Posts about: "Eclipse Chasing" [Posts: 2 Page: 1 of 1]¶

Another thing I've found today whilst searching for all things Concorde, were several mentions about the eclipse chasing that Concorde did during its lifetime. One really stood out and that was the chase during 1973. Here's a link to a photograph taken:

Concorde During Eclipse | Surfer Jerry

The intriguing part of the 1973 story though is the special "window" put into 001 to view the eclipse through. ChristiaanJ, you've posted previously on another forum about this (dated back to 2004 ) - are there any photographs of the windows installed for this event?

Chasing The Sun: A Supersonic Celestial Observation | Scienceray

It sounds a completely magical experience!!

There were two 'sessions' of eclipse chasing by Concorde.
The first one was the 1973 chase over Africa by Concorde 001, which lasted 74 minutes in all.
The other one was the one in 1999, when three Concordes did a brief chase, but without any special equipment on board.

BTW, the picture from "Surfer Jerry" is a very nice and impressive PhotoShop creation... but it's not real. There was no other aircraft accompanying 001 during that flight....

Your 'ScienceRay' link describes the 1973 flight in good detail.
IIRC there were three windows installed in the roof.
I've seen photos of the installation, but I'm not sure if any of them are on the internet.
If you're really interested I can ask the Mus\xe9e de l'Air.
The windows were removed after the flight and the openings blanked off, but if you know where to look you can still see them.

For those who read French, there's a great description of the flight in Andr\xe9 Turcat's book "Essais et Batailles".
And because he was flying the plane.... he himself never saw the eclipse as such.

CJ