Concorde goes home

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Originally Posted by AndyG

I would have thought the Dreamliner to name just one would have done more km and be safer

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The Dreamliner will need to do a few more years of service, IMO, to be even considered, and it would need to be supersonic to be relevant.

Concorde entered service in 1969, and was retired in 2003. How many Boeing aircraft crashed in that time, compared to Concorde's once? Dreamliner wasn't even thought about then. And just wait, a Dreamliner will crash. The stats tell us so.

Apples and lemons. Dreamliner is just a name, and it's a name it's passengers disagree with. All Boeing is doing is complying with carrier demands. It's all about fuel consumption these days. Boeing's best aircraft EVER was the 747. Dreamliner is just a fast bus with wings, something I don't want to get on, but I would give a heck of a lot to fly on Concorde. Dreamliner is a truck. Concorde was vision.

[QUOTE=johntins;2847063]Boeing's best aircraft EVER was the 747.[/QUOTE
https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...f7301291be.jpg
I agree [emoji4]

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Originally Posted by johntins

The Dreamliner will need to do a few more years of service, IMO, to be even considered, and it would need to be supersonic to be relevant.

Concorde entered service in 1969, and was retired in 2003. How many Boeing aircraft crashed in that time, compared to Concorde's once? Dreamliner wasn't even thought about then. And just wait, a Dreamliner will crash. The stats tell us so.

Apples and lemons. Dreamliner is just a name, and it's a name it's passengers disagree with. All Boeing is doing is complying with carrier demands. It's all about fuel consumption these days. Boeing's best aircraft EVER was the 747. Dreamliner is just a fast bus with wings, something I don't want to get on, but I would give a heck of a lot to fly on Concorde. Dreamliner is a truck. Concorde was vision.

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The statement was Concorde was the safest, undutably a great aircraft and sex on wings, but emotion does not overrule statistics.
In term of length of service, pax km, the 747 delivered stellar performance, in terms of fatalities per km i suspect the 787 is ahead atm, and i hope it stays there, as i am on one next week.
If anyone can be bothered to dig out actual statistics im ready to be corrected

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Originally Posted by johntins

drop dead gorgeous, and what a dream. I saw it once, dropping down through the clouds on a beam of sunlight, and I will never forget it.

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Sounds like aviation heaven. I think Concorde was much more impressive from the outside, than in.

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Originally Posted by johntins

I would have given almost anything to fly on Concorde, and I absolutely detest aerial busses. Concorde was far more than just a people carrier, which was kind of the point.

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Indeed.

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Originally Posted by Pickles2

"Do-gooders"?....I hate 'em too.
A friend of mine flew on the Concorde, ... I think He said, and it was a long time ago, that there was a speed read out, but He had no sensation of speed at all.
Pickles.

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Yes there was, in Mach.
Attachment 144964

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Originally Posted by LRT

Seems crazy that it was all finished because of one crash. Such a wonderful aircraft [emoji22]

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The Concorde was essentially a prestige program for AF and BA. (It could have been more profitable had there not been restrictions placed on many of the planned routes, so that it could not fly them). Oh and not to mention a big F-U to Boeing and America. :D

By the late 1990s/2000s the programme was not, or was only barely, profitable. The airframes were aging, as were the flight decks/equipment, and there would certainly be no new aircraft built.

Increasingly good first class cabins in 747s (with lie down beds etc) mean that speed wasn't necessarily as important to some traditional Concorde travellers as long as comfort and luxury could be had. (And the Concorde wasn't exactly a roomy aircraft).

In any event, financially the end of Concorde was inevitable, but it was undoubtedly hastened by the crash in France.

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Originally Posted by johntins

I loved the Shuttle. What an amazing thing. Sure, it broke. Twice. Those who died did so believing. The Shuttle is, and will always be, extraordinary.
In my mind, Concorde will always be the most extraordinary public achievement of the last 100 years. Nothing has captured the public as Concorde did.
The US certainly did with Apollo and the Shuttle, but that was a Nation State playing with another, and neither have ever really recovered.
Concorde was just that; a concord between two different countries, that produced a thing of absolute beauty. I will never fly on her, and that saddens me.

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Yep.

In one way however, the Shuttle Program was the death of manned Space Exploration. I agree the shuttle was an incredible achievement - no argument there - but I firmly believe that if NASA had continued along the Apollo line we'd have landed on Mars by now.

Yes the public imagination was certainly captured by Apollo, but even then after a while most people saw them as "just another rocket launch" and attendances at Cape Kennedy/Canaveral really dropped away. Sad. The public's attention span is pretty low, even for moon landings after the first couple.

The death of the Shuttle program is a whole other discussion in itself, and as always there are numerous reasons and the Challenger and Columbia tragedies again only hastened the inevitable end (as much cheaper ways of getting satellites into orbit were becoming available).

This lucky bugger:

Ben's Air Blog - My Flight on Concorde
My Flight on Concorde

One irony was... near the end BA was beginning to make money. Or perhaps 'lose a lot less'. Apart from a welcome upgrading of cabin upholstery, the recently appointed (Marketing?) Manager stepped outside the box, and did an informal survey on the 'regulars', asking them what they paid for a ticket.. or what they thought they paid... This species of Seriously Rich have a PA or a Department that would handle the nuts & bolts of disbursing funds, so in fact the Super-rich Pax had NO idea... and gave wildly higher figures! Said cunning manager simply lifted the (lower) actual airfares to match the (higher) fanta$ies. - and plugged the bleeding.

Only in retrospect is it understood the brilliance of that un-named British Engineer, who insisted on the French spelling of 'Concorde', thus ensuring Eternal French co-operation.[biggrin][biggrin][biggrin]

then there is this classic....

YouTube