As I understood it, BAe is hoping to launch flight testing in the U.K. by late February and looking at mid-March for testing in France.
Not for nothing but, design modifications had been under development--by the NASA & Dryden Reseach teams, using a specially equiped TU-144L as their flying lab--for years prior to the AF4590 crash.
Even though SST's are outfitted with a number of expansion joints and supports-- supersonic flight does intensify the various loads and exascerbate strain in the airframe--any modification is serious business.
I'm not sure what the forward trim and collector tanks (as previously mentioned) have to do with any modifications outside of the Kevlar bladder lining retro-fit kits... I had also heard that they're going to work in some protective enhancements of the undercarriage along critical electrical and hydraulic systems and try out a new type of tire that's supposed to disintegrate if it's punctured (or so I'm told).
That's a respectable degree of alteration... If they can pull it off, Bravo, but the timeline makes the cynic in me a little nervous.
[This message has been edited by Leanan Sidhe (edited 14 February 2001).]