He may be 103 years old, but Robert Angles still remembers his days working in the Bristol aircraft industry during the heyday of Concorde. He's become the first person to see the new documentary Concorde - First To Last - A Supersonic Love Affair, which was shown yesterday (June 15) for the first time.
Sir George White, great-grandson of the founder of the Bristol Aeroplane Company, was on hand to show the company’s oldest surviving employee the film. Mr Angles, who still reads without glasses, recalled 37 years at the company.
After serving in the RAF as an engineering officer, Mr Angles travelled from Weston-Super-Mare to Filton Airfield for work every day. Known as Bob to his work colleagues, he said: “We were in the stress office where we would deal with the drawings.
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“There were a lot of people involved with Concorde, it was interesting. I’m proud to meet Sir George today, I used to see his parents and grandparents.”
Sir George said it was only the people such as Mr Angles who made the building of aeroplanes such as Concorde possible. The new documentary has some never-seen-before footage and Sir George described it as the “definitive story" about Concorde.
He said since his grandfather and father started making aeroplanes at the top of Filton Hill, the aircraft industry has employed an estimated 250,000 people in the South West. The documentary is an extraordinary selection of film, including a great deal which has not been seen before.
He said: “Mr Angles is an extraordinary modest and clever man. It was people such as him which made Concorde possible and it’s marvellous to meet people who were in the aircraft industry.”
Sir George travelled on Concorde’s first trip to Russia and when the plane landed at Leningrad, thousands had turned up to catch a glimpse of the famous aircraft. He said: “We flew over the North Sea, you were really at the edge of space. Up above was black and below was azure and you just seemed to be hanging in space."
Sir George added that the design and building of Concorde was dependent on every single individual from designers to the employees who fitted the nuts and bolts. He said that Concorde was a truly Bristol product and “was so utterly beautiful, no-one has succeeded in doing that again - Concorde worked".
Andy Warren and Dave Rogers from First Take Films provided footage for the documentary, including videos of shop floor workers, test pilots, engineers and commercial pilots. British Airways Chief Concorde Pilot, Mike Bannister, who carried the flight log off the last Concorde flight, said the new documentary “draws together the whole history of this sensational and unique aircraft".
Julian Russell, whose father Sir Archibald was Concorde’s chief designer, said: “[It is] an authentic account of her odyssey, told by those who made it happen, recollecting their experiences with an infectious pride and affection.”
The documentary was screened to invited guests at Park House Residential Home in Weston-Super-Mare where Mr Angles lives, but it will be released to the public later this year.
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