PPRuNe Forums - View Single Post - Concorde crash: Continental Airlines cleared by France court
Old 3rd Dec 2012, 16:26
  #63 (permalink)  
Shaggy Sheep Driver
 
Join Date: Oct 1999
Location: UK
Posts: 3,325
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
Before the France-trashing gets out of hand, it's worth remembering that France had the UK government over a barrel in the 1960s and stopped the project from being cancelled several times. So without them, there might not have been Concorde at all.
Actually you can thank Julian Amory for that (a Brit politician). He inserted the clause into the contract that committed both sides to meet the costs even they pulled out, because the Brits thought the French would renege. In fact it was Harold Wilson who wanted out!

And again worth remembering the contribution made by Airbus after the accident to get the aircraft back in the air.
It should never have been grounded. At least the BA ones shouldn't have been. They were using an improved tyre and following correct operating techniques.

You might also factor in the fact they wanted to divert engineering resource away from Concorde and towards the A380 which at that point was two years from first flight.
Indeed, so why not stick the price of maintenance up until it becomes unsustainable to keep the bird flying? Especially after AF had ducked out.
Shaggy Sheep Driver is offline