What are the best Concorde web sites and books?

It’s day five of a week of celebrating the Anglo-French Concorde. Today we will have a look at some Concorde web sites and books that are particularly worth checking out.

In case you’re just joining us, here is a run down of the story so far. There are two great Concorde videos here, a list of places you can visit Concorde, the story of Braniff operating the aircraft in the USA, and of course the original post with a potpourri of fun stuff to see.

Concorde Web Sites

There is only one Concorde web site worth checking out and that is Concorde SST. This site has a wealth of information online about the aircraft.

At the time of Concorde’s grounding after the 2000 accident, this site was THE place to keep up to date on what was going on. I recommend going to the Return to Flight page and specifically reading “Concorde’s Return to Service: The Full Story”, as it is a fascinating read on what they had to do to get flying again.

For those short on time, you might check out the page on The Fleet, which has a brief history of each airframe with accompanying pictures.

Otherwise, there are lots of options on the History page which are worth checking out. The Memories are quite an interesting read for example. There is literally no other Concorde resource on the web which is as interesting, well put together and informative as this site.

Concorde Books

My favourite Concorde book has always been The Concorde Story by Christopher Orlebar. The author is a former Concorde pilot who put together quite a readable book. As a teenager I read this book several times.

Don’t take my word for it that the book is any good? The original book was published in 1986 and it is now in its seventh edition, having been updated along the way. It would not continue to be updated and published if it wasn’t popular. I’m lucky enough to own a fifth or sixth edition signed by the author. No other Concorde books have really satisfied me. However, two other books have parts about Concorde which I enjoyed. Viscount, Comet and Concorde by Stewart Wilson provides an excellent overview of these three iconic British aircraft. Comets and Concordes (and those I flew before) by Peter Duffey is also very good. He is the only person to fly the world’s first jet airliner, the de Havilland Comet 1 and Concorde. A unique distinction and some of his stories are extremely interesting.

Overall Thoughts

In the digital age, what happens when someone decides to stop paying for the web site they created? A wonderful resource like Concorde SST will just go away and all the work will be lost. Considering the hours of work that went into creating such a fantastic source, this would be a crying shame.

On the other hand, books have the reverse problem. There are some fabulous out of print books, such as the ones by Stewart Wilson and Peter Duffey, that will one day be but a memory. While their subjects are pretty niche, they are excellent publications and having them available to download in today’s formats would be useful.

Have you any recommendations for Concorde web sites or books that I might have missed? Did you check out any of the links on Concorde SST that I suggested? Thank you for reading and if you have any comments or questions, please leave them below.

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Featured image via ConcordeSST.