Hand Solo - you are trying admirably to feed strawberries to donkeys my friend.
BA did a marvelous job of running Concorde - I doubt any other airline would have had a route, a brand image and a business model that so suited running a SST aircraft. They retired her with grace and made it a bit of an event for the country. Well done all in BA.
I used to admire Sir Richard hugely. Then I read the Tom Bower book and saw the other side of the coin. If you haven't read it I don't think you are informed enough to espouse an opinion on the worthiness of Sir Richard.
I really don't 'get' why people feel inclined to become emotional about Concorde.
I don't think it was that technologically brilliant. It is just a lump of metal. It represented an inglorious industrial/political era that took the country decades to escape from. Its old and - bearing in mind I am to the right of Jeremy Clarkson when it comes to political correctness - dare I say it, a bit naff and a bit obscene.
Joan Collins and David Frost in a half empty aeroplane sipping Champers at 55,000ft whilst pumping out a heck of a lot of muck direct into the upper atmosphere just so they can 'save' 4 hours
of their oh-so-precious lives. Sorry - thats a bit 80's for my taste.
The worlds moved on.
Nobody wants to sit on the M25 for 3hrs in a queue trying to fight their way into Heathrow. To get on a plane that everybody remembers making a smoking hole in the ground recently. To find the mix of other passengers are sad 'once in a lifetime' aircraft anoraks, has-been aging celebs or frequent flyer photocopy machine salesmen whos time has come for an upgrade...
Whats cool now is to whiz to Farnborough or Northolt say and simply whisk onto your 'bling bling' Gulfstream V.
Once upon a time Concorde was cool, the world was not such an enviornmentally sensitive place and airports were convenient and efficient.
Now its naff, people feel ill at ease with those ripping great engines and big airports are hell on earth.
Farewell Conorde, your time had come and you went with grace.
Everybody else - stop getting emotional about a machine. Its a bit pathetic and just another annoying example of the Oprah Winfreyisation of British culture.
Cheers
WWW
ps mind you - she is beautiful to look at.
