It really is quite sad reading all this "if anyone can do it then RB can" stuff. The manufacturer has dictated that it is "game over". Even VS knows this.
BA bought the aircraft for millions (sorry, but the £1 per plane story is just another attempt at white-knightdom by the
PR sponge called Branson), they paid further millions to maintain and develop it, paid millions to be released from Government contractual claims to it, and finally paid millions to re-launch and rebrand it. And Branson wants BA to give it to him?? Yeah right.
But even if they did (and this is the real point) - with the manufacturer's withdrawal of support for the type and lacking the 30 years of operational and engineering support experience for this unique aircraft, how could he expect to even taxy it to the holding point? No type certificate, no fly. Yet Branson can't stop his playground jibes at BA - I just wish BA would call his bluff (and bluff it is) and give him what he knows he can't use: 5 Concorde airframes gift wrapped and fully fuelled. What would he do next? It would be illegal to fly them even if he could muster the staff to do it - and that ain't BA's fault.
BA have made this bird soar with massive monetary and technological investment and commercial confidence in the 80s and 90s: it has reached the end of its career (and almost 3 decades is bloody good by any aviation standard), and the only reason it really hurts is that there is nothing remotely close to replace it. We must now accept a more than 50% cut in cruising speed. And for Branson to seek
PR gain from this is risable.
RB fans: you really must read "Branson" by Tom Bower.