The First American Pilots ‘Fly’ The Concorde

Two of the five Braniff International Airways pilots currently training in Britain to become the first Americans to fly the Concorde try out the Concorde simulator for size at British Aerospace's Filton, Bristol, training centre. They are (left) Captain Dale Duncan and First Officer W. F. Dugan. The first phase of their training, a ground course, at the end of this week and actually begin simulator training later this month. Later they move to flight training at Brize Norton Air Base followed by line operation with British Airways crews on their North Atlantic Concorde routes. A group of nine other Braniff pilots is simultaneously training at Toulouse with French flight training scheduled for Shannon, Ireland, followed by line operation with Air France. Texas‐based Braniff plans to become the first American airline to fly the Concorde on November 1st using interchange agreements with British Airways and Air France to continue their service from London and Paris to Washington on down to Dallas and Fort Worth, Texas. Although the internal U.S.A. flights will be subsonic, the pilots are all being trained for full supersonic operations and the new service is expected to knock more than two hours off the London to Texas flying time even allowing for the Washington stop. The service will be in addition to Braniff's daily 747 non‐stop flights from London (Gatwick) to Dallas and Fort Worth.