Concorde possibly returning?

Hope they are successful. That was one nice airplane.
 
I would love for it to fly again. They have the right idea by using it for private charters, events, and airshows.

I worked under the departure path for the Concorde out of JFK in the early 2000s, and I remember its final flight. The thing was stupidly loud, and we didn't miss it at the shop one bit. With the doors to the shop closed, you couldn't hear the person yelling in your ear when it went overhead. The Concorde is probably responsible for my "WHAT DID YOU SAY I CAN'T HEAR YOU!" hearing loss.
 
I flew it from London to New York about 3 weeks before the crash, it was a neat experience. A buddy of mine described it as a coach seat with first class service. For me London to Atlanta, it would have been just a fast to fly direct, but that wouldn't have been on the Concorde!! :yes:
 
Had the pleasure once, showed up at BFS for the normal 737 to Heathrow only to find 204 waiting. They flew north, down the west coast of Ireland, along the south coast of England into Heathrow. 204 was just out of a cabin retrofit and was being used on local runs.

Walked thru the one at Seattle museum and 002 ( the british test article) in England, still with the test equipment on board, still cant believe they managed to build such a beautiful and technologically advance airplane using slide rules etc.
 
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Scrabo said:
Had the pleasure once, showed up at BFS for the normal 737 to Heathrow only to find 204 waiting. They flew north, down the west coast of Ireland, along the south coast of England into Heathrow. 204 was just out of a cabin retrofit and was being used on local runs.

Walked thru the one at Seattle museum and 002 ( the british test article) in England, still with the test equipment on board, still cant believe they managed to build such a beautiful and technologically advance airplane using slide rules etc.
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I know. And it's even French!
 
bflynn said:
I know. And it's even French!
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BA looked it as its flagship product, promoting not only BA but british pride around the world, it often did fly by's at airshows, formations with the Red Arrows and was seen around the world as a status symbol.

Noisy as hell but it was always a pleasure to see it fly, especially at Heathrow when you look to the sky and see a stack of 747's on approach with a Concorde in the mix. Sitting in terminal 1,2 or 3 at Heathrow, you knew when it was taking off !!

Virgin tried to buy them from BA but the bad blood between them over the hacking scandal ensured that idea was DOA.
 
RotorAndWing said:
BA and AF never made money with them.
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Only because they never got the scale to cover the development costs. Fuel costs also didnt help but remember this thing was developed in the late 50's, engine technological has come a lot way in 50 years - with today's tech fuel burn would be improved.

it is still a marvel of engineering as it is.
 
SkyDog58 said:
Yeah but there is a backer with deep pockets involved!

No doubt someone who is willing to make a small fortune....

out of a large one.
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Scrabo said:
Only because they never got the scale to cover the development costs. Fuel costs also didnt help but remember this thing was developed in the late 50's, engine technological has come a lot way in 50 years - with today's tech fuel burn would be improved.

it is still a marvel of engineering as it is.
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No doubt. I wish them the best of luck, they're gonna need it.
 
RotorAndWing said:
BA and AF never made money with them.
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Not sure that is true once BA revamped the service/pricing model. I seem to recall a former BA Concorde pilot making pretty specific statements about profitability.

Regardless, if you look at the approach that was taken for Vulcan XH558 as a model (in terms of engineering and support), it might be possible - better with a US Ops certificate than anywhere else probably but I wish them luck.

Biggest challenge is that the TC was surrendered (at least the US TC was), take a lot of paperwork to bring her back but would be cool.

'Gimp
 
SkyDog58 said:
Yeah but there is a backer with deep pockets involved!

No doubt someone who is willing to make a small fortune....

out of a large one.
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My guess is that they aren't trying to make money with it, but rather keep the legend flying.

No doubt that modern engines would make a huge difference, but you'd have to get DoS approval to use a fighter jet engine as there aren't any other off the shelf engines that would work and nobody would design it for a total of 4-8. Then you'd have to buy those 4-8 fighter engines...
 
kyleb said:
This. I can't imagine anyone thinking this is a moneymaker.
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From the description of what they want to use it for, I got the impression that making money is not the goal.
 
AcroGimp said:
Biggest challenge is that the TC was surrendered (at least the US TC was), take a lot of paperwork to bring her back but would be cool.
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Maybe they could register it as experimental. The CAF has done that with some of their planes.
 
SkyDog58 said:
If I recall the regs correctly, you can not fly passengers for hire if experimental.
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That would presumably rule out the private charters and possibly the corporate events, but the airshows and fly pasts should still be OK.
 
Sadly Spike is right. No way. No how. No parts.
 
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