Fly the Concorde

The original Concorde simulator on which pilots were trained to fly the sleek supersonic beauty has been refurbished and opened for public use at Brooklands Museum in Surrey, England.

Flying a simulator may lack the thrill of actually going supersonic, these days a thrill reserved for modern fighter pilots, but as any erstwhile Concorde passenger will verify, Concorde flew so high that you couldn’t really tell how fast you were going anyway.

Unlike modern aircraft simulators which actually move, the Concorde simulator relies on graphics to recreate the sensation of flying. Even so, the experience is apparently very real. And, it worked well enough to train a generation of Concorde pilots, so why not everyone else?

On the flightdeck of a real Concorde, now preserved in Toulouse

The cost of a one-hour flight is a somewhat eye-watering £139 or £395, depending on the package. But it’s cheaper than flying on the original, and the view is probably better.