Chip

Concorde had to make an emergency landing in Cardiff tonight at 18.45 due to engine problems. Seems its getting problems more than it should so maybe it is the right decision to retire it.

Chip

Luke

Cardiff?????? Hope they sue ..

Chip

WTFs wrong with Cardiff tonight. Ive got Delvard asking the same thing.

Chip.

jonny32

Concorde programme on ch 5 now until 9pm

Chip

Ah, Perhaps you meant that you hope Cardiff Airport sues for having all those foreigners land in our beautiful country.

I doubt it as Concorde comes here quite a lot actually. It gets serviced here as do all the BA Jumbo's so they get the job done properly.

Chip.

[Edited by Chip - 9/17/2003 8:30:27 PM]

OllieC

Cardiff???

Just thought I'd join in Chip

unclebuck

Oh dear First the bike museum and now this. It's been a bad day for British iron

UB

Chip

Cardiff..........Isnt that where all the big ENGLISH football matches are played these days then?

Chip.

Beer Good

Colleague went to see a Concorde being refitted a couple of years before the Paris crash. It was in a hangar and there was a strong smell of aviation fuel. He started to walk underneath and was pulled back by the engineer he was with because he wasn't wearing protective clothing.

He assumed it was dripping because it had just been washed.

The engineer explained that until it got up to operating temperature the fuel tanks under the wings didn't seal properly and the damn thing just leaked fuel, had been that way for 30 years!!

Fuzz

The Blackbird's the same, everthing gets rather hot at mach 1 and expands A LOT.


Andy


NO, not a bloody Honda blackbird either

[Edited by Fuzz - 9/17/2003 9:01:26 PM]

BOB.T

Why retire it because of a few problems?

The Paris crash was down to debris on the runway, not a fault of Concorde, in fact it could of brought down any plane! So what does that leave you with, hmm, 100% reliability! How many other planes can you say that for? 747s have crashed due to faults, I bet you'd jump stright on one of them wouldn't you?

It's like saying all Scoobs should be scrapped due to some having big end bearing faults

I really hope Virgin gets Concorde and it carries on flying for years to come![/i]

[Edited by BOB.T - 9/17/2003 10:55:26 PM]

Beer Good

Don't get me wrong, I work for a company that makes mega £££ out of Concorde, wish Virgin could get what they want.

But...

Bob T. - The Scooby point is a bit silly, there's no hard shoulder at 40,000 feet.........

Markus

It is a shame to see Concorde go, but it has been around for a damn long time, think about 26 years, maybe more. I would have thought there are other problems with the plane that are not in the public eye, heck I've been on quite a few planes with mechanical failures and they are newish planes, sub 5 years old, and if it happens there, think what a 10 yr old or older plane is like. Put it this way, by 94 scoob was getting a bit long in the tooth, I'd dread to think what it'd be like after 20 odd years without having a complete overhual, which for a car is possible, think of that for a plane!

The other factor will be cost, it costs a lot for it to fly, and retrofits are not cheap at all, plus it's limited flight plan can't help much, there is only so much that punters will pay for seats.

I hope that there is a sucessor to Concorde, we really do need a new supersonic aircraft, and a proper fleet of them too. heck if we have cars capable of 230 odd mph, and other massive advantages since the arrival of concorde surley it's possible to have a plane with it's supersonic abiliites but with the capacity and seat pricing of a normal aircraft? I know I'd pay a few quid more if my flight to Toronto was 3 hours instead of 7.

I guess the reaosn we don't have it is due to environmental pressures, as that is one of the reasons why it can't fly supersonic over land, noise problems, which is fair enough I guess, but, even still.

BOB.T

Beer, my point is that no Concorde has needed the hard shoulder* so why retire it? OK it's had to divert, name me a plane that hasn't! Your big ends start to rattle, so what, you could still drive it.

* it would of been too late for the one that crashed in Paris and it would only have melted the tarmac anyway and we'd have to pay more road tax!

Beer Good

I merely meant that if your car catches fire you have some chance of pulling over & getting out.

At 40,000 feet you are a long way offshore and your options are severely limited. Flight safety / payoff (i.e. profitability) is the key.

There are few interesting articles in Flight International relating to fuel leaks etc. (http://www.flightinternational.com)if you want to know more, you will have to register though.......

Duck_Pond

Quote: "Cardiff..........Isnt that where all the big ENGLISH football matches are played these days then?"

Aye, they have to get the revenue from somewhere. Let's face it, if you get all the supporters of the Welsh Rugby (Union) side, and all the Welsh Footie supporters together, then you'd maybe fill half the "Home side" dressing room at the Cardiff stadium...

Sbradley

Concorde's retirement is a matter of economics, not safety.

Air France decided to stop their Concorde services after the paris crash regardless of the AIB findings. They were not able to generate the passenger numbers and they are not allowed by their operating charter (as still partly state owned)to carry out an aggressive pricing campaign, for example, to get bums back on seats. As an aside, that's why Air France are usually more expensive than thei competitors on the same routes. They survive because the French prefer to fly their own flag carrier, presumably so they can get onions, garlic and snails on board

Concorde is expensive to maintain. She's a unique aircraft and is, as has been pointed out, 26 years old. Many of the spares are made specifically for her. There is no other operational aircraft I can think of with Olympus engines, and certainly none with afterburn. There are marine installations but I should imagine they share little in common. All the airframe parts are unique and some of them are even unique to a particular Concorde rather than any of them. This is bearable (just) when shared between two companies, but once one decides to quit the other has to follow.

That's why, although I would love to see it, there will not be a Virgin Concorde. The maths just don't work unless Virgin and BA work together and that's about as likely as John Prescott being voted Mr Nice Guy 2003.

Sorry

SB

Scoob99

iTrader: (1)

Bring on the Branson hope Virgin do get it, this plane is far too good to put in a museum, lets face it WE the tax payers paid for it so we should have a say in where it goes.
Cheers
Colin

ScoobyDoo555

Wasn't Concorde about in the 60s? I think in all fairness, regardless of the accident, it is time for Supersonic flight to be updated.

40-year old technology is a good building block, but let's bring it into the new millenium......

Imagine it - the sound coming out of two Nur-spec exhausts, the accelleration and "whistle" as the twin-scroll turbos kick in down the runway.....

Dan

Dracoro

Or they could just fit neons to a bog standard plane

BOB.T

Beer, any plane could catch fire at 40,000ft! From a saftey point of view, I think I'd rather take my chance on Concorde than anything else!

4lex L

Full Story

I read somewhere recently that they could significantly reduce the noise pollution cause by supersonic flight by adjusting the shape of the aircraft. If this was to be achieved then commercially viable supersonic flight might be possible.