Concorde My Story


Concorde

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This story belongs to Amy, her brother Tommy,

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and her step-grandfather Tony, who they call Tappi.

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It's a tiny tale about Tappi's life and his love of flying.

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Tommy, let's see how fast you can go.

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Hold on tight, Tommy!

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Well done, Tommy. Well done.

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OK, Amy, let's see how fast you can go.

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Wahey! Well done, both. Fantastic! You've done a good job.

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That's really good.

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Now it's time for Tappi to take Amy and Tommy on a journey of discovery,

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and share his memories with them.

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Tommy and Amy, shall we make some aeroplanes?

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BOTH: Yeah! OK, great. Let's take a single piece of paper.

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I love making paper aeroplanes.

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Have you ever tried to make one at home?

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Why not give it a go?

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Match up the two sides close together.

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And, hey, we've got a plane. What do you think?

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-Yay!

-Yay, cool, huh?

-It's just like the plane you used to fly.

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You're absolutely right, Amy. It is just like the plane I used to fly.

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Hey, guys. Shall we fly our planes? BOTH: Yeah!

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All right, let's go. One, two, three...fly!

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What's it like flying a real plane, Tappi?

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Oh, it's absolutely magic. I'll ask you a question first.

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What's the most favourite day of the year for you?

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-My birthday.

-For me, it's the most exciting time.

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Every time I go to fly, it was like having a birthday.

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And that's what I like about the job. It's really magic.

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Have you flown lots of planes?

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Yes, Tommy, I have flown lots of planes in the RAF.

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And it was really good fun.

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And Tappi talked more about being a pilot -

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which means he used to fly aeroplanes.

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Amy and Tommy, I went on an aeroplane for the very first time

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in 1948. I was the same age as you, Amy.

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I just knew from the age of eight that that's what I wanted to do.

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And it just stayed with me the whole time.

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When Tappi was 18 years old, he joined something called the RAF.

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Which is a shorter name for the Royal Air Force.

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Which has been teaching people how to protect

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the sky above our country for almost 100 years.

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Tappi is taking Amy

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and Tommy to a special place called a flight museum.

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Which has lots and lots of very old aeroplanes.

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You can see up close and, sometimes, even touch.

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They're off to see an aeroplane, which Tappi's dad used to fly

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many, many years ago.

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-This is the Spitfire.

-It's very, very small.

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It's very small indeed.

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But did you know, this was the fastest fighter aeroplane in the last

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big world war. My dad used to fly one of these things.

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Look underneath here. You see the roundel here?

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That's the symbol for the RAF aeroplanes,

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so they knew that they were friendly aeroplanes coming over Britain.

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Here's this huge engine.

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Inside there's a Merlin and it turned its big propeller around

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to make the aeroplane go very fast. More than 600mph.

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If you look over here, can you see the bubble on top of the aeroplane?

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That's the canopy.

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And when the pilot wants to fly, he gets up there and opens it, that goes

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back, he gets in, and he can close it, start the engine and go and fly.

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That's what my dad used to do. Cool, eh? Yeah, really cool.

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I wonder where they're off to next.

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Tappi is taking Amy and Tommy to see another type of plane

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he used to fly - passenger planes.

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It's so lovely to be sitting here relaxed with you guys.

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This is what I used to do when I left the Air Force -

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took people flying to holiday destinations on large aeroplanes.

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And it was absolutely great fun. We went to some really lovely places.

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-Where did you go to?

-A lot of the times, to the Caribbean.

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And all over the world. But my favourite place was in Lapland.

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And that's the home of...?

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-Santa.

-Absolutely right. Santa used to meet every aeroplane that came in.

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We used to take the children from the aeroplane, straight through to the

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hotel, where there would be a big Christmas party and pantomime show.

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But the guest of honour was Santa and the reindeer.

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One time the reindeer came into the hotel.

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I've got pictures of them. It was really good and the kids loved it.

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They all came up and got lovely presents. It was just good.

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Then we took them back to the aeroplane, and off they'd go

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and fly back to England again.

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People were flying in other things before aeroplanes.

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Balloons. Hot air balloons can fly really high, and really far.

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So people would travel on long journeys by balloon,

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before aeroplanes were invented.

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The first proper flight was in this funny-looking aeroplane,

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which was built by two brothers called the Wright brothers.

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And it took off over 100 years ago.

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That very old plane was amazing.

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Now Tappi would like to show Amy

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and Tommy another special aeroplane that he used to fly.

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Good morning, Captain Amy and Captain Tommy. BOTH: Good morning!

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This is Concorde. What do you think, Captain Amy?

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-She looks very big.

-She is very big from the outside.

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But she's actually small inside. In the flight deck, even smaller.

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Does she go really, really fast?

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Yes, Captain Tommy. She does go extremely fast.

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2.5 times faster than any other passenger aeroplane.

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I used to fly her a long time ago. It was great fun.

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Would you like to go on board and see where I used to work?

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BOTH: Yes! Great! Come on then, let's go.

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Come on, guys.

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Tappi, Amy and Tommy are going inside the Concorde to explore.

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How fantastic.

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Concorde aeroplanes were designed and built by the French and British.

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And they were very expensive to build.

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So they only made 20 in the whole world.

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Concorde was very slim and had very powerful engines,

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which meant they could fly nearly twice as high

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and twice as fast as most passenger aeroplanes.

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This is the cockpit of Concorde.

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And I used to sit exactly where you're sitting, Amy.

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Where do you fly to on Concorde?

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I used to fly to New York twice a week.

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But other places - Washington, Barbados.

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But New York, in fact, was my favourite place.

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-Is it faster than a Spitfire?

-Absolutely, Tommy.

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In fact, I think probably three or four times faster than a Spitfire.

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It would go so fast that when we took off from London at breakfast time

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we would arrive in New York in time for lunch.

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Just over three hours flying.

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A jumbo would take probably seven and a half hours.

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Captain Tommy, would you like to fly the aeroplane?

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-Yes!

-Great. Turn round there, put your left hand on the control column,

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and the other hand here on the throttles.

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Captain Amy, one of the other jobs was to make

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an announcement to the passengers before we took off.

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Would you like to do that for us today?

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Welcome aboard Concorde. This is Captain Amy speaking.

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We'll be taking off shortly so please sit back

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and relax as we'll be travelling very, very fast.

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Thank you, Captain Amy.

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Amy and Tommy are going to pretend to fly Concorde.

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But don't worry, the aeroplane will stay safely on the ground.

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Captain Tommy, I think it's time we went flying.

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What you're going to do - you go, "Three, two, one, now."

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Push the throttles forward, and pull the stick back.

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Three...

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Two...

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-One...

-Now.

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Don't worry though, it's not going to take off. It's only pretend.

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That's it. And now we're flying. Well done!

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Now we're going to come back and do a quick lap.

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Push the stick forward.

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OK, pull the throttles back. OK, that's it.

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Well done. We've landed. That's very good, Captain Tommy.

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Wasn't it fun pretending to fly Concorde?

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Now, with you two, we have two more pilots in the family.

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How about that, guys? Hey! Come on! Give us five.

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Fantastic. Brilliant. Congratulations. Welcome aboard.

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This is mummy Natalie and Uncle David, and they're taking Amy and

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Tommy to an air show to see lots of different aeroplanes - old and new -

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flying in the sky.

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JET ENGINE ROARS

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Wow! This Typhoon jet is fast!

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And loud!

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Here it comes again. Cover your ears, Amy!

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This aeroplane is called a Swordfish, which is

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known as a biplane. A biplane has two sets of wings.

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Look at this really fast plane. It's called a Hawker Hunter.

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Roller coaster. Look at that!

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This one's called a Piper Grasshopper.

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Wow, look at these girls standing on the wings of the plane!

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They're called wing walkers.

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But don't worry, they're very safely attached.

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What an exciting day out at the air-show.

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Thank you for telling us stories about flying.

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And showing us Concorde.

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My pleasure. Can you remember all the special things we did together?

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We made paper aeroplanes together and they flew very far.

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Hey, we've got a plane. What do you think?

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-Yay!

-Yay, cool, huh?

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You took us to the flight museum to see lots of aeroplanes.

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And we saw a Spitfire aeroplane. Like the one your daddy used to fly.

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Cool, eh? Yeah, really cool.

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And you told us great stories about flying.

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Santa used to meet every aeroplane that came in.

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Then we went to see Concorde - your favourite aeroplane.

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Amy and I made announcements.

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Please sit back and relax as we'll be travelling very fast.

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And pretended to be pilots.

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That's it. Now we're flying. Well done.

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That's very good, Captain Tommy.

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-What was your favourite bit, Tommy?

-Looking at the Spitfire.

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-And Amy?

-Playing in the cockpit of Concorde.

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I used to sit exactly where you're sitting, Amy.

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That's where I used to fly the aeroplane from.

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What was your favourite thing?

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My favourite thing was to do things with you two.

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Especially to take you both on board Concorde,

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and go into the cockpit together and tell you all about it.

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Thank you very much cos I had a fantastic time. I loved doing it.

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I hope one day we'll all go and fly together. Thank you both very much.

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What a fabulous heap of fun.

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That was Amy, Tommy

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and Tappi Tony's tiny tale about Tappi's love for flying.

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Now that Tappi has shared his story with Amy and Tommy,

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it's time for them to start their own story.

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Do you know someone with a story to share?

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