Concorde: “A Supersonic Love Affair”
Concord / Concorde: Taken from the Old French, meaning harmony, agreement.
If there is anything happening anywhere in connection with that iconic supersonic airliner, then Richard Chatham won’t be far away. So something would surely have been amiss if Richard Whittington Lodge’s own Concorde-buff had not been at the Royal Agricultural University on the occasion of the Grand Officers’ Mess Dinner. As a guest of John Thurston, Richard regaled those within earshot; just a taste of his staggering knowledge and experience of the most instantly recognisable aircraft in the world. “The first nose cone was rolled by an engineering company who made agricultural feed bins,“ he told us. Richard has made a study of those masons and lodges which were directly or indirectly connected with Concorde, and is currently expanding his research into the history of the Schneider Trophy.
Richard is pictured here [right], wearing his famous gold badge, with the guest speaker, Lindsey Henniker-Heaton, a former Concorde design engineer, and a volunteer guide and community speaker at Bristol Aerospace Museum. Lindsey provided a fascinated illustrated talk about the 40-year life of the aircraft, which followed a sumptuous dinner in magnificent surroundings. Naturally, Lindsey recommended everyone visit the museum and suggested it as a special location for functions. The Mess Dinner is an occasion when Grand Officers can invite some of those brethren who have helped out the Province over the past year.
Our thanks to Dick Smith for this article
