1979: Making the LAST CONCORDE at FILTON | Retro Transport | BBC Archive

In 1969, Filton produced the first ever British Concorde. Just ten years later, it will produce the last. The Last Concorde documents the assembly of Concorde Alpha Foxtrot, the last supersonic passenger jet to be built at Filton.

For the thousands of workers there - like Alan Radford and Wally Williams - it is the end of an era, a time of great pride and great sorrow.

Clip taken from The Last Concorde, originally broadcast on BBC One, DAY XX MONTH, YEAR.

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[scottishwildcat]

The one being built here is G-BOAF, which made the last Concorde flight in 2003, and is now permanently on display at Filton.

[MrAlwaysBlue]

I can't wait for the mid 90s to see the bigger and faster version.

[enclavex]

I grew up near Filton runway in the 70’s and 80’s used to watch Concorde engine testing at the end of Filton runway next to the M5. She was something special. Saw her last flight to Filton as well. 😢 she’s sorely missed.

[cedricaron]

People expressed themselves very precisely and understandingly

[chicobicalho]

I remember, as a young teen, seeing the Concorde take off in Rio de Janeiro, and fly overhead, with a thunder so massive, it felt like the world was ending. Later it became my favourite manufactured industrial product of all time

[nimbuskhannk]

The day the Concord stopped flying and there wasn't anything more advanced and disruptive being planned or built in aviation, was the first in my life I felt that the constant progress I had been witnessing until then might start to unwind. From there on, it has been disappointment, after disappointment, amazing idiocy, after amazing idiocy, in this continued regression of ours.

[barrywhite]

My dad worked at Filton and Derby on the Olympus engines. He was an apprentice so maybe didn’t take a key role and I watch all of these old videos hoping to see him. He has passed away now. He also worked on the Pegasus engines for the Harrier during the demand of the Falklands War. I still live in the Bristol area and often pass the old Filton runway which, when I was child would have all sorts of interesting aircraft such as the Super Guppy and other aircraft testing engines etc, it’s now mostly a housing estate,

Interesting comment regarding his hopes for the 1990s and faster aircraft at 3:50

[xeroniris]

My Grandad was an engineer on the Concorde project, which remains a point of great pride for me. I wish I'd had a chance to fly on it.

[grecom_]

How I miss that generation of talented people who modernized the world, with effort and hard work.

[Paul-D]

the sad feeling I got when the gentlemen saying about the supersonic passenger flight we would have by the mid 90s. I mean at least Concorde was still flying then, I remember Filton in 2003 getting wet in the rain when it came back for the final time.

[ChrisMelville]

Videos like this make me both proud and sad. Proud of what we could once achieve as a nation. Sad because of what our nation has now been reduced to.😞

[om]

The last generation of engineers who were incredibly literate . Th pick of the British engineering days

[Mute_Nostril_Agony]

As a student at the nearby Bristol Polytechnic in the 70s, I can remember driving past Filton and seeing Concordes. As I remember, they tested engines most Thursdays out on Filton’s runway - the sound could be heard everywhere in the city

[jonathanaman]

Thank you so much for highlighting the story of the men and women that built this marvelous machine!

[TheKingTubby]

Brilliant and a big thank you for posting - I have a memory of watching this a long time ago - so much respect and appreciation needs to be acknowledged to those involved in the development and assembly of this quite unique masterpiece of engineering.

[indrajitg]

Makes me sad to think about Alan and his wife, whose marriage suffered to some extent because he kept working on the Concorde. It was a magnificent set of aircrafts but then it didn't last very long and neither lead the way for other supersonic routes as they had imagined. No matter how important work seems, ultimately its nowhere as important as family!

[UnlikelyExplanation]

Sharing the hangar with USAF F111s I see!

[stargazeronesixseven]

Love for their Entreprises & many were small Private Ltd Companies hiring passionate people about aviation & aircraft, under people oriented management & good honest quality controllers to produced these Magnificient Concordes for the British Airways, Air France & Singapore Airlines back in the 1970s ... Sadly one Concorde was being damaged & crashed due to a loose metal part dropped by an earlier Airliner on the runway that punctured the fuel tank & other control systems that crashed the concorde while taking off that lead to the begining of the retirement of these Magnificient Concorde Airliners ... Thank You So Much for all these Passionate Teams who help built us these Magnificient Concorde! ... 🙏🌷🌿🌏✌💜🕊🇬🇧🇫🇷

[WillieWeed]

03:12 assembly manager Freddy Price predicts here they'll be much bigger and faster than Mach2 aircrafts crossing the Atlantic again by the 1990s, or just over a decade away. Reminds me of when I first saw touch screens when Epcot right after it put up the globe, around new year's of '81. And they were telling me they were just around the corner too. That would've been about 2011, 30 years later.

[MrPINKFLYD]

By far the best and greatest passenger jet in history.