Concorde

[amethyst]

Any fans of the late Concorde supersonic plane,anybody seen one take off or land?

I have seen 2 in air museums they are absolutely massive close up,it seemed quite cramped though inside.The control panel in the cockpit oh my god never seen anything like it before

[Richard1978]

Re: Concorde

I lucky to see one land at Manchester in the mid 1990s, thanks to a friend hearing one was due to come in. I saw one over Stockport a few years earlier which was being diverted.

I've seen preserved ones at Yeovil & Duxford, & bits of one at Brooklands.

[staffslad]

Re: Concorde

Only seen one once. Not long after it had taken off--an incredible sight and a beautiful aircraft. Even nearly 50 years after its first flight it is still an outstanding piece of technology.

[marc]

Re: Concorde

I never saw Concorde take off or land, but I did see it flying over a number of times. Usually around 6pm, Tuesday being a regular day. It was quite high up.

[big kid]

Re: Concorde

i went to a airshow when i was about 14 and concorde landed. then we got to take a look around inside. then, as the show was coming to the end, we got to see it take off. stunning aircraft which shouldn't have been taken out of service.

[darren]

Re: Concorde

NEVER SAW ONE TAKE OFF OR LAND.

BUT I WAS SADDENED TO HEAR THEY WHERE BEING TAKEN OUT RETIRED.
ONE OF THE MOST RECOGNISEABLE IF NOT THE MOST RECOGNISAEABLE PLANE EVER WITH ITS POINTY BEAK LIKE NOSE.

WHY WAS IT RETIRED CAUSE IT WAS TOO EXPENSIVE TO KEEP THEM GOING OR BECAUSE OF THE CRASH.

[Arran]

Re: Concorde

Concorde is an example of technology that hasn't been replaced with anything equal.

The problem with Concorde was that it was the wrong product for the market. Apart from a small number of businessmen rushed off their feet the majority of the public wanted cheaper air travel rather than faster air travel. I suspect that history is being repeated with HS2 which will turn out to be Concorde on rails.

Concorde is often seen as a marvel of engineering but the results might have been better (from the perspective of the public) if money and resources had been directed to the Airbus project instead.

[staffslad]

Re: Concorde

Yes, it was costs that took Concorde out of service. The Soviets had their own version, the Tu-144, but it was never the success that Concorde was, even given Concorde's small production numbers, it still flew commercially for over 25 years. Even today the Concorde looks futuristic, but mainstream commercial aviatian moved away from the lure of fast but expensive to slow but cheap. I don't think any are flying anymore, but if one had been kept flightworthy and used for short Mach 2 excursion flights over the Atlantic, just an hour or so's flight, I am sure it would still be fully booked.

[Richard1978]

Re: Concorde

Supposedly Virgin wanted to operate them but British Airways wouldn't sell, due to the bad blood between the two.

The change from the "jet set" era of exclusive air travel to the average person being able to fly was a big factor in leaving Concorde as an oddity.

Supposedly they only started to make money when the alreadys high fares were doubled in the 1980s, & the people who used them were rich enough not to be bothered.

[Hair Bear]

Re: Concorde

Living on the approach to Farnborough Concorde was a very regular visitor during trials and development, and later for airshows. It didn't matter how many times you saw it you always watched it.
I was at Heathrow on the day the last three commercial flights landed, and a few weeks later when the last one left for Bristol. Awesome machine. Engine note on par with the equally earsplitting Vulcan.
I think it was more to do with politics that we lost Concorde. BA were making money out of it, Air France weren't. Airbus (french) pulled it's flight licence. There were rumors that the Bristol plane was to be back in the air for the Olympic opening ceremony in 2012, but the plane was too far mothballed. The retalliatory rumor was the French would bring their team in on their plane as it was still complete and had been used in taxi runs. Oviously never happened though. The americans originally wouldn't let it land because of 'noise' issues. Nothing whatsoever to do with the fact that Boeing's own SST (7447 I think) hadn't got past mock up stage and never would. Odd to think that there's now a Concorde in a museum in Seattle not a million miles from the Boeing factory. I wonder how much they have managed to learn from it? Not so long ago NASA needed a SST for some trials it was doing. Use Concorde? Not a hope! They borrowed a TU144 from Russia.

[staffslad]

Re: Concorde

If BA wouldn't sell their Concordes to Virgin--and that rings a faint bell now it has been brought up--I wonder why they didn't try to get the Air France planes--or perhaps they did and it was non.

Yes, I remember the American SST. I think it may have been on one of those collector cards that came with tea. I think there was a certain amount of envy that we and the French had Concorde and they had nothing. I had an Airfix model of Concorde. Even as a model it was a beautiful plane--so graceful and futuristic-looking even today.

[Hair Bear]

Re: Concorde

Unfortunately, because Airbus pulled the flight certificate Virgin wouldn't have been able to fly them even if they'd bought them.
I think there was some sort of requirement that because Concorde was govt. funded and BA were all but given them, if BA wanted to sell them they could only charge £1 each for them.
As an aside to american politics, the US marines wanted Harriers but as they weren't american they couldn't have them. So there were some built under licence in the US so the marines could have them. Ours are now grounded but the US are still using theirs!
Maybe if we'd allowed some Concordes to be built by Boeing, things might be very different.

[staffslad]

Re: Concorde

Ah, right, thank you. Such a shame not even one of those magnificent aircraft is still flying.

[zabadak]

Re: Concorde

My step-brother used to work foe BAe in Bristol. I went to visit him at work once and saw Concorde naked (as it were), i.e. not fully painted (it was green IIRC).

We lived in devon and, twice a day, out windows would rattle with the sonic boom caused by the 'plane out over the Channel, where it kicked in the supersonic boosters.

[Richard1978]

Re: Concorde

I've got a book which has a chapter about Boeing's plans for an SST. it would have been faster & larger than Concorde, but this meant a lot more engineering effort & money.

They had some government money but this ran out & with too many projects on the go & political trouble they had to pull the plug on it.