Many of you will be familiar with the excellent http://www.concordesst.com/ site by Air Net member Gordon Roxburgh.

Since January, the site has included a forum, which soon expanded to various sections covering Trip Reports, Viewing and Photography, memorabilia, as more people joined it as the retirement was announced.

A few months ago, a guy called Jetinder came on line, he was to put very mildly, passionate about Concorde and angry at it's retirement.
Most days, he made the long journey right across London by train, to photography Concorde take offs, and sometimes landings, while he still had the chance.
He quickly became a well known character at LHR, as well as expressing his love for Concorde, he gave good advice on photography.

As the crowds got bigger, many forum members got to know each other, it's become quite an atmosphere at LHR with this group.
Many had flown on Concorde, some splashed out when the retirement was announced, others were airline staff, making it a bit more affordable. The forum has a growing number of excellent reports, some linked from this site.
A few weeks ago, when it became clear that Jetinder could not raise the cash to fly on Concorde, he showed no self pity, only a renewed determination to take as many pics as possible, despite the long journey that entailed each time.

But some forum people started a fund to buy this most ardent Concorde fan a flight.
As well as pledges, some of Jetinder's pics were put on a disc to sell, several forum members, led by a BA guy called 'Sparky', helped organize things.

I certainly did not think it would come off, but by about a week ago it looked like the goal had been reached, one member (who like the rest, did not know any of the other forum members before) pledged a substantial amount.

Also, the BBC started to take an interest in the growing band of Concorde fans at LHR, so the other night the scene was set for a surprise, with a camera crew at the ready, (Gordon took pics too as can be seen on page 2 of this thread;

http://pub13.ezboard.com/fconcordesstfrm2.showMessage?topicID=855.topic

And Jetinder's reaction;

http://pub13.ezboard.com/fconcordesstfrm2.showMessage?topicID=857.topic