There will come a day when she has to be retired, but that shouldn’t be for some time yet. Don’t forget, the people who make these decisions are the same ones who dropped the Tristar because engine for engine it was more expensive to maintain than other four engine aeroplanes, and the same people who wanted to withdraw the 767 post 9/11 because our customers don’t like flying on single aisled aircraft. The Concorde is a nuclear jet with ten engines that irradiates its passengers and crew with bad waves. It kills all butterflies in the path of its transonic bloom, and disturbs the breeding cycles of badgers.
Since Ayling Bob left them out in the wet for a year (he’d sold their hangar to make a car park), there is an increased maintenance load, as you would expect if you parked your Aston out in the London weather for twelve months. In service, skin temperatures reach over 100C, and so corrosion was never a problem.
Wouldn’t it be nice if just for once the beancounters would say ‘
So it’s expensive, but it’s beautiful and no-one else has one. There are no competitors.’. But we live in a World devoid of nostalgia and sentiment. Hard ball accounting, big bonuses and KRA’s have probably set the wheels in motion already. You can tell from the absence of Concorde in the advertising that BA runs.
I remember watching the Vulcan just before it flew for the last time and how I felt. I hope the same is not about to happen to Concorde.
I’ll take on the opposition anyday. It’s my management I can’t beat!