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Concorde - Project flagship.

  • 01-10-2011 5:45pm
    #1
    mickdw
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 23,812 ✭✭✭✭


    http://heritageconcorde.com/?page_id=10055

    Essentially, a team of volunteers were working with the museum in Manchester to carry out repairs to the aircraft. They were then suddenly removed and all work stopped. Health and safety and insurance concerns were cited as the reason for shut down of works but reading the various articles etc, it appears that the real reason is much more interesting.
    From what I can gather, one of the volunteers, a concorde avionics engineer persuaded the museum and the works team that the best way to repair the visor on the aircraft was to get the nose moving under its own power. This required powering up the aircraft via a ground power unit and also refilling and pressurising the hydraulic systems on the aircraft. This was therefore the route that was chosen and the work was sucessful.
    Everybody concerned later found out that there was a simpler method of repairing the visor using a rig that is available from Brooklands. It seems that the avionics engineer purposely mislead everyone concerned as he wished to get access to the aircraft to demonstrate that much of the systems can be easily brought back to life and to attempt to show the greater public that with some backing, a heritage flight role for concorde would be possible.
    This caused a major fallout within the works team and they have now gone their seperate ways, no before the work had been stopped by the museum who as far as I can gather from members on save concorde group were told in no uncertain terms by BA that the aircraft was not to be awakened in anyway.

    Anyone got any insider info on this?

    There really does seem to have been a major fallout. Unfortunately, fallouts appear all too common where concorde supporters are concerned with much bad mouthing of BA & Airbus going on since the aircraft was grounded in 2003.


Comments

  • #2
    pclancy
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 3,941 ✭✭✭pclancy


    Interesting developments.

    I never got why the airline and Airbus were so adamant that Concorde will never fly again. Plenty of old classics get restored and brought back to life, why is Concorde so unique that it cant be even contemplated? I heard of concrete being poured into fuel tanks or switches being glued together...


  • #3
    kona
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 7,525 ✭✭✭kona


    pclancy wrote: »
    Interesting developments.

    I never got why the airline and Airbus were so adamant that Concorde will never fly again. Plenty of old classics get restored and brought back to life, why is Concorde so unique that it cant be even contemplated? I heard of concrete being poured into fuel tanks or switches being glued together...

    Id imagine the tech assistance and money thats needed, also the sourcing of parts and the likes would be very expensive and abit of a hassle that neither Airbus or BA , AF want to deal with.

    I heard that There is one that still has its CoA in france, AFAIK it legally has to due to the ongoing investigations and trials of the AF crash in paris.


  • #4
    mickdw
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 23,812 ✭✭✭✭mickdw


    pclancy wrote: »
    Interesting developments.

    I never got why the airline and Airbus were so adamant that Concorde will never fly again. Plenty of old classics get restored and brought back to life, why is Concorde so unique that it cant be even contemplated? I heard of concrete being poured into fuel tanks or switches being glued together...

    NO doubt, it would be difficult to have maintained an aircraft in airworthy condition following the end of service but it would certainly have been much easier had Airbus not withdrawn their technical backup completely.
    Still, even with Airbus gone, had the right people been in control at BA that actually wanted to keep one flying, it would still have been possible as I believe for a heritage role, the powers that be could have been persauded that BA together with a technical partner were sufficiently knowledgeable and experienced to operate & maintain an aircraft for non commercial use. Even if it never flew supersonic again, it would still have been fantastic to keep one in the air for airshow, special occasions etc.
    To be fair to BA though, the commercial flight retirement was out of their hands as the french (airbus & air france) screwed them.
    I dont know if the concrete was ever actually poured into the tanks on some of the aircraft. If it was, it was only proposed for aircraft that were never ever suitable for flight again. Certainly the aircraft in le bourget France, Bristol & the manchester one are in good condition and were never detroyed like this. Interestingly, some form of front ballast is required as it takes very little weight transfer for the aircraft to actually flip backwards and sit on its tail. Lead placed in the front baggage hold is the best solution.


  • #5
    Blue Punto
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 834 ✭✭✭Blue Punto


    Even with BA/AF and Airbus/BAE not having anything more to do with the aircraft,all one has to do is look at VULCANFORTHESKIES.

    Anything can be done if there is enough support


  • #6
    andy_g
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 7,561 ✭✭✭andy_g


    Blue Punto wrote: »
    Even with BA/AF and Airbus/BAE not having anything more to do with the aircraft,all one has to do is look at VULCANFORTHESKIES.

    Anything can be done if there is enough support

    100% agree with that statment hell if that happened i would try jump onboard as a volunteer.

    I think it would be great to have atleast one example of the aircraft flying.

    When Concorde was taken out of service the aviation industry took a 60year (roughly) back in time.


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  • #7
    kona
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 7,525 ✭✭✭kona


    andy_g wrote: »

    When Concorde was taken out of service the aviation industry took a 60year (roughly) back in time.

    :confused:


  • #8
    Foggy43
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,321 ✭✭✭Foggy43


    BA had to take Concorde out of service due to one main reason. Airbus were no longer going to make spares. It would now cost a fortune to have a part made to order and possibly the aircraft grounded until the part arrived.

    I feel now with hindsight it was just as well BA decided to take Concorde out of service. The main bulk of the passengers were the Wall Street and City of London Bankers. Also politicians and celebrites used it. Some frequent fliers were killed on 9/11.
    Lehman Brothers were very frequent fliers. They went under during the worldwide banking crises. Should Concorde have still been flying pressure on the banks and politicians not to fly Concorde would have killed it off anyway. Elton John was the most frequent celebrity to fly.

    I know two of the engineers personally, mentioned in the OP's link. One worked on Concorde from the day it entered service until the day it was removed. Yes! He would give anything to have one airworthy again. I cannot see that ever happening.


  • #9
    Tenger
    Moderators, Motoring & Transport Moderators Posts: 10,054 Mod ✭✭✭✭Tenger


    As with others I would love to see Concorde in the skies again...it was a shame that the Paris crash and the post 9/11 airline industry could not preserve them. As pointed out above, even is they still flew, the program would not have survived the current GFC. Concorde was an expensive luxury and would be very difficult for bankers/businessmen to justify to shareholders.

    (Just look back at the public/media backlash to the US motor industry CEO's flying in to Washington to ask Pres.Obama for a bail-out)


  • #10
    mickdw
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 23,812 ✭✭✭✭mickdw


    I dont think there is anyone looking towards Concorde as a commercial airliner ever again.
    That is impossible. One Concorde in the air for use on special occasions would be fantastic though. It would take money but the volunteers are out there and I think if BA said yes to the idea of heritage flight, there would be massive public backing for it.
    As it stands now, you have save concorde group in uk looking for return to flight. The same group appeared to spend much of their time fighting with BA, Airbus & themselves and this surely damages any campaign and any possible chance for them to further the cause.
    I visited G - BOAF at Filton, bristol last year shortly before it was taken off display. Looked very fresh at the time and it has now also had some maintenance carried out including external painting. Very nice to see. Nothing really restricted. Full supervised acceess to the cockpit etc.
    Some people dared to dream that the sudden removal from display was related to an intensive maintenance effort to return it to the skies seeing at it was the newest, least used aircraft in the fleet and also fully intact. Others believed that it was being taken off display to rot in a hanger somewhere. The truth appears to be somewhere in the middle as the aircraft has had alot of work done to it to preserve it but unfortunately not works in any way related to a return to flight as far as Im aware.


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