Originally Posted by
atakacs
Sorry I you feel in any way offended - certainly not my intent.
Sorry, no. I don't feel offended.... I suppose I've just seen too much of that particular "conspiracy theory"....
I still feel that this decision has been rather harsh and I'm to date not fully convinced that all alternative were fully explored.
Think back a moment to the 2003 context.
Due to the economic and political situation at the time (to put it simply), Air France was already flying their Concordes nearly empty, and wanted out.
BA wasn't doing marvelously either.
Airbus (being a company, not a charity) explained that in that case BA would have to carry the full cost of the maintenance.... which WAS already going up as a consequence of maintaining a 35-year old antique flying.
So BA decided to end the service as well, even if in the end at least they went out with a bang, not a whimper.
In those last months, people like Rod Eddington and others DID have a very serious look at keeping one or two aircraft flying in a "heritage role", and there was even a look at a joint venture with the "Alliance" project.
So yes, all of the alternatives WERE explored, but, AT THE TIME,
none of these were found to be viable.
So, British Airways, Air France and Airbus all drew their conclusions, which made sense AT THE TIME, and closed down the Concorde operation.
And, instead of scrapping the aircraft,
every single one of them went to museums.
Originally Posted by DozyWannabe
I think he's referring to the airframes (Fox-Bravo and Delta-Golf off the top of my head, probably others) that required an angle-grinder be taken to them in order to transport to their final destinations via road or waterway that as a result will never be structurally airworthy again.
The two airframes that "had an angle grinder taken to them" were Alpha-Alpha and Delta-Golf.
For a start, neither would have flown
ever again, anyway...
Alpha-Alpha was never modified to post-2000 standard and would have slowly rotted away at LHR. Taking her to East Fortune was a great initiative, IMHO.
Delta-Golf was an ancient certication airframe, and cannibalised for years and years for spares, and destined for scrapping.
Instead, she's now at Brooklands, and rebuilt as one of the most interesting Concorde exhibits.
As to the "angle grinder", you really have to know where to look to find the traces......
And yes, I've seen both of them.
CJ