Back to the Future with Boom

It was late afternoon and the sun was well down below the yard arm, fading into the horizon of concrete and sand, mud bricks and reinforced concrete, desert and metropolis. This was the paradoxical island of Bahrain, my base for the next twelve months, my first overseas contract, and my first encounter with the clash of eastern and western cultures. Only a few weeks out from my last work base in London, I had been invited to a social gathering at the local rugby club, perched near the perimeter of the airport and with the main runway in clear view. 

Anything was an excuse for a party back in those days, but this particular event still stays clearly in my mind, some forty years later, as other memories fade into a fog of yesterdays. The date was 21 January 1976 and the gathering was to celebrate the beginning of an era of supersonic passenger travel. 

Everyone gathered was in typical after-work relaxed mood, chattering in lively fashion, fuelled with a taste or more of the grape or grain. Then, as the glow of twilight formed the footlights to this magical stage, the crowd of revellers hushed and we spotted her approaching, like a prima donna about to bring her debut performance to a climax.  All eyes were on this captivating white mystical bird, as she floated towards us, seemingly defying gravity, suspended in our incredulity, until the magic spell was broken by her touch down; then the roar of her thrusters, as she screamed past us now metamorphosed into solid metal rolling down the runway.

The first commercial Concorde flight had landed, heralding the start of supersonic travel along with my many years of expatriate adventure in the Middle East and Far East. Such a pity that this mode of transport, albeit with it's problematic sonic booms, was soo expensive and available to so few travellers over so few years.

Imagine then my nostalgia when I recently read in 'Interesting Engineering' that the 'Boom' is back, or will be soon, if Virgin Galactic and other venture capital firms get their way.  This time, supersonic travel will come in the form of a new jet, travelling at a speed of Mach 2.2, and reducing the trip between New York and London to less than three and a half hours. Hence, flying west, you'll land before you take off. ⏲

Don't, however, rush off to your local friendly travel agent to make a booking, or look for supersonic travel airlines listen the world wide web, to enable you to dramatically shorten your business or holiday travel time. We're still a little ways off commercial reality.

Meanwhile, I'll get back to my fond memories of mystical lands, and that late January afternoon in 1976, when adventures began and the world was a lot larger.

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Here again is the link for those that wish to learn more about the 'Boom':

http://interestingengineering.com/supersonic-jet-faster-concorde-under-construction/

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When not researching the weird or the wonderful, the comical or the cultured, the sinful or the serious, I chase my creative side, the results of which can be seen as selected photographs of my travels on my website at:

http://ken-boddie.squarespace.com

The author of the above, Ken Boddie, besides being a consulting engineer, is an enthusiastic photographer, rarely leisure-travelling without his Canon, and loves to interact with other like-minded photographers and people with an artistic background.

Ken's three day work week (part time commitment) as a consulting engineer allows him to follow his photography interests, and to plan trips to an ever increasing list of countries and places of scenic beauty and cultural diversity.