Work starts in £15m plan to get Concorde flying

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8712806.stm

Work starts to get Concorde aloft
The engines on a French Concorde are to be examined as the first move in a £15m project aiming to get the supersonic passenger jet back in the air.

The Rolls Royce engines of the former Air France Concorde will undergo an initial examination to see what work needs to be done to start the engines.

Concorde was retired seven years ago, but it is hoped the jet could return to flight in a heritage capacity.

The tests by a French-British team will take place at an air museum near Paris.

The work at the Le Bourget Air and Space Museum is being done through a partnership between the British Save Concorde Group, SCG, and a French group Olympus 593.

'Critical date'

Vice-chairman of SCG Ben Lord said: "Today marks the most critical date in Concorde's history since she was retired almost seven years ago.

"Two members of our management team are in France this weekend to observe these amazing developments.

"SCG has always maintained that she could return to flight in a heritage capacity, and the findings of today will hopefully go an awfully long way to proving our point.

“ After today, we will know exactly what needs to be done with those four engines ”
Ben Lord, vice-chairman SCG
"This is just the beginning, but we are delighted and privileged to be working with a team of skilled Concorde engineers who both worked on the aircraft at British Airways and Air France."

The tests will first establish whether the engines can be safely started and whether the aircraft could complete a ground taxi.

Mr Lord said: "After today, we will know exactly what needs to be done with those four engines in order to take this to the next stage of engine test runs with an objective to hopefully perform a ground taxi."

It is hoped the jet will be able to fly as part of the opening ceremony of the 2012 London Olympics.

Meanwhile, the trial over the Concorde crash that killed 113 people in Paris in 2000 ended on Friday after four months.

The Air France Concorde crashed soon after take-off, after hitting a metal strip from a Continental jet that had taken off earlier.

The French court said it would give a verdict on 6 December.

That would be great. I will try to get the registration number of this aircraft.

Unfortunately it might cost 5 times that amount to get her in the air again. And unless they have a plan to do that, lighting the engines seems like a massive waste of money and effort. It's an amazing failure of society that no effort was made to keep at least one flying when they were retired, but now it's simply too late, I'm afraid.

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Originally Posted by GothamSpotter

Unfortunately it might cost 5 times that amount to get her in the air again. And unless they have a plan to do that, lighting the engines seems like a massive waste of money and effort. It's an amazing failure of society that no effort was made to keep at least one flying when they were retired, but now it's simply too late, I'm afraid.

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Well said

well said indeed.

I'll believe it when I see it.

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Originally Posted by GothamSpotter

Unfortunately it might cost 5 times that amount to get her in the air again. And unless they have a plan to do that, lighting the engines seems like a massive waste of money and effort. It's an amazing failure of society that no effort was made to keep at least one flying when they were retired, but now it's simply too late, I'm afraid.

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Although I personally would love to see Concorde brought back to life and flying again, there was a good reason it was retired in the first place - Like you mentioned, it's just too much $$$. Too much money was going out and not enough coming in.

It was not cost effective to keep them going when the already semi-empty cabins were losing customers with the downturn in the economy.

I disagree with your statement "It's an amazing failure of society that no effort was made to keep at least one flying when they were retired..." If I'm not mistaken, I think it was Sir Richard Branson who offered to buy the remaining jets with the purpose of keeping them going. BA refused his offer and stated rather clearly that Concorde would not fly again. Remaining parts were all sold and I'd be surprised if any tooling remains for making new ones. I don't think there was much that "society" could be expected to do. It's not like Concordes were privately owned and recalled by their owner to be destroyed - ala Beechcraft with their Starship (also a very cool plane).

The next problem is that of liability. What if: Concorde does fly again, and then heaven forbid - crashes. Does anyone want to deal with the potential legal fallout from that? Concorde was lucky in it's flying career that only one aircraft was lost. There were MANY in-flight incidents that could have been deadly, but weren't.

And yet, with all that said, I miss seeing that bird every day.

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Originally Posted by Speedbagel_001

" If I'm not mistaken, I think it was Sir Richard Branson who offered to buy the remaining jets with the purpose of keeping them going. BA refused his offer and stated rather clearly that Concorde would not fly again. Remaining parts were all sold and I'd be surprised if any tooling remains for making new ones.

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Mr Branson Demanded that BA sell him Concorde,( and If BA had sold Them to Virgin , they would have remained grounded for at least 3 years while Virgin trained up mechanics and Pilots)
You are correct that all parts were sold /scrapped after Airbus/EADS withdraw CofA at the insistence of Airfrance ,Mr Walsh did ask to buy all of the Airfrance fleet to keep the BA Concorde,s flying but had it rejected and when Airbus confirmed that it would no longer produce spares for either the airframe and engines BA were in no win situation (he did state that he would have like to kept at least one flying)
Myself I cant see this succeeding as the cost to keep Concorde in a flyable condition would be enormous and remember that the French Concorde fleet weren't in as good condition as the BA
In The UK we have had the Vulcan restored and returned to flight and the organisers are having a terrible time raising enough cash to keep it in the air ,it would be only a matter of time before they would have to stop Concorde flying if they ever managed to get her flying

[quote="Adeel"]
Concorde was retired seven years ago, but it is hoped the jet could return to flight in a heritage capacity.

A new Heritage Flight? How cool it would be to see that flying low at the Jones Beach Airshow? :lol: 8)

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Originally Posted by Gerard

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Originally Posted by Adeel

Concorde was retired seven years ago, but it is hoped the jet could return to flight in a heritage capacity.

A new Heritage Flight? How cool it would be to see that flying low at the Jones Beach Airshow? :lol: 8)

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Loud and sweet. I would love to see a consord fly again. Its history right there but agreed costs will be too high for this project.

I think that all unique / important aircraft should always have 1 flying for the purpose of younger generations to admire and appreciate the past engineering.

I understand this all has a cost but there are plenty of wealthy people / company's who would love to sponsor these planes.

Could you imagine the Bethpage Federal Credit Union's SR-71, or the Bill Gates XB-70?!!?

Its a shame that we cant see these amazing planes in action, even if it is just in a fly over capacity.

I totally agree with the post above. Really with all the wealthy people who invest many thousands restoring classic cars for example, why can't $ be pooled into getting the only supersonic airliner in the world air-show ready? I could understand that here in the US where most people don't give a damn, but an aviation-rich country like Britain who is so proud of their own aviation achievements, failing to maintain a single Concorde is really lame on their part, and shame on BA.

Heck have some sort of airshow fee that will help (if these people are really so "budget conscious"). European crowds are huge at these events. There's many airshows I wouldn't be all that interested in attending but if a Concorde is there I'd go and pay $ to see it.

Your not talking about a B-17 that costs 4 thousand a half hour to operate and has veterans volunteering to help out the SST would probably need 5 times that just to spool up and rotate. Re-training crew and upkeep, parts? Unreal fuel prices now imagine if fuel spiked to double again? You can charge everyone at the show 20 bucks and it wouldn't even fire up the engines. Our world economy is the reason this thing was retired and with it worse now I doubt anyone is going to donate the time or the money to get this thing airworthy and pay to have inspected just to fly at shows. Like Mario said as much as we love it believe when you see it.

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Originally Posted by Glapics

In The UK we have had the Vulcan restored and returned to flight and the organisers are having a terrible time raising enough cash to keep it in the air ,it would be only a matter of time before they would have to stop Concorde flying if they ever managed to get her flying

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What is a terrible shame was Comet Canopus was denied sale to (I believe it might have been) Kermit Weeks) the US. While I can see why the TPTB in the UK did not wish to part with it, it might well have been kept flyable with experimental certification in the US, but no such luck in the UK.

Tom

I'd just be happy to see Concorde taxxing.

I know we're all aviation geeks and stuff and it's very easy to just parrot-repeat what someone else says "oh it cost too much, so no Way!" but we're not talking about the Space Shuttle here, Concorde for all the complications is still just an airplane.

I know there's a user on the big site who says he worked for Concorde engineering and always likes to show that knows more than everyone blah blah blah saying this would never happen and likes to shut down everyone who thinks otherwise. Well it turns out there's talk of getting it back in the air. Where there's a wish there's a way, and now apparently there's a possibility.

Many aviation fans never got to see the beast, regardless how "realistic" one could be, being so negative about it screams of a selfish geezer who wants to keep the machine sacred just because it pertains to his time. Even if it was 100% impossible, so what? let some folks dream.

I'd love to see it happen just to prove negative know-it-alls wrong.