Reply to: A monument to optimism

[gingerjedi]

She wan't allowed to fly supersonic over land. Most of her flights would have been over the sea i.e. the Atlantic from Paris / London to New York so no more than a couple of hundred miles over land

Living by the Bristol channel I used to regularly hear the booms as she went by, maybe the pilot thought the Severn bridge was far enough down the estuary to be called 'sea'?

I saw the Filton one up close only a few months ago when working at Airbus, they were patching up holes in the wings that had been left to rot for the past few years.

My dad designed part of Concorde, I was born in Cirencester because my parents had moved there to be close to Fairford where the he worked.

[doodab]

It still looks good as a design and made me ponder have we made anything comparable in this country since, or was that a marker of the end of world class design & build in this country.

Airbus wings are still designed and built in the UK. Also quite a few satellites and racing cars and other odds and ends.

[TimberWolf]

Where are they now?

7 in France and 7 in the UK, 3 in America (who first stabbed them to make sure they were properly dead ), 1 in Germany, 1 in Barbados.

Number flyable: 0

Locations of Concorde Planes

[Paddy]

It was a shame Virgins Branson offer to take the fleet of working Concordes for £5 mill wasn't taken up.
Much better to keep them going than turn them into museum pieces

Concorde was handed over free to BA by HMG on behalf of the taxpayers. Had HMG leased it to BA for £1 per year they could have got it back and sold it to Virgin. BA scrapped it out of spite. HMG... we squander your money.

[Troll]

It was a shame Virgins Branson offer to take the fleet of working Concordes for £5 mill wasn't taken up.
Much better to keep them going than turn them into museum pieces

[v8gaz]

I was on one of those jollys - fantastic machine. Our seats were right at the back, so we got the full noise at take-off. Flying supersonically was slighly disappointing, as it doesnt feel any different freom egular subsonic travel.

Again, it was a freebie, so I have no idea how much it cost.

[Sysman]

The Yanks were jealous.

Yep. In spades.

It was also quite remarkable for the Anglo-French cooperation that went into it. Who'd a thunkit possible?

It became very popular in the early 90s for short trips as treats for relatives.

Several of my neighbours went on it, mostly as birthday or anniversary treats, and when they asked fellow passengers what it cost, none of them knew either, because they'd also got it as a present.

The trip consisted of a flight from, say, Leeds Bradford up to Scotland and out to sea for the supersonic bit, then land at Birmingham with a coach trip back for the passengers.

I always wanted to do the trip to New York and then back on an ocean liner, but sadly missed the chance.

[MrRobin]

She wan't allowed to fly supersonic over land. Most of her flights would have been over the sea i.e. the Atlantic from Paris / London to New York so no more than a couple of hundred miles over land

Exactly. But when she was first built and went on a tour of the world collecting orders from governments and airline companies all around the globe they didn't know that it would be so audible at ground level and that people would complain. All the airlines which planned to use the aircraft on land routes then cancelled.

[BA to the Stars]

I thought sales collapsed because of the complaints from the public regarding the sonic booms over land?

She wan't allowed to fly supersonic over land. Most of her flights would have been over the sea i.e. the Atlantic from Paris / London to New York so no more than a couple of hundred miles over land

[MrRobin]

The Yanks were jealous.

As for the economics, Concorde's development was hampered after the sales collapsed (due partly to the oil crisis and partly to the US threats to not allow it to land). If it had actually been produced in larger numbers it could have had another 20 or 30 years of incremental devlopment (much like the 747), which would have led to vast improvements in efficiency.

I thought sales collapsed because of the complaints from the public regarding the sonic booms over land?

[Troll]

Concorde's last resting place.


It should be flying.

I passed that Concorde parked up at Filton last night on my way to the Mall.

It still looks good as a design and made me ponder have we made anything comparable in this country since, or was that a marker of the end of world class design & build in this country.

Also seeing that there are plans to turn the Filton airport into a housing estate... seems to be the way of the world & all very sad

[d000hg]

Just think what modern tech could do if it wasn't in the hands of idiots... several decades of materials, aero and engine development.

[Mich the Tester]

<Conspiracy mode>But she killed a bunch of rich people, which will never do. Had it been a Easyjet caught fire, no one would have been bovvered>

But in reality I don't think the economics made much sense, in part I believe because of the wing design compromises needed to satisfy the yanks, which meant she guzzled fuel but could land less noisily on shorter runways. I don't think the yanks liked her full stop.

The Yanks were jealous.

As for the economics, Concorde's development was hampered after the sales collapsed (due partly to the oil crisis and partly to the US threats to not allow it to land). If it had actually been produced in larger numbers it could have had another 20 or 30 years of incremental devlopment (much like the 747), which would have led to vast improvements in efficiency.

[TimberWolf]

Yep. Test matches stopped as all the players looked up. What an amazing machine.

<Conspiracy mode>But she killed a bunch of rich people, which will never do. Had it been a Easyjet caught fire, no one would have been bovvered>

But in reality I don't think the economics made much sense, in part I believe because of the wing design compromises needed to satisfy the yanks, which meant she guzzled fuel but could land less noisily on shorter runways. I don't think the yanks liked her full stop.

[Mich the Tester]

No one used to complain when she flew over, rather the deep rumble of the engines just caused people to look up in awe.

Yep. Test matches stopped as all the players looked up. What an amazing machine.