Concorde's ex-crew share plane's legacy on anniversary

John Tye's said he had the best time working as a captain on Concord

A former Concorde pilot who flew the plane to the edge of space has shared his "phenomenal" memories on the aircraft's anniversary.

John Tye, 67, who piloted the plane from 1998 to 2000, will be speaking at the Flight of the Legends fundraiser at Aerospace Bristol later, which is being hosted to mark the 22nd anniversary since the aircraft's final flight.

The Filton hangar is home to the last Concorde to ever fly in 2003, Alpha Foxtrot. Money raised from Friday's event will go towards the plane and museum's upkeep.

Mr Tye said: "When we went off to New York, we took Concorde through the sound barrier and on the edge of space at twice the speed of sound. It was just phenomenal - absolutely incredible."

Concorde's first commercial flight was on 21 January 1976 and its last was on 26 November 2003, nearly 22 years ago.

Crowds gathered in Bristol to watch the aircraft's final piercing flight, with the plane's unmistakeable nose drooping as it came into land.

Mr Tye flew Concorde planes for two years

On 25 July 2000, Air France Flight 4590 crashed shortly after take-off with all 109 occupants and four on the ground killed.

Investigators later found one of the Concorde's tyres struck a small piece of sheet metal that had fallen from an aircraft that had taken off five minutes earlier.

Mr Tye was a pilot on Concorde for two years before the incident.

His dream to fly the famous plane started when he watched the world's first commercial Concorde service take off at Heathrow in January 1976.

He said: "If somebody bet me £1m that day that I would end up flying that very aeroplane, I would have laughed and not taken the bet.

"But I did - I worked hard and achieved that goal," he added.

The former pilot, who's based in Surrey, said flying a Concorde plane for the first time, on a round-trip journey to Seville, was one of the "best days" of his life.

He said: "We parked up and we shut the engines down - it's one of those moments."

After leaving Concorde, he worked his way up to captain on other aircrafts for British Airways over a 46-year career.

Anne McKenary told the BBC it was an "honour" to work on Concorde

Anne McKenary, from Dorset, was part of the "elite" cabin crew that flew high-profile passengers for nearly six years.

Passengers on board included Sir John Major and the Queen Mother on a special Concorde flight for her 85th birthday.

Ms McKenary said: "When the fleet office called me in to say I was going to do this flight with the Queen Mother, it was a pinch-me situation. I couldn't believe it.

"It was extremely special because it was her ambition, her dream, to fly on Concorde."

The 78-year-old said she remembers having to write a "mini essay" about herself for the Queen Mother to read so they could have conversations throughout the journey.

"She was just delightful - it was like being with my own grandmother," she added.