Gentlemen: (and very probably ladies):
I understand the group dynamic that drives all this theorising, but it is becoming a rerun of the endless speculation immediately post-accident.
The report is out. It has been exhaustively written by experts who have all the available facts to hand. Regardless of one's personal prejudices (and I am no Francophile) it is a fact that the BEA is a well-respected and very experienced organisation.
'SC crashed because there was not enough thrust to overcome the tremendous drag in the flight regime it was in. It departed controlled flight in exactly the manner expected of a slender delta in such circumstances.
These are unarguable facts, governed by well-used laws of physics.
There really is no point in theorising alternative modes of departure.
I grant that it is possible to come up lots of 'what if's and 'if only's relating to how the aircraft came to be in that situation, and I know many will continue to do so.
Can I just ask that if you feel the need to contribute to that kind of discussion you base your contributions on known facts rather than what popular rumour/your mate's theory says happened. (In short - read the report before you claim it is wrong/ a whitewash/whatever).
As for the claim that TSS stds were written around Conc's performance - I suggest whoever wrote this researches when the elements of TSS were written relative to the flight test programme.
Of course they are different to conventional requirements - could you apply conventional defns of Vs and
Vb, for example, to a wing which can see an alpha increase of 16 or so degrees from cruise conditions without stalling?
Finally: Double engine failures. I haven't flown a VC10. I have flown 747s and Concorde and I can tell you that the Conc is markedly more capable of dealing with a dbl failure at V1 at RTOW than a 747 *BUT* in both cases the chances of a successful outcome are very very slim indeed. The conc has a very good likelihood of flying through a dual failure at 500' successfully, more so than a 747, but so what? That didn't happen at CDG.
Anyone care to contribute something new?