean and back in about three hours.

He was living in Bahrain at the time and recalls how he heard through a hushed whisper campaign from the British embassy that Concorde was looking for volunteers.

It was kept quiet because of the potential huge interest but Mr Stokes says with a chuckle that an “orderly riot” was avoided only because it was during the summer holidays.

Bahrain had once been an RAF base and was no stranger to distinctive aircraft visiting but this was different.

The lucky group was taken to the VIP terminal and driven by bus to Concorde that was sitting on one of the aprons.

“It was most unusual,” Mr Stokes told The National, recalling a “very hot and sticky” summer afternoon. “We were very fortunate just to be able to walk around the aircraft and take photographs.”

Delta Golf was to take off in a north-west direction from Bahrain on maximum thrust, as there were no noise restrictions at the time, before circling back over the Gulf and across the Hajar Mountains out into the Indian Ocean.

Mr Stokes, who is from the UK, sat on the left, noticing the sensors on each seat and stacks of testing equipment. The windows were small and the distinctive Delta Wing dominated the vista outside. But excitement was building as the plane taxied to the runway, its fuselage flexing as it did so.

“Captain Brian Trubshaw held the brakes hard before releasing them on a countdown of 3-2-1,” said Mr Stokes. “The roar engulfed the Concorde, with an accompanying shaking from the restrained thrust.

“We shot forward – not the slow build up that you get on a contemporary flight. The afterburners kicked in as we rushed headlong down the runway. With such positive thrust it was difficult to lean forward to look out the window, instead submitting to the firm g-force.

“The nose began to rise almost immediately. Being on the left-hand side I could look directly out towards the sea.

“I might have expected to see Muharraq and the old RAF base, however, Concorde was gaining height so fast that any downward views were next to impossible.”

Jetting away

The jet circled back over Bahrain and then flew down across the Gulf and over the UAE. It was subsonic for 30 minutes before the boosters kicked in and punched up through Mach-1, with its sonic boom sounding. The flight achieved a maximum of Mach 2.05 – twice the speed of sound.

Mr Stokes also chronicled his experiences on board in Mach 2, a magazine dedicated to Concorde, and reflected on the sonic boom there, too.

“There may have been a loud boom down the Iranian coast and desert but we were only conscious of clapping, a chink of glass and a subdued ‘hurrah’ from the seated passengers,” he wrote. “All serenely surreal.”

The test flight from Bahrain was part of a series of Concorde trials conducted that year following cold weather tests in Alaska that led to certification of the aircraft for its first commercial flight only 18 months later.

It was not the first time a prototype Concorde visited the region but this Middle East episode saw the aircraft visit Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Doha, Kuwait and Muscat along with longer flights to Singapore. The plane was put through its paces with its air conditioning, undercarriage, fuel systems, flight controls and other systems tested.

By now Delta Golf was past the Musandam Peninsula and heading across the Indian Ocean into darkness as night was closing in.

The plane swept adjacent to Mumbai before chasing the Sun on the return journey back over the sea, the descent over Musandam, with the western Emirati coast and oil rigs of Das Island just visible, and then into Bahrain.

“The approach of the aircraft has been likened by ground observers to that of a bird of prey ready to strike in that attitude with the main wheels extended,” said Mr Stokes. "I am inclined to agree."

The 1974 visit was also a sales pitch of sorts. It was hoped Gulf countries, with their deep pockets, would buy an aircraft capable of crossing the Atlantic in about three hours.

But this failed to materialise and British Airways and Air France would ultimately be the operators.

But the Middle East was still an important part of Concorde’s story. BA’s first commercial Concorde flight was London to Bahrain on January 21, 1976. It operated a London to Singapore flight through Bahrain for a time but it later become defined by its transatlantic routes.

Concorde also visited the Middle East for royal tours, record-breaking speed attempts and a promotional visit for Pepsi. Concorde was grounded in 2003 and so far attempts to reintroduce supersonic travel have not come to fruition.

“I was so daunted by the fact that I had flown on a Concorde that August that I did not dare mention it to my school mates when I returned to school in the September, fearing that I might teased for either making it all up or singled out as being 'entitled',” noted Mr Stokes.

“I now realise that it was the ultimate aviation experience of my life. My father, a pilot, and brother, a cadet pilot, were astounded by my luck.”

Despite being painted in the livery of BA, the test aircraft Mr Stokes flew on never entered service with the airline or carried fee-paying passengers. It took to the air for the first time on February 13, 1974 and last flew on Christmas Eve, 1981.

In the intervening six years it was in the skies, the aircraft continued as a test bed, even when commercial services by BA and Air France had started. Delta Golf also differed from passenger versions in its construction, most notably with a thinner fuselage skin.

Along with a French version, these Concordes played a vital role in obtaining certification for passenger flights. As part of this, Delta Golf that year became the first passenger plane to fly 100 people at twice the speed of sound.

After landing for the last time at the British Aircraft Corporation factory at Filton in the UK, the aircraft was purchased by British Airways as a source of spare parts for its fleet of seven Concordes.

The final indignity was the loss of its distinctive drop nose in 1995, cannibalised for another BA Concorde which had been damaged by ground handling at Heathrow Airport. Eventually much of the tail, engines and landing gear went the same way.

What was left found a new life at the Brooklands Museum just outside London. The airframe was cut into sections and then transported by road to its new home, where it was restored to resemble a working aircraft.

Today Concorde G-BBDG is a popular tourist attraction, where the aircraft earns its keep for the first time, with tickets for a “Concorde Experience” costing up to Dh120 ($32) for the chance to sit on board.

“Fifty years later I remain in disbelief that I had the opportunity to fly on the Concorde,” said Mr Stokes.

“I was so fortunate that I was given the chance to be a 'volunteer/passenger' ahead of all the celebrities, politicians, film stars, rock gods and politicians who flew on it after January 21, 1976, the first commercial flight to Bahrain, until she was ultimately grounded in 2003.

"I now realise that it was the ultimate aviation experience of my life.”

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