On the way to the UK...1st day at sea

Friday, April 17, 2009 – at sea off the coast of Spain
Up late, brilliant sunshine. Computer class, worked on the computer and phone calls and aim to clean up and start packing!!! Went through UK Immigration (onboard the ship – taxpayer’s money at work again), attended the Concorde lecture (History and Future of Supersonic Flight), met with friends and there was a Tug-of-War competition with the crew out by the pool. I attended the book review on “The Boy In the Striped Pajamas” (don’t think I could see the movie after the discussion), and did a lot of “listening” and emails today.

Concorde: The Russians created the Tupolo 144 with a maximum range of 4K miles but it could not cross the Atlantic. They did beat the UK and France for the first flight and breaking the speed of sound by two months. They flew only 55 flights and transported a total of 3000 passengers
In 1963, President Kennedy wanted a supersonic airplane. Lockheed and Boeing worked on it and Boeing came up with the Boeing 2707 for 300 passengers which flew 2 times the speed of sound but the take off weight was too high and the titanium needed was too expensive. The project was cancelled in 1971.
The British are currently working on a “hypersonic” plane with 500 seats on two decks which would use liquid hydrogen as fuel (an issue). It would go five times the speed of sound. There are continual issues with flying over land and the sonic boom associated with the plane.
There are three companies looking at a new supersonic plane now in the USA. XB70 goes three times the speed of sound; a supersonic bomber and is in Dayton, OH at the Air Force Base.
Chief Engineer Smith flew the Concorde 6,727 hours of which 5,000 of these were supersonic. He has crossed the Atlantic 1,557 times on the Concorde and 1,938 times total. The Concorde flew to 228 destinations (on charity, charter and scheduled flights).
He showed one plane which was not air-worthy, which the engineers called “24,000 rivets flying in loose formation”!!

We sailed past the “rock” of Gibraltar, also a country and enjoyed a fantastic show with West End singer, Petrina Johnson. And then we enjoyed a fabulous crew show at 10:30 – it was great to see them so enthusiastic as they danced and sang for us.

The entertainment staff are making up for lost time due to the virus and they even had a cocktail party today at noon! The new guests who joined in Singapore on March 19 have not had their first get-together with the Captain and Sr. Officers so there is a lot to be done.

Ship’s event: Culinary Demonstration; “Florence Nightingale, Founder of Modern Nursing and Much More”, Blind Wine Tasting Seminar