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Supersonic: inside Concorde

Step inside one of the most extraordinary aircraft ever built, in a Concorde experience chosen with teenagers and adapted for a teen-focused group.

  • WhenSat 22 Aug, 10:00am
  • How long2 hours
  • WhereManchester Airport
  • PostcodeWA15 8XQ
  • Ages10 to 18
  • Connects toEngineering · Physics · Aviation · Design

About this experience

Walk through the only passenger plane that ever flew at twice the speed of sound.

Concorde could land in New York at an earlier time of day than it left London, fast enough to beat the clock across the Atlantic. It flew at twice the speed of sound, higher than any other plane that has ever carried people. Then it stopped, more than twenty years ago, and nothing has been built to take its place. Flying has been slower ever since.

Connects to
Engineering · Physics · Aviation · Design
A way into
Engineering, physics, flight, design, speed, materials and the question of why brilliant machines sometimes disappear.
What they take away
A real-world sense of what engineering can do when ambition gets built in metal.

What this brings to life

Concorde turns forces, energy, materials and design into something your teen can stand inside, walk beneath and question for themselves.

It connects naturally to the science and design ideas teenagers meet at secondary school: motion, forces, energy, materials, aerodynamics, design compromise and the real-world decisions that decide whether an invention survives.

No worksheets. No test. Just the real thing.

Forces and motion

Concorde is a live example of lift, drag, thrust and weight. Why does an aircraft need that shape? What changes when it moves through air at extreme speed? Why is the wing so different from the wings most passengers are used to seeing?

Energy and fuel

Speed has a cost. Concorde's story opens up why travelling faster takes so much power, why fuel mattered so much, and why engineering decisions become business decisions very quickly.

Materials and heat

At supersonic speed, air moving over the aircraft heats the surface. That makes materials, temperature and tolerance part of the story, not an abstract topic in a textbook.

Design and compromise

The famous nose was not decoration. It solved a real problem: pilots needed visibility for take-off and landing, while the aircraft needed a streamlined shape for high-speed flight.

Business decisions

Concorde was brilliant, but brilliance was not enough. Noise, fuel, cost, demand, safety, regulation and changing travel habits all shaped why it stopped flying.

Who runs this

Venue: Manchester Airport Runway Visitor Park

Your session is led by a working pilot, aerospace engineer or aviation specialist with first-hand experience of the aircraft, drawn from the Runway Visitor Park's team on the day. The Concorde here, G-BOAC, is one of only 18 Concordes left in the world and one of just six preserved anywhere in the UK. It flew commercially for 27 years, clocking 22,260 flying hours and 7,730 landings, including four Atlantic crossings in a single day. Its final flight, from Heathrow, landed at Manchester in 2003, and the glass-walled hangar you'll stand in was built specifically to hold it.

Why this is on Foxchaser: This experience gives teenagers access to the real aircraft, other teenagers in the group, and a format shaped around what they are likely to notice and ask.

What you will do

  1. Start with the story of Concorde: what it was, why it mattered, and why people still talk about it more than twenty years after it stopped flying.

  2. Go inside the cabin and flight deck in small groups, with space to look closely and ask the questions that come up when you are standing inside the aircraft itself.

  3. Walk beneath the wings and look at the aircraft from the outside: the shape, the engines, the landing gear, the scale, and the details that made supersonic passenger flight possible.

  4. Watch the nose droop demonstration and see how one of Concorde's most famous features solved a real engineering problem.

  5. Leave with a different sense of what engineering can do, and why even extraordinary machines have to make sense in the real world.

How this runs
  • GroupTeen-focused group. Other teenagers will be part of the session.
  • Adult modelA responsible adult comes with each booking and stays for the session.
  • Flight deckFlight deck visits happen in small groups.
  • InteractionQuestion-led, observation-led and adapted for teenagers, while respecting museum rules.
  • Museum etiquetteConcorde is a preserved aircraft. Visitors must follow the venue's instructions and avoid touching or moving items unless invited by staff.
  • AccessThere are 26 steps to board, with handrails on both sides.
  • What to wearThe aircraft is housed in a hangar, but dress for the weather.
Good to know
  • Duration: 2 hours.
  • Location: Manchester Airport Runway Visitor Park.
  • Parking: included at the venue.
  • A responsible adult stays for the session.
  • There are 26 steps to board Concorde, with handrails on both sides.
  • The experience includes time on board, time beneath the aircraft and the nose droop demonstration.
  • Everyone's full name is confirmed with the venue about a week before the day, so the commemorative certificates are ready when you arrive.
  • Photos are welcome throughout, but audio or video recording of the guided presentation is not permitted. It is protected by the venue's copyright.
  • Final meeting point, arrival time and access details are confirmed before the day.
If you need to cancel
  • Cancel 14 days or more before the experience: a full refund.
  • Cancel less than 14 days before, or not attend on the day: the places cannot be refunded, because the venue charges Foxchaser in full at that point.
  • If we or the venue cancel the experience: a full refund. Always.
Read the full booking terms
How booking works
  1. Choose teen places Book one full-price place for each teenager coming.
  2. Add the adult coming with them A responsible adult stays for the session at a reduced rate.
  3. Bring a friend if you like One adult can bring more than one teen, so a friend can join the same booking.
Read how it works

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