Spectacular Video & Photos of World’s Fastest Passenger Plane in Kenya
By DENIS MWANGI on 11 March 2019 - 6:30 pm
AMAZING
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A Concorde airplane at JKIA in the 1990s TWITTER
In 1975 Kenya played host to the world’d fastest passenger plane at that time that was en route to Johannesburg, South Africa.
The manufacturers however retired the aircraft in 2003 because it was not profitable. Currently, the fastest commercial planes are models of Boeing 747.
The Concorde 1 landed at Nairobi International Airport, which was later renamed to JKIA, from Cairo to carry out icing trials.
The flight was handled by Kenya Aerotech Limited as confirmed to Kenyans.co.ke by one of the company’s officers
In the 1990s, yet another model of the supersonic planes visited Kenya and was captured by Australian national Simon Watts.
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A cheetah and Maasai warrior photographed next to the Concorde 2 in Nairobi.
The Concorde 2 stopped over in Nairobi for a few days and Watts took full advantage of the potential publicity that the magnificent aircraft provided.
On arrival, the passengers flew directly to various game parks in a less speedy DC3 aircraft as the Concorde was inappropriate for such trips.
Simon took a number of photographs with the fastest land animal - a semi-tame cheetah and the Concorde, including a shot of the cheetah wearing a pair of headsets in the cockpit.
He also arranged for Maasai warriors to pose with the animal, on the aircraft and at the end of the runway for both landing and take-off.
He was grateful that the Maasai cooperated despite the noise that accompanied the supersonic aircraft.
"An incredibly noisy experience, the Maasai took their fingers out of their ears just in time for the photos to be taken.
“I remember asking the departing Concorde Captain to rotate as late as possible so we could get the best shots,” recounted Watts.
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Concorde 2 taking off as three Maasai warriors watch
Below is a video of the Concorde 1 touching down at Nairobi International Airport (present-day JKIA) in 1975.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zwrqAvJkiwQ
https://www.kenyans.co.ke/news/37744-spectacular-video-photos-concordes-touchdown-kenya