Heathrow's flight path was my birthright... Boeing 707's, 727's and 737's, DC8's, Convair CV880's and 990's, Comet's and Caravelle's, and then the props/turboprops... Viscounts', Vanguards, an occasional DC7 or Connie although they were getting rare in the 60's... the first Pan-Am 747 in '69... and Concorde being a brand-new bird when I started with British Airways in 1976...
The only way you can experience what Concorde (oh why oh why did you Americans "cry-shy" of such a beautiful bird...? just because she was not American...?
) was like, both visually and physically (and 4 Olympus engines at 110% with afterburners was a physical experience...!) whilst standing at the end of the runway is to try and talk to a friendly USAF buddy and watch a B1...
Ohhh, that smell...
I have and always will have
aviation fuel in my veins and the smell of burnt kerosine will forever turn my head... just could not stand working on "bits" of aircraft in the centre of a hanger with no daylight...
My treat as a kid was the occasional Vulcan doing "touch-and-go's" whilst visiting family on the home Island, no afterburners but a "howl" all of their own...
... and they would low-fly in "radar avoidance" exercises, a couple of hundred feet above the house... no "tyre-tread" for recognition, Mark... 
ps
a work buddy (ex RAF engine fitter) used to service RAF Phantoms and WGAF Starfighters (his fave, for the "sound" as well...!). Last flying Starfighter I saw was WGAF and a Belgium AF at Biggin Hill in the early 70's...
