Concorde could fly again!!!

[flagg]

BBC News - Work starts in £15m plan to get Concorde flying (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8712806.stm)

I'm so happy about this. An engineering marvel.

https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/imported/2010/05/4.jpg

https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/imported/2010/05/5.jpg

https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/imported/2010/05/6.jpg

:cool:

[Bundalene]

There is a Concorde at the Sinsheim museum in Germany. A most remarkable aeroplane. You can walk through it, as well as the Tupolev TU-144, the Russian equivalent of the Concorde. One surprising thing is how narrow the body of the plane is.

Anyone planning to visit Germany should allow the best part of a day for this Museum.

Erich

[Hall]

Yeah apparently only under a heritage licence.So limited flights only.Still getting it back into the air would be good.The Russians were the first to bulid a super sonic passenger jet.Was a show that revealed how they were stitched up at a Paris air show.So there plane was shelved.Was at the time a far better plane.Such was the cold war politics of the time.
Cheers Hall

[LandyAndy]

Good news!!!
Such a modern looking plane till you see how old it really is by looking in the ancient flightdeck!!!
Thanks for the pics.
Andrew

[coops71]

I got to walk through and around a test Concorde in the UK at a place I remember as Fleet Air Arm. This was in 1980 when I was 9 years old. Still vivid in my mind.

[d3syd]

Good news!!!
Such a modern looking plane till you see how old it really is by looking in the ancient flightdeck!!!
Thanks for the pics.
Andrew

My thoughts exactly. Looks almost WWII ....

[solmanic]

Great news. I may get to have a fly in one yet.

A couple of years ago I went the the Scottish Museum of Flight just outside Edinburgh and did the Concorde tour through G-BOAA. This was one of the last decommissioned ones so it had the latest interior fitout. Very nice but the seats were quite small compared to regular business class.

A few weeks later I went and saw G-AXDN at the Imperial War Museum, Duxford. This was a pre-production test bed and the difference was staggering. 1960s feel throughout - it felt ancient. I am amazed how essentially the same plane could be both so old and so new at the same time.

[p38arover]

I felt the same about the one I went through last year in Seattle.

[Pedro_The_Swift]

I saw one take off over Botany Bay once,, we were in Port Botany (Prince of Wales drive?) and the damn thing was still trying to get airborn as it went past us:o:o

and small!!!:eek:

[Lotz-A-Landies]

<snip>
The Russians were the first to bulid a super sonic passenger jet. Was a show that revealed how they were stitched up at a Paris air show.
<snip>Hall

I'm not quite sure that the claim the Russians (actually Soviets at the time) were the first to build a supersonic passenger jet. The Concordski started development two years after the Anglo-French Concorde, it beat Concorde into the air for it's first flight by a mere two months, but was the first to exceed Mach two. However that's hardly a claim of first build. It was such a poor copy of Concorde in flight that it had to add canard winglets to overcome low speed problems and increase lift.

The Concordski was two years behind Concorde to enter scheduled service but only flew 55 scheduled passenger flights (before being relegated to a freight aircraft for the remaining 47 flights), while Concorde's 14 (British Airlines and Air France) aircraft flew daily services for 27 years.

I know which one I'd give my tick of approval, and it's not the Concordski.

[VladTepes]

Indeed. If you compare the stats - fuel burn, engine performance, maintenance timeframes etc the Concorde comes out well ahead.

In truth the Concordski was simply a cold war "one upmanship" exercise by the Soviets and was the solution to a problem that didn't exist.

The problem in the Soviet Union was not getting somewhere fast (nobody cared) ... but getting somewhere at all, and with heaps of gear. This can be seen if how well they did in developing heavy lift aircraft lie the Antonov AN-124 and so on.

[3toes]

Saw a program some time ago on TV about the development of Concorde and the Russian plane. It was one of those we are all friends now and so the story can be told from both sides sort of shows that there were a few of.

In this one the Russians admitted they obtained a lot of the designs for Concorde through spying and used them to build their plane. Counter was that they knew what was going on after a while and so rather than cause an international incident over spying by the Russians put incorrect info in. Trouble was that by this time the Russians were so used to the info being correct full checks were not being carried out on the pinched info and it was put into their plane as time was important to be first was the goal. Hence the Russian plane was never going to be successful and required significant rework.

Sounds a little far fetched however it was supposed to be designers and engineers speaking from both sides.

Have been on Concorde (on the ground only unfortunately). When you went onboard ou turned to the right and walked through a short tunnel before reaching the cabin. Asked what this was about and was told the tunnel had all the electronics which controlled the plane in it. Reason it was so big was the age of the technology which was early sixties. Modern electronics could do the same job and fit in your lunch box.

[deeflet]

It would be nothing short of amazing to see Concorde fly again.

It is an aircraft that should never have been allowed to languish in the way that it has. Some icons of technology should be preserved just to remind us of what can be achieved with passion and dedication to a cause.

I don't care whether it was economical to fly or not, the British and French tax payer should have been proud to partly subsidise the operations of these majestic aircraft until Airbus comes up with something more magnificent. (Boeing just aren't brave enough!!!)

Those of us in the rest of the world can just ogle with our jaws dropped at the feat of engineering that most countries will only ever dream of.

Cheers - David

[VladTepes]

It would be nothing short of amazing to see Concorde fly again.

It is an aircraft that should never have been allowed to languish in the way that it has. Some icons of technology should be preserved just to remind us of what can be achieved with passion and dedication to a cause.

I don't care whether it was economical to fly or not, the British and French tax payer should have been proud to partly subsidise the operations of these majestic aircraft until Airbus comes up with something more magnificent. (Boeing just aren't brave enough!!!)


Spoek like a true Clarkson !

Disagree with your accusation on Boeing though...

Building the world's first carbon composite jetliner (787) not brave ? Hmmmm.