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Who are Heritage Concorde?

Heritage Concorde are an independent team of former Concorde engineers and aviation enthusiasts who share the same passion and commitment to anything and everything, Concorde. Working entirely as volunteers, we dedicate much of our spare time to work on any Concorde to improve, maintain and preserve these beautiful aircraft for the benefit of generations to come. We have no “agenda” other than a shared desire to do more and deliver real, tangible results.

Having delivered on some high-profile projects since our formation in March 3rd 2010, Heritage Concorde has achieved respect and media attention as a serious Concorde engineering group: a group that can also boast the expertise of having time-served Concorde engineers at our core… one of whom has the record for being the longest serving Concorde Engineer in the history of the aircraft. Our core management team also also extends beyond the UK having members located across Britain, Australia, Norway, Guernsey and France.  

 

Heritage Concorde is the only group other than Brooklands that has actually been allowed to work on a Concorde in the UK. The engineering arm of the group was previously known as “Heritage Concorde Tech”, but in 2013 the decision was made to drop the “Tech” and simply refer to the whole team as Heritage Concorde.

 

The group’s management and engineering arm is headed by Graham Cahill who is supported by his deputy Gaute Lund. This core team also consists of two very well-known and respected former British Airways Concorde engineers: John Dunlevy, known as “JD”, and B1 engineer, Ian Mosdell.

The Early Days of Heritage Concorde

 

Feeling somewhat disillusioned by the lack of engineering achievements being made in the Concorde world, Steve de Sausamarez founded Heritage Concorde in March 2010. His objective was to change the vision and appetite of other groups and organisations towards the preservation of the Concorde fleet, including British Airways themselves. As such, his priority was to assemble a team of former Concorde engineers, who in turn would be fully supported by a management team. 

 

 

In addition to having a “qualified” engineering team, Steve began to build a network of aviation businesses, museums and organisational contacts that could provide additional support for any future projects that the group would become involved with. Heritage Concorde has become very successful in this area, gaining great respect for its dedication to Concorde from this network.

 

 

Steve started building contacts with BA and also acquired shares in the company, which Heritage Concorde still hold. Owning these shares gave Steve and Heritage Concorde the right to attend the BA AGM in London, and therefore the opportunity to address the BA Board about Concorde. He also built contacts and held various meetings with Airbus in the UK and the Concorde Trust, now known as BACT.

 

 

Over the next 24 months Steve had a number of meetings with key contacts and also met with a member of the BA board at BA Engineering, Heathrow, with regard to G-BOAB during 2011; some of these meeting were held jointly with the Save Concorde Group as Steve supported their efforts for Concorde “Return to Flight”.

 

 

Heritage Concorde was making good progress engaging all interested parties in effective discussions and plans, including members of the aircraft engineering circle that had been formally against any return to flight for the aircraft. During this time Steve also helped put together two projects for the Save Concorde Group, based around Concordes at both Heathrow and Filton.

 

 

In January 2011, and as head of Heritage Concorde Tech, Steve quietly began work on our first major project at Manchester airport, known as Heritage Concorde “Project Flagship”. This project involved our engineering team carrying out various repairs and restoring power to a British Concorde. Despite what others have claimed, this was never an attempt to fly the aircraft again; our engineers needed to lower the nose to replace the windscreen, and a number of ill-informed and incorrect comments made by other parties fuelled unfounded rumours that have seen the work left uncompleted.

 

 

Steve decided to take a back seat at Heritage Concorde in 2012 and handed leadership of the group to Graham Cahill who then made the changes that saw the group grow our engineering team.  

 

Steve returned to Heritage Concorde in a small way during 2013, but finally stepped down from the group’s core team during January 2014.  Steve is no longer a part of Heritage Concorde management, although he still owns this website and the name Heritage Concorde, he gives advice and attends our meetings and engineering days when it becomes possible for him to do so as he now lives in Perth WA.

 

 

Building on the foundations laid down by Steve, the engineers are now driving forward and delivering more and more tangible engineering projects under the direction of Graham Cahill; leading the fight for the heritage of Concorde. John Dunlevy has been a major force in the achievements made to date; he really is one of the very biggest names in the Concorde engineering world.

Our website

On 3rd March 2010, this website went live and Heritage Concorde was officially formed. The aims of the site were simple: to bring you the Concorde fans all the information that you would require to satisfy your hunger for this amazing, iconic aircraft.

 

 

The  site will become the only home for information regarding any past and future Heritage Concorde projects that our engineers are involved in with Concorde – if it isn’t on here, it isn’t happening!

 

 

Heritage Concorde has now established itself as a credible authority in the Concorde world - a team who “talk less and do more” to deliver real results. 

Concorde Restoration

Graham shakes John's hand after successful work on Concorde G-AXDN

Steve de Sausmarez

Founder of Heritage Concorde

Steve founded the group in 2010 and led the Heritage Concorde - Project Flagship program at Manchester, he has written most of the content of this website and is passionate about Concorde. He handed the group over to Graham Cahill in 2012 after the project was cancelled. He still loves Concorde but has taken a back seat in the general running of the group.

Graham Cahill

Head of Heritage Concorde

Graham took over from Steve in 2012 as Head of the group, he is in charge of the day to day running of the group, and was instigator of our mission statement, current projects and current advertising campaign. Graham also heads up the engineering arm of Heritage Concorde. 

John Dunlevy

Chief avionics engineer

JD is the longest serving British Concorde engineer. John has been connected with Concorde since 1965, when he became an apprentice with the Bristol Aeroplane Company and streamed for test flight avionics and production avionics. He specialized in the aircraft air intake developement at Fairford on the prototype and preproduction Concordes, and was involved with the British prototype 002 tours and British pre-production 101 endurance flying. He left Fairford in 1977 to join British Airways

Ian Mosdell

Chief mechanical engineer

Currently an aircraft engineer with British Airways. Ian played a major role in the post 2000 Paris crash Concorde modifications, and spent a total of 14 years working with the Briitish Airway Concorde fleet. Ian was also the main engineer working on Heritage Concorde  Project Flagship, this saw life restored to BA Concorde G-BOAC.

Philip Cairns

Mechanical engineer

Philip Joined British Aerospace in 1963 at Weybridge as apprentice aircraft fitter. He moved to British Aerospace, Filton in 1966.Transferred to Fairford Flt. Test Centre in 1969.Went on Concorde World Tour in 1972 and Concorde route proving in 1975. He then Joined British Airways in 1976. Worked on Concorde till she retired from service in 2003. His attention to detail is evident in all aspects of his work.

Peter Ugle

Mechanical Engineer

A former British Airways engineer Peter still works on Concorde and most recently has been involved with the restoration at Duxford.
Peter's other passion is steam loco's but the rocket is far cleaner! 

Gaute Lund

Assistant projects manager

Gaute has been a member of the group since the early days and was included in the core team immediately upon Graham taking the group over, his passion for the aircraft is second to none. Gaute is mainly a troubleshooter for projects, recently he found a new source for hydraulic oil for one of our projects and arranged for it to be imported. Gaute is a major asset to the team.

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James Coombe

Social media and website 

James has been a member of Heritage Concorde since the early days and now looks after our website and social media. He grew up in Filton with family working at BAC so was introduced to Concorde from an early age and soon became hooked. James is currently a Saturday volunteer on Delta Golf at Brooklands

Alex Jolivet

Chief Conservation engineer Le Bourget

Alex is in charge of the team of engineers who look after F-BTSD in Le Bourget, France. Her work to date on this aircraft has been nothing short of brilliant, Alex and her team's attention to detail in the preservation of F-BTSD is finite. Alex administers our facebook site for the French members.

Laurent Dupessey

Conservation engineer Le Bourget

Laurent is part of the Le Bourget conservation team who look after 
F-BTSD, he has been heavily involved with restoration at Brooklands on the simulator. Laurent administers our facebook site for the French Members.

Helen Tonks

Media relations and Publications

Helen has always loved Concorde and her company, Hydraulics Online Ltd, supported our project work at Duxford to lower the nose. She did such a good job with media releases and other administration that she joined us in October 2014

Other members of our team who are included in our projects and work on the aircraft include Patrick Sevestre, Philippe Gebarowski, Christian Julius, Paul Snelgrove, Ian Bishop, Gordon Roxburgh and James Cullingham. All time served engineers or restoration specialists.

Left; Graham and John celebrate after working on Concorde G-AXDN

Past Members

Tony Morrish

Mechanical engineer

Tony was at Fairford and worked on Concorde in the development years, he was involved with our restoration projects at DAS Duxford, sadly in 2016 Tony passed away but his legacy will remain in Concorde and his loving family, a big personality that we will all miss.

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