This is the cockpit of Concorde, and it looks both majestic and more than a little bit intimidating.
Just imagine how long it must take to learn what every single one of those dials, knobs, and switches does.
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Concorde is arguably one of the most famous aircraft in the world and yet, strangely, most of us have never seen the cockpit.
It’s been over 20 years since Concorde’s final flight, so the only way for anyone to see one is at a museum.
Despite being the state of the art at the time, and arguably impressive even by today’s standards, Concorde’s interior was relatively sober and understated.
There were no fancy wet bars, no gold bathroom fixtures or anything extreme.
It just consisted of about 100 seats, upholstered in black / dark blue leather.
People who have been on Concorde say the seats were super plushy, large and comfortable.
But they weren’t particularly lavish.
The cockpit is a different story.
The cockpit of any plane is a fruit salad of dials and switches, knobs and levers.
But the cockpit of Concorde looked 100 times more complicated than that.
The first thing that stands out is every surface except for the floor is covered in gauges and instruments.
You’ve got instruments, dials and gauges where the pilot’s and co-pilot’s yokes are, and then you’ve got more on either side of the cockpit.
The right-hand side wall stands out.
It’s literally made entirely of knobs and switches.
And there’s an additional reason for that.
Concorde required a minimum flight crew of three, with a flight engineer working alongside the two pilots.
It’s easy to see why, though.
Two decades after its demise, Concorde still remains the last passenger airliner that could fly supersonic.
It could take you to New York from London in just three and a half hours.
The good news is several private companies (and NASA) are actively working on new projects in this particular field.
So hopefully we’ll be able to fly supersonic again soon enough.
