Well done to the French!
 

Now, if Branson would just stump up the £3million needed...

Who's keeping Britain's favourite aircraft ticking over? The French - Britain - Times Online

I'd love to see this beauty back in the air again. :notworthy

Damn BA. The speed at which they decommisioned these wonderful aircraft was disgusting. :mad:

Sheer spite from Rod Eddington, and didnt he go out with a gong.??

wouldnt even entertain Branson claiming the Planes manufacturer/ maintenance holder (airbus)? wasnt playing ball, and had claimed it wouldnt support...


funny how the plane was fully subscribed, and would still be today,

Sometimes you have to run at a loss to be a leader BA TAKE NOTE!!!!

they can screw you with shoddy service and cost cutting on the major routes, but dont want to keep the pride of the fleet running.

Shame on you BA for ripping the heart out of the big bird

mart :(

:thumb:

Don't think we'll ever know the truth behind BA's decisions Three years ago :mad:

They did do a much better job/show of retirement than AF though.

Luckily AF sold/gave away ownership of all theirs (bar one) so people like the group in the Times story can get to tinker with them and keep them 'alive' while the museums BA gave theirs to only got them on condition that BA retain ownership and they can never ever be powered up again.

They'll never get one airbourne again, the spare parts needed just don't exist anymore :(

BA did do a fantastic retirement video though....

YouTube - SpeedBird Concorde

"Alexandra Jolivet, Air France’s only female Concorde engineer, flicked a switch and the museum piece sprang to life.

Needles swayed on numerous dials, air conditioning roared and the gloomy interior was suddenly illuminated by hundreds of miniature green, orange and red lights.

Alexandra guided my hand to the lever that controls the nose. Two notches down tilted it to the landing position, which would allow the pilot to see the runway. In my case, it revealed Japanese tourists taking photos.

Before leaving the cockpit, Captain Webster could not resist sliding back a side window marked “Do not open in flight” and waving to the visitors below. At the rear of the cockpit, I came across a panel covered in graffiti written by crew on some of the last flights in 2003. A pilot had written: “Concorde est toujours vivant, il n’est qu’en sommeil.” (Concorde lives on, it is only sleeping)."

I applaud the French for showing the patriotism and pride in their heritage that we used to show 20 years ago, but has been totally and utterly undermined by certain groups of society nowadays.

We used to be an Engineering country. We gave the world the jet engine for heaven's sake. We used to be a brilliant proud country that showed the rest of the world what it was to innovate to push boundaries and Concorde was one of our finest moments. The achievement in this aircraft, especially considering it was designed over 40 years ago is breathetaking. BA have stuck two fingers up to aeronautical enthusiasts the world over.

The should no longer be the flag carrier for the UK!

Simon

On the contrary, it's down to Eddington that Concorde wasn't retired after the accident.

BA concorde operations ran at an average £30 million per year profit between 1985 and 2000. AF never made any money on it really. After the accident and especially after 9/11 BA were making a little money/breaking even on it, AF were losing a lot . The airframes were getting old and needed a fiar bit of work to keep them going,2 or 3 at the retirement time were nearing major checks. There was a project called re-life2 that was going to do this but it would cost a lot of money and just wasn't feasable in the current economic climate/world aviation recession after 9/11. The incident where AF v v nearly lost another Concode in Feb 2003 sealed it's fate.

You're wrong. I know from conversations I've had within the industry that the aircraft could be ready to fly within 3 weeks. Sierra Delta is a 100% ready to fly aircraft, now. OK, certification would take longer, but thats just time consuming, not an insurmountable problem.

Lets hope that one day we'll here the crackle of those Olympus 593's over Britain. Even if its an air france bird making the noise!


PS. Nat21 that is a STUNNING video. Thanks very much! :thumb::thumb:

Sorry, just don't believe that from talking to UK based enthusiasts and ex-engineers etc. BA and AF got rid of all their spares when they retired them, that's the biggest hurdle. The difference between ground running and airworthy is massive! I hope i'm wrong though :)

Edit - just remembered, Foxtrot Charlie is also in a similar state to Sierra Delta as she was kept in a readied/maintained state for quite sometime after retirement due to the French Judicial enquiry. It would be amazing to see/hear either just perform a fast taxi for the 40th anniversary in 2009 :thumb:

I hope you are to. Time will tell.

I never fly BA now for the early de-comissioning of such an engineering masterpiece.

Not going to dent thier profits much for sure - but Iberia are great for domestic stuff and Virgin Atlantic are better anyway over the longer distances :thumb:

Click for take-off goodness. Those afterburners are :cool:

Edit - Oh, and turn it up.

Yep - I assume Concorde must be the only civil airliner to ever fly that has them :wonder: Wish my A319 flight next week did, make it a bit more interesting :lol1:

Anyway, they rock!!

http://i107.photobucket.com/albums/m..._concorde4.jpg
http://i107.photobucket.com/albums/m...oes/smiley.gif

I don't blame BA at all, and I'll continue to use their excellent service.

That video is very saddening though, my grandfather worked on the development of Concorde and is one of the older generation of British people that are sadly getting fewer and fewer. Britain will never achieve that sort of brilliance again.

Sure. Give it 200 years and we'll be back in caves :freak3:

Not quite, but almost definitely the medieval ages under sharia law.

Allāhu Akbar!

BA should hang thier heads in shame, What a beautiful piece of engineering Concorde was, now left just to rot, I remeber being at the British GP and Concorde flew over with the red arrows escorting it,beautiful sight, it's so sad:cry:
Cheers
Colin

I can understand why Concorde was decomissioned, not enough payload, expensive to run and becoming an anachronism. The real crime here is that supersonic flight never really 'took off' and that Concorde was never the success it deserved. Even worse than that when Concorde ended there should have been a replacement waiting 'in the wings' but that was never going to happen.

I just count myself fortunate to have flown in it. It's a very strange feeling to be in New York when a very short while before you were in London. It was a wonder of the modern age that never failed to impress me. As many others have said we are now in the curious position of regressing in terms of speed. Not human nature at all.

Even watching that video it is almost like watching some futuristic plane.

I was in a van going round the roundabout at the end of the runway when concorde took off over us, looking out the side window into those 4 afterburners was amazing, and the noise!!!!!

Was also in a plane waiting behind concorde on the runway when it took off, our plane was shacking when concorde hit the gas to start moving :D

I never flew in it but did go in the prototype at Yoevil/Yoevilton museum can't remember which it is.

And it is a plane that they yanks didn't build... Yey!

Never knew about this

http://www.aviationcenter.ch/images/...aris_pepsi.jpg

The usual ill informed crap from Scoobynetters. :Whatever_

BA were forced, as was Air France, to remove Concorde from service due to Airbus refusing to stock parts which in turn revoked it's Certificate of Airworthiness. As Nat says, the BA service was profitable but there's no way they could have held the CofA plus the service levels required by taking on the entire burden of parts and engineering.

Unlike Air France, BA is not subsidised by the State and as such has to make a profit for it's shareholders. That being the case, why should they continue to provide funds for an aircraft that would have been financially unviable, particularly when they have a massive pension deficit and unions breathing down their neck demanding better compensation for their staff? It is difficult enough trying to get a relatively simply, by comparison, aircraft such as the Vulcan back to flight.

As for the crap that Branson came out with in his so called 'rescue bid' that was nothing more than the usual cheap shot PR that he likes - no CofA = no flights. Simple as that.

Of course its the free market,and its capital that counts,shareholders no longer wanted to fork out stupid huge flying bills for the paperdart(bignose) so the idiots like clarkson ect,could jet about and spout ****ty.
good rid to the stupid gaymobile in the sky:lol1: (and gaygear on BBC)

By your username you sound like you frequent,The Blue Oyster Bar.;)

So what is more Ghayer?? Your username or Concorde?:wonder: ;)

No point bickering over who's fault its demise was ,the bottom line is that we had a plane that offered supersonic travel to the public,a plane that when in New York, you could see everyone press their noses to the glass to look at the magnificent sight ,it made you proud to be British as that was "our" plane. It is an absolute joke and embarrasment that a country like ours cannot even keep one of these birds flying even for special occassions.

A country that was the outright leaders in enginneering excellence,industry and brought the world more inventions than anyone else, people like Brunnel,Stevenson and Whittle,to name but a few must be turning in their graves.

The Politicians have taken the "Great" out of Great Britain. :(

Those Concorde vids brought a tear to the eye!

:cool: I never realised before how far out of the plane the fuel was when it stopped burning:eek: Beats any military jet:thumb: even the almighty Vulcan:notworthy

Your so right love.