|
By:
foxy, obviously who's being asked had a huge bearing on the result:
If the poll was in Charles Buchan's Football Monthly, England team / player comes out well on top. If it's the girls' magazine Rave, the Beatles win by a landslide The (mainly) London readership of the TV Times voted for Arkle! |
|
By:
Was the tv times printed in Dublin in 1966 ?
|
|
By:
not sure, foxy
Stiff competition that innit: Arkle / World Cup winner Bobby Moore / Beatles What would be the equivalent nowadays? Al Boum Photo / Harry Maguire / Ed Sheerin? |
|
By:
The Knight
I think the girl I am referring to was the first female to fly the aircraft on a commercial flight and certainly the first BA woman pilot to fly it. If you know better, though, please let me know as the story interests me greatly. But the girl I am talking about had the most humble background and appeared to have got to fly Concorde entirely through hard work and determination. Totally correct, and was only one of two female pilots to fly Concorde operationally. She certainly achieved a lot in life and as you say, starting from a very humble background. I used to contribute to an aerospace magazine FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL (still around) and had several letters printed at the time of Concorde's fateful crash, basically defending it's safety record that prior to July 2000 was exemplary. A wonderful aircraft that sadly i never flew in. |
|
By:
IDE vote for al boum photo but I am biased
|
|
By:
I will always remember where I was the day Concorde crashed Andrew stating the obvious but a really sad day..
|
|
By:
Likewise Foxy, a bit like JFK, that is ironic considering Concorde was flying to the New York airport of the same name on that fateful day.
|
|
By:
andrew
Ok, thanks for that. I was lucky enough with my wife to go on one of the Concorde day trips in late 1980's. I think it was allowed to open up to speed of sound over Bay of Biscay but not sure now. Either way, what a machine. It looked like it wanted to grab the air once it was off down the runway and I recall a pilot saying it felt like a living beast trying to get airborne as soon as it could. I must admit,it bothers me slightly that it used so much fuel (was it right that it used the same amount of fuel in taxing into position that an average family car used in six years?) but sometimes you have to look beyond the drawbacks and just admire what mankind created there. Also, what an icon. When I was younger, EVERYONE looked up as Concorde flew over. I miss it being around. |
|
By:
I don’t remember jfk My jfk would be John Lennon Andrew ,the day of Concorde I had been to Brighton It was king George week so I thought I have a day at Brighton on route ,I got in my car and the 5 o’clock news came on and it was obviously the headline story,a few years later I took my children to see the magnificent airplane come to Manchester (ringway) for the final time.
I know he isn’t flavour of the month anymore but Richard Branson tried to save it but ba was having none of it. |
|
By:
I was watching the French and British concordes taking off simultaneously on TV, in my home in Thames Ditton, back in 1976. Once airborne, I went out into the garden and watched the BA concorde fly over our house, I'll never forget it and yes, I always looked up when I heard it coming.
|
|
By:
I never went on concorde something I regret ,the view taken by me is make sure you do the things you want to do ,because one day it won’t be possible for various reasons,bransons idea I believe was to run the plane as an upmarket flight without all the extra special trimmings unless the customer payed a premium,it was a good idea many would have paid a bit extra to have the experience.
|
|
By:
Driver people never grew out of gazing up at Concorde it didn’t fly over Manchester much but when it did it was great.
|
|
By:
Perhaps Arkle was popular in London because he ran some great races at Kempton and Sandown. He was also owned by Anne, Duchess of Westminster.
|
|
By:
I lived in London at the time and as much as I loved Arkle who was the best jump horse I am ever likely to see there is not a chance in a million that he was more popular than Bobby Moore or the Beatles.
|
|
By:
The Knight
You were certainly lucky to fly on Concorde, one of my bucket list boxes to tick at the time, but similar to Foxy it was always 'i'll do it next year' although i left UK in 1984 for Greener pastures and that didn't help of course. The aircraft wasn't anywhere near efficient at low speeds, hence the high use of fuel during taxi and climb, it was designed to be operated best at mach 2. You would have certainly reached mach 1 during your flight to the Bay of Biscay, but i'm not sure about the next level, i simply don't know. It must have been a fantastic experience anyway, specially at take off and again at cruise height seeing curvature of the earth if it reached that level. Although a first class aircraft, it wasn't really the same for comfort, the seats were narrow due to the smaller than usual air-frame diameter and the windows could be very warm. The original name Concorde was renamed by Harold McMillan during the early development phase removing the e on the end as it sounded too 'French'. Tony Benn restored the e saying it stood for England and Elegance. Richard Branson wanted to buy the British Airways Concordes but there was no way they would have allowed it, even so it was becoming very costly to operate and maintain, so it's not a sure thing they would have been flying for many years after 2000. |
|
By:
I worked for a tour operator subsidiary of Air France for 20 years from 1976 and towards the end of Concorde's commercial life we sold trips on Concorde, such as over the Bay of Biscay that Andrew mentions. I remember 1 flight that was promoted with the headline, "Fly to the edge of space". Not me I thought, which turned out to be somewhat prophetic! One particular trip was way under sold, so rather than be embarrassed, Air France decided to sell seats to the staff for £25 each, so I decided to take my 2 sons. Unfortunately, because I only worked for the subsidiary, I was told that I could go but I couldn't take the kids. I didn't fancy it, so I didn't go.
|
|
By:
I just wanted to recap on my post above and to driver2 in particular. I am sorry if I offended, it was never my intention. I watched the World cup my flat on Greenside Road, Shepherd's Bush and after tea that evening, it was Saturday, went to the pub to meet some pals who hadn't watched it. That was one reason I remember there was no TV in the pub. I agree with what you say and I do believe that soccer was hugely popular in the UK, all over in fact. But what I was saying was the FA did nothing to promote it commercially like it is being promoted today. They feared a drop in revenue with gate receipts dropping due to falling attendances. So when the game finished tellys were turned off as the wall to wall coverage was not part of the occasion. Yes, I remember the reports of the huge TV audience for the final and as a lad of 12, I listened to news reports of the Munich disaster, terrible tragedy. I am a Liverpool supporter but I met Sir Matt Busby IMO a gentleman. The wall to wall coverage came when FA realised they had a product on their hand. Until then it was difficult, as is the way with all sports, to get an older generation to see what could be earned. Also, there was a rise in football hooliganism, very much in the late '60s through '70s. Again it is only my own opinion but while it was bad publicity really is there such a thing as bad publicity? I know that horse racing would not have the popularity of football but it was a hugely popular sport at the time and newspapers tended to idolise Arkle to the extent that in a survey given the demographic of those polled it is possible that he would have come out on top ahead of Bobby Moore and The Beatles. For instance, if the poll was taken after Cheltenham 1966 outside Fine Fare, Liptons or Woolworths I believe he would have come out on top. It doesn't alter the fact that no way was racing more popular but it was in the mind and a 6-day occurrence. That would have possibly been an element in the survey. Again
I apologise if any offence was taken it was not intended after all it was an opinion. If anybody reads this it only came to my notice some years ago that the lads who did the scoreboard on the final were from quite close to where I come from in Waterford. They got the job by chance, you would probably be able to charge for guys to do the same today, yes I know we are gone all electronic now. |
|
By:
Bobby Moore was voted BBC Sports Personality of the Year in 1966. The competition was restricted to humans otherwise Arkle would probably have won it.
|
|
By:
In the interests of research (and early-onset dementia) last week I purchased from Ebay a disc of scanned TV Times from 1966 but I cannot see any mention of this (or any) poll. Perhaps it was in 1967 looking back at 1966, or perhaps I just missed it (and one or two weeks are missing). Does anyone have a date for the poll?
Btw it does look as if there were regional variations of the TV Times outside London. |
|
By:
Based on weight carrying capability:
1. Arkle 2. Beatles 3. Bobby Moore Beatles placed 2nd based on well known track on Abbey Road album. |