I remember well going down to the Dhahran International Airport (DHA) when the Concorde SST visited back in June of 1972. It was a sales call with Concorde and Rolls Royce executives hoping to sell a few planes to Saudi Arabian Airlines. In the end, Saudia declined to place any orders.
The visit was all the talk in the Eastern Province. Huge crowds came out to see the plane from all the Aramco communities, Dhahran, Dammam, Khobar and surrounding areas.
I still have some pictures I took with my Yashica EZ Matic camera that I bought years before when our family was visiting Hong Kong on a round-the-world 60-day vacation repat trip. I still have that Yashica camera even though I have not used it since 1983 when I upgraded to a top-of-the-line Minolta. I sold the Minolta just before digital cameras became all the rage.
I was thrilled to see the Concorde but was disappointed that they did not allow any visitors to see the inside of the plane. With all the crowds on the Thursday / Friday weekend days, it would have been quite a challenge.
Concorde did make several take-offs and landings from DHA but I never did hear the sonic boom that the plane was so famous for.
Later as a returning student (1972 - 1979 ), I saw the Concorde on several more occasions at London Heathrow Airport (BOAC) and Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport (Air France).
No other airlines, except the two mentioned above, ever took delivery of the historical craft.
~Fred ( Dh. '72)