Concorde could fly again!!!

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.

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.

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

Quote:

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Originally Posted by 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!!!)

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Spoek like a true Clarkson !

Disagree with your accusation on Boeing though...

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