STB034 This is stunning1969 to 2003 Concorde collectors official limited edition first day cover hand signed by "Queen Of The Skies" Barbara Harmer where her signature rests perfectly accompanying the special hand commemorative franks. This comes with full lifetime COA as the signing has been officially certified by the publishers with full hallmarking and authenticity of the series further detailed in absolute brand new mint condition. You wont source better.
Barbara Harmer (14 September 1953 – 20 February 2011) was the first qualified female Concorde pilot.
On 25 March 1993 Harmer became the first qualified female Concorde pilot and later that year made her first Concorde flight as First Officer to New York City's John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK).
Harmer became the first qualified female Concorde pilot and made her maiden supersonic flight from London to New York in 1993. Eight years later, Air France pilot Béatrice Vialle became the second of only two women to ever fly Concorde on regular scheduled services.
Flying the legendary jet was a particular challenge. The aircraft used afterburners at take-off and to quickly gain altitude. After that, the afterburners were switched off to keep noise on the ground to a minimum. They were only switched on again at very high altitude to go supersonic and accelerate to the top speed of up to Mach 2.
During cruising without using the afterburners, the high speed left very little time for navigation. The final descent before touchdown had to be precisely timed, as Concorde’s delta wings had no flaps.
Between them, Barbara Harmer and Beatrice Vialle made 35 trips between Paris, London and New York. “There’s nothing else like it in the world,” she once said about Concorde. “Even pilots stop and stare. It has an aura about it.”
But British Airways and Air France withdrew Concorde from service in 2003, leaving Harmer to fly long-haul flights for British Airways until the end of her active flying career.
Shortly after her death, her husband, Andrew Hewett, told British newspaper The Argus: “We will wait for a nice summer evening and scatter her ashes from a Tiger Moth plane flown by our friend Captain Les Brodie, who landed the last ever Concorde flight. We will distribute the ashes … into the sea at the foot of her garden. Barbara was a keen sailor and wanted to be spread over the ocean. This will combine her two great passions.”
