Historian Tony Buttler to give talk on 'Building Concorde'

Tony Buttler will be presenting two talks at Huntington Hall in Worcester this autumn.

The first of these, ‘Building Concorde’, will take place on September 20 at 7.30pm, using illustrations to tell the story.

He said: "The Anglo-French Concorde supersonic transport is still one of the world’s most beautiful aircraft."

Mr Buttler’s talk examines the various elements of how this famous airliner was created and produced during the 1960s.

The areas discussed will include design and environmental problems, background testing, special research aircraft and prototype testing.

He said: "Ground-breaking technology was required on both sides of the Channel to make it all work but the problem of noise, particularly the supersonic boom, was a key weakness that was never solved."

A second talk will follow on November 29. The talk on ‘Worcestershire in Aviation’ begins at 7.30pm.

After Tim Barney’s talk on the Malvern Radar Establishment and Defford and Pershore Airfields back in February, Mr Buttler will look at some of the other little known contributions Worcestershire has made to aviation history.

His review includes airfields within the county boundaries, famous individuals or personalties of aviation born within the county, a very important industrial facility, and then finishing with two 'little known but wonderful stories from the early days of flight'.

He said: "Did you know that a successful attempt on the World Altitude Record ended near Evesham?"

Tickets for each event cost £9 and can be obtained via the Worcester Theatres Box Office on 01905 611427 or from the website worcesterthreatres.co.uk.