Concorde in Fife: I never expected to fly in Concorde – certainly not for free

It looked different and it flew faster than anything with its legendary sonic boom a highlight for anyone lucky enough to get a seat on flight.

Dave Montgomery was one of them when Concorde landed at RAF Leuchars and then took guests and locals at the base down to Heathrow. Forty years on, he is hosting a small exhibition of Concorde memorabilia at Cupar YMCA to mark the day the plane came to the Kingdom.

Concorde entered service in 1976 and was best known for its sonic boom and transatlantic flights. All Concorde aircraft were retired in 2003, three years after the only fatal crash involving the plane in 2000 when all 109 passengers were killed after it crashed shortly after take-off.

The plane landed at the former air base to bring a party of USA golfers to compete in The Open in St Andrews. Its arrival captured the imagination of folk across Fife, and roads all around the base were gridlocked.

“I was working at Leuchars at the time and we knew Concorde was coming in,” said Dave. “There was a lot of excitement on the base - people wanted to see it landing, but a lot of people didn’t think Leuchars would be able to accommodate the plane.”With its VIP passengers off to St Andrews, the supersonic plane sat on the runway for five days until its short, ultra quick journey to Heathrow.

“I’m not sure if the plane’s operators knew the golfers were not going back straight away, but it was scheduled to fly on to Heathrow and we were all wondering who’d be on board. They offered seats to local clubs and dignitaries and once club, from Dundee, could not make it so they tannoyed the base offering a chance to fly on Concorde. I put my name in the hat and got a call to say I was going.It was fantastic. A lot of top brass from Leuchars got on board around 6:00pm but someone came up the steps and said if you weren’t flying you had to leave - you could see the disappointment in their faces.”He described Concorde as “unlike any other plane” - “it was narrow and very long, with just two seats on either side. I likened it to a toilet roll at the time!”

“It had an indicator in the cabin which shows how much mach it was doing. You can’t fly over land at Mach-1 because of the sonic boom. I went to the back of the plane and saw no-one was moving, so ran down to the front. There was a big bang - someone said that was me doing Mach-1!”

Concorde did a circuit of St Andrews before heading south - “there were thousands of people on the ground taking photos” in a journey which took just 43 minutes, just enough time for cabin crew to hand out souvenirs including key rings, and case tags.

They form part of David’s exhibition which will be on show at the weekend.

“I didn’t ever expect to get on Concorde - certainly not for free,” he said. “Over the years people have given me bits and bobs of memorabilia relating to the plane. I have flight certificates, menus, jigsaw and a game and a lot of first day covers. They all make up part of the display.

“It isn’t a huge exhibition, but people are still interested in Concorde and I am happy to chat about it coming to Leuchars.

Dave reckons passengers spent more time on the Heathrow runway getting to their slot than they did in the air, and the return journey by train took a much more leisure seven hours.

> The Concorde memorabilia is on display Cupar YMCA, Bonnygate, on Saturday (July 20) from 10:00am until Midday.