We noted the sad passing of Andre Turcat, the French chief test pilot for the Concorde (Aerospatiale).

Around the time of the Concorde test program, I had the privilege to meet and fly with BAC’s chief test pilot, Brian Trubshaw ( personally, I think Brian should have been knighted for his test pilot prowess during those early supersonic commercial jet days).

On another note; whilst flying a long-ago transatlantic flight in a Gulfstream from the east coast US to London, we were experiencing some severe turbulence. Our pampered passengers were not too happy and my copilot asked “Gander” if we could have a different flight level and at the same time, he essentially broadcast our plea for ‘smoother air’.

As I remember, we were at about FL370 and trying to get higher.

After a few staccato conversations about the turbulence at various flight levels in the upper 30’s/low 40’s…and after a long pause, we heard a British voice on the radio….deadpanning “it’s smooth at ‘five nine o’, old chap”

……yeah, right…Go Concorde !

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