A Grand National tradition would see a Concorde fly passengers and celebrities over Aintree for years.
Concorde was no stranger to Liverpool after visiting the city many times from its maiden flight in 1969. But in the 1980s and 1990s, many will remember the ECHO chartered the supersonic jet as part of the Grand National celebrations.
Carrying only 100 passengers, racegoers and celebrities alike would board the special flight and then land in Speke, before hopping on a double decker bus to take them to Aintree racecourse. In 1988, history was also made when 1,000 ECHO readers flew on Concorde from Liverpool Airport - the highest ever number of passengers to fly on the craft in a single day, with the newspaper becoming the first in the world to charter two of the jets at the same time.
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Over the years, thousands flew on Concorde over Aintree in front of global TV audiences of millions. As part of the ECHO's How It used To Be series, we spoke to Arthur Johnson, 77, who at the time was the newspaper's feature writer about his memories and what the experience was like.
Prior to the Grand National tradition, Arthur, from Crosby, heard of another paper chartering Concorde for a special occasion and suggest doing something similar in Liverpool, first doing a flight from Paris. He told the ECHO: "It was a stunt really than a money maker.
"We ended up chartering Concorde, but we could only get an Air France one. We sold it to readers, flew out from Liverpool to Paris and then got the Concorde from Paris out over the Atlantic and flew supersonic and landed at Liverpool airport.
"We did loads of publicity in advance and thousands and thousands of people turned out to see it - it was quite a spectacle actually. It was amazing being in the air and looking down at the numbers there.
"A few years later I was very involved with the Grand National, the big campaigns to save the National as everyone thought it was going to die on its feet. The race had been going through a really tough time but Ladbrokes had taken it over and I was very matey with the young guy who was running the National for Ladbrokes at the time.
"I was telling him how successful Concorde had been. The BBC particularly was very keen on trying to get celebrities to come along to the Grand National so they had people to film rather than it just being the race itself. We came up with the idea of chartering Concorde again but to sell it to readers and also to bring some celebrities up to the National.
"We’d fly readers down to London and then come back on Concorde and then throughout the day we’d do trips arounds the bay on Concorde, just taking off and flying out over the Irish sea and then back again. They were selling out so commercially it worked very well."
After landing, guests were taken on an ECHO double decker bus to Aintree to enjoy the races. Celebrities such as Barbara Windsor, Ernie Wise, Anne Diamond, Russell Grant, Tom O'Connor and more were among the passengers through the years who also got to see Aintree racecourse form above.
Arthur said: "It wasn't low, but we flew people so they could see Aintree from the air before landing at Speke. The view was fantastic.
"It was extremely exciting because we didn't publicise in advance which celebrities were going to be on board. That was before the days of selfies and things and people were looking for autographs all the time.
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"The Grand National flights, particularly the first ones, people turned out again just to view Concorde. I distinctly remember looking down at the crowds on Frodsham Hill and it was thousands that turned out just to see the plane.
"It seems strange to think there aren’t any Concordes knocking around now." At the end of the event, the celebrities were flown back to London and at one point, two Concordes had to be chartered at the same time due to demand.
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Arthur said: "As a result of that, the airport that holds the world record for handling the most Concorde flights taking off and landing in any single day is Liverpool airport." Arthur said there was also a year when a Concorde wasn't available, so the Orient Express train was used instead.
Professional boxer Frank Bruno MBE was among the guests at Aintree and was keen to see the race outside, not the on the screen in the marquee. Arthur said: "We got outside and it was just crazy, people were mobbing him and it was really getting quite worrying.
"I looked up to the stands where the private boxes and everything and could see Terry Wogan was there drinking brandy and smoking a big cigar. He could see the problem Bruno was having.
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"He had words with some of the security people and they came down and helped us out and got us up to Terry Wogans' box. So I ended up watching the race with Frank Bruno and Terry Wogan."
Out over sea, Concorde was allowed to go supersonic - travelling faster than a bullet. And whilst this couldn't be done over land for the Grand National, many will still have fond memories of the journey or watching Concorde land in Liverpool for years.
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