Concorde's Last Flight - Now CH4

[DaveB@Vagbremtechnic]

Not really Nathan, as with all things aeronautical you could make an Edition 30 do Mach2 given sufficient funds.

But theres massive political problems between the French and the English, going back to the 70's The french think they built it with our small amount of help and likewise we feel vice versa......Add in tensions between BA & Air France and Beardy Branson whoi promised to run them at a loss and you get to some of the reasons why they weren't dissasembled in a reflyable way.

The French Le Bourget aircraft and the Bristol BA aircraft are potential candidates however theres big issues with engine support from Roll's, the engine is essentially a vulcan engine but Jet engines cant cope with air presented to them at velocitys approaching and above mach one so theres some very complicated "doors" in the inlet that are computer controlled, these computers are down to Rolls Royce and were very troublesome, one of the more credible conspiracy theory's was that Airbus and Rolls (Who work together on many other projects) decided to stop supporting the aircraft together....

The vulcan to the sky appeal demonstrated what was possible but even then it faced crisis numerous times in the process, lottery money wont help (Haven't bought a ticket since they knocked back XH558), The complicated Vulcan could be described as a straightforward airframe compared to concorde - you could call some of the systems revolutionary the year it went out of service.

The other thing is that if they did it get it flying it would be subsonic only probably and that could well be an even greater shame, the complicated systems were there to make it work at 1350MPH you would have to get them working and then limit it to 300MPH

Sorry to harp on its something that I was really quite irritated about at the time, imagine a Veyron in terms of a vauxhall chevette or morris marina and thats what we chucked away

[ukdub]

Absolutely criminal - Airbus w@nkers......

Thats a bit harsh since it wasn't their decision to gound it.

Perhaps but it had been on the cards for years with double digit percentage increases in spare parts and support costs by airbus, to maintain the type certificate I understand they were planning on going from 12 million euros to 40 million euros in the year it got grounded.

Its like me charging you £5 a litre for V Power because I dont want to support Petrol Engines anymore, you can still spend it if you want to spend £600 filling your car up twice a week - not good if you run a petrol engined taxi firm.

BA were also bribed into some cheap A320's to replace the original non wingletted A320 Hour fleet leaders they had if they ditched concorde

Wheels within wheels, the fact that its a huge global industry shouldn't mean that 5 perfectly serviceable 35 year old cutting edge aircraft get scrapped at the behest of airbus, a very sad day.

Whats more criminal is that the "museums" are not looking after them very well, the one in New York had its nose mashed in by a delivery truck recently.

The one at Le Bourget at the Air and Space Museum is nearest airworthy and they plan to start the engines and hopefully fast taxi it soon.

We'll never have a concorde XH558

Apologies if you work for Airbus!

No need to to apologise,  what you say is true.(Just thought w@nkers was a bit harsh)  I think one of the main reasons that Airbus had to increase the support cost was because of the state of the superstructure inside the wings.  It was in a right mess. Lots of extra non planned work to be done on a regular basis. As for the spare parts, that was mostly a supplier issue.

BA's first wingletted aircraft was MSN950 by the way.  

Like you say, even with all the faults they where still serviceable.  Virgin wanted to take them off BA's hands.  
At the end of the day Air france are more to blame than anyone.  French W@nkers    The way they were cutting costs then and still now on servicing and maintenance makes me shiver for a main carrier.  I shudder to think what these tinpot airlines are really like when it comes to maintenance.  

[Greeners]

Thanks for the explanations chaps, so politics and money then! That'll be the root of most of the issues in this country! 

I did go to Birmingham airport to watch it fly in and out on it's final tour, spectacular and very moving!

[vwrascal]

great programme, awesome machine 

[RedRobin]

The Vulcan is only flying this year due to a huge anonymous donation or else that would be it.

....You're hugely generous, Ian 

[Hedge]

The Vulcan is only flying this year due to a huge anonymous donation or else that would be it.

....You're hugely generous, Ian 

I am generous in lots of ways Robin but I can't quite match that donation and am just grateful that someone did.

If I had just had me 6 numbers or 5 and 2 stars then who knows.