A Wiltshire man will be featured in a new documentary celebrating the 48th anniversary of British Airways’ first commercial passenger flight by Concorde from London Heathrow to Bahrain.
Bob (Razz) Ingham, then aged 50, from Hilperton, was one of the passengers on board the supersonic passenger jet as the flight took off on January 21, 1976.
The passenger list comprised the great and the good, but at the Heathrow check-in all eyes were on just one man – Bob Ingham.
It was no surprise that he was a magnet for all the cameras, for Bob was dressed in flowing white and purple robes with a flamboyant “sunrise” head-dress and silver face paint.
Bob, who worked with his son, Paul, for a tool-hire firm, was the ultimate fan of the UK’s fastest-ever commercial passenger aircraft.
His sons, Adrian and Paul, have fond memories of their colourful father and some of the exploits that made him a local personality, including being the first to cycle across the Severn Bridge before the Queen opened it in 1966.
Adrian, of Trowbridge, recalls his father had a band, the Bob Ronden Four, and was also a stalwart of the local carnivals, particularly Trowbridge and Melksham.
Concorde was the UK’s first supersonic passenger-carrying commercial aircraft built jointly by manufacturers in Great Britain and France and operated by BA and Air France.
The delta-wing aircraft, which made its first flight on March 2, 1969, had a maximum cruising speed of 2,179 km (1,354 miles) per hour, or Mach 2.04 - more than twice the speed of sound.
Bob, an avid Concorde fan, had booked his ticket for the Bahrain trip after standing at the end of the Filton runway and watching the first flight of the British prototype, 002, on April 9, 1969.
It had cost him the considerable sum of £544.60 and he was so eager to ensure his place in history that he overpaid by £6, which was later reimbursed.
The part-time musician and children’s entertainer, had decided to wear “a futuristic outfit for a futurist aeroplane”, so had one designed by his friends in a Bridgwater carnival club, Judy Naple and Ray Blackmore.
He wrote later: “In the reception I was surrounded by TV and press cameramen, but during the speeches I hid in a corner and kept quiet.”
Bob savoured every moment of the flight, drinking champagne, eating smoked salmon, smoking Havana cigars and collecting plenty of goodies, including slippers, eye-shields and cocktail sticks, as well as autographs, including test pilot Brian Trubshaw’s.
Bob recalled the moment when at nearly 60,000 feet the captain announced that they were going through the sound barrier.
“The seat hit me in the back and when Mach 2 appeared on the clock, everyone went beserk!! – clinking glasses of champers, cheering and dashing up and down the gangway.”
On landing in Bahrain, Bob's fame and name had gone ahead of him and he received – “a wonderful reception and had to pose with local beauties and air stewardesses.”
Sadly, Bob died in 1982, just six years after his epic flight, but he would no doubt have been pleased if he had known that 47 years later he would be shown giving a twirl in his spectacular costume at the British Airways check-in desk.
For he now features in a new film, Concorde – First To Last, which tells the complete history of his beloved aircraft with 150 minutes of rare archive footage, including interviews with test pilots, designers and shopfloor workers.
The film is available as a DVD and as an HD stream from: www.bellevuefilms.co.uk
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