Concord Display Replaced at LHR

[Longtimer]

Anyone know where the Concorde model is ending up?

Story on the switch.
Heathrow airport's BA Concorde landmark replaced by foreign airline's Airbus | Mail Online (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1037560/Heathrow-airports-BA-Concorde-landmark-replaced-foreign-airlines-Airbus.html?ITO=1490)

[Longtimer]

Good eyes, missed the caption on the photo.

[PAXboy]

Gosh - is it really time for this storry to come around again? Amazing how time flies.

[763 jock]

Surprised they got planning permission! It's hardly a thing of beauty. I suppose someone somewhere must love it though.:}

[The Wraith]

...it looks to us like the nose isn't on straight... It is, it's just it REALLY IS that ugly.:eek:

[ChristiaanJ]

Judging by the photos, the pitch attitude looks all wrong.
Unless it's meant to picture the Pig/Whale/Hippo ready to plow into a school/hospital/old people's home/supermarket after a double engine failure at take-off (half a dozen gulls from the local garbage dump could do the job).

A Concorde it ain't.

[ChristiaanJ]

Connie (G-CONC) IS at Brooklands at the moment.

But she may be moved to a site nearby, as an advert for the Brooklands museum.

[Check Airman]

Thx for the info Longtimer.

Concord is a place. Concorde is the flying machine.

[2Planks]

Quote " The Emirates Roundabout". We also have the Emirates Stadium - what next??

[ChristiaanJ]

Concord is a place. Concorde is the flying machine.I presume you're referring to the town in the US?
"La Place de la Concorde" is a well-known square in Paris.
"Le Concorde" is the aircraft.

I've seen Connie a few times at Heathrow, and more recently at Brooklands.

Piggy Junior at LHR will now be there, to remind us of "a big step backwards for aviation".

[BEagle]

Whilst undeniably efficient, the A380 Airslug is probably the ugliest airliner ever to have been designed.

The Concorde was sleek, elegant and world beating. The fugly A380 is just a soulless mass transit device.

As for Dubai, when the locals (previously quite tolerant to the odd expat or few) eventually become completely fed up with the antics of the nouvea-riche Brits who now infest the place, there is every chance that the bubble could burst.

I haven't been to Dubai since 1989. At that time it was a model of Western and Arab cultural co-operation, mutual understanding and respect. But, unless the conspicuous greed of unpleasant Brit expats stops soon, I just don't see that lasting for the 5 years the hideous Emirates airslug will be squatting on the Concorde roundabout.

[Just a spotter]

The Concorde was sleek, elegant

That'll be French design for you ... :}

(blue touch paper lit, retiring to a safe distance ...... :ouch:)

JAS

[ChristiaanJ]

BEagle,
Thanks for the "Airslug" moniker, which I hadn't seen yet!

[ChristiaanJ]

Quote:
The Concorde was sleek, elegant
That'll be French design for you ...
(blue touch paper lit, retiring to a safe distance ...... )Step back from your blue touch paper, and look again.
Concorde was the offspring of the French "Super Caravelle" and the British "BAC-223". For once they both got it right, and the offspring was even more beautiful than her parents.

[BEagle]

Thanks for the "Airslug" moniker, which I hadn't seen yet!

That's because I've only just thought of it!

[ChristiaanJ]

Quote: 'Thanks for the "Airslug" moniker, which I hadn't seen yet!'
That's because I've only just thought of it!Well done....
It should spread rapidly, because it's SO appropriate.

[Flintstone]

That's a well presented, erudite and convincing argument you put forward there TwoOneFour.

BEagle is still right though ;)

[tartare]

Yes, the smart money was spent on souless transport devices.
But Concorde is emblematic of something aspirational.
Replacing that model with an A380 is just so symptomatic of today's obssession with short-term mediocrity, and total aversion from the major, game changing, significant financial risk that has characterised significant technological breakthroughs in any industry in history.
This is an era when a major airframer (Boeing) is too scared to move from a tubes and wings paradigm to a Blended wing body... when the logic is just staring them in the face.
Oh... of course... it wouldn't make economic sense.
RIP Concorde.:rolleyes:

[ChristiaanJ]

Thanks, TwoOneFour,
I was wondering how long it would take for one of your ignorant ilk to crawl out of the woodwork.
Only 19 posts this time, I see.

[no sponsor]

Dubai is mostly full of chavs from the UK these days. The nouveau-rich class set is now mostly Russians - again with no taste. It's still overrun with ladies of the night too. It's changed much since 1989, and is fast becoming the Vegas of the Middle East - good for 24hrs, but once you've got caught in a traffic jam or two you are ready for the airport.

I'm don't think Maktoum had quite anticipated the little India Vegas vulgarity of it all. I don't think all the consultants in the world are gonna change it either. Well that's capitalism for you....

I travelled on a SIA A380 a few weeks ago. Quite spacious inside, but the IFE stopped working for the entire aircraft 5hrs into the flight. The remaining 8 hrs to LHR were very long. A little bit quieter than a 744, but not much. View outside the window was the same.

[glad rag]

LOL, but somewhat surprised that you boys are taking it so badly, brown nosing to the monied foreigners has always been a pastime down south! :ok:

[BEagle]

Before this thread is shuffled off to some obscure PPRuNe site by the R&N mafiosi, I'd just like to say how sad I feel for Dubai every time I fly from BHX and see an immaculately dressed Emirates crew about to fly another jetload of the great unwashed to desport themselves in odious debauchery on the sands of what was once a tolerant Emirate.

I won't be surprised if there's a fundamentalist backlash at the excesses of the ex-pat chavs in Dubai before very long.

And then their Airslugs will become rather empty.

[Grasscarp]

There is a nice story about a passenger checking in for a Concorde flight and saying I am here to cancel as I cant go on Concorde. When the check in staff asked her why, she said she had see Concorde at the entrance to the tunnel and she was too big to get on!

[ChristiaanJ]

If only calling someone ignorant made all the facts suddenly wrong.Dragging in that hoary phrase "the taxpayers who paid for it" was enough to demonstrate your ignorance.
If you aim at a serious discussion, at least start by getting the facts right.

[ChristiaanJ]

...I'd just like to say how sad I feel for Dubai every time I fly from BHX and see an immaculately dressed Emirates crew about to fly another jetload of the great unwashed to desport themselves in odious debauchery....Didn't know about that....
You mean Dubai has now become the new Corfu?

[helen-damnation]

Quote " The Emirates Roundabout". We also have the Emirates Stadium - what next??

British Emirates Airways :E

[S'land]

Concord is a place. Concorde is the flying machine.

Yes and No. Originally it was called "Concorde" with the final e as in the French spelling. However, The name of the British version was changed to the English spelt "Concord" without the final e by Harold Macmillan in response to a perceived slight by Charles de Gaulle. This meant that the French called it Concorde and we called it Concord.

[StbdD]

Remove from the most viewed and remembered place for most passengers at LHR a symbol, nay an icon, of British aviation because it was ostensibly too expensive to maintain (or they got out-bid)... and replace it with an advertisement from another country, because they paid big money.

'Whores' seems to be the only fitting comment to this development. Prostitution is a close second.

Disgusting

[ChristiaanJ]

... ostensibly too expensive to maintain... Not really, since it was/is a fairly simple fibreglass shell over a wooden and steel frame.
The real kicker was the £1.5M (!) annual rent for the location....

[StbdD]

My point made well. It was in fact just a symbol. One of Britain mortgaging itself, and bending over while they are at it.

Lets try the scientific theory..... try placing an other nation flagship airline model on the prime property of any other country in the world. Reaction?

Again, disgusting. How does it feel to be colonized?

[411A]

How does it feel to be colonized?


Oh, dear boy, where have you been?
All that moving from the former colonies started in the early sixties.
And, by the looks of things, the flows outward are getting ever more obvious, if not terribly appreciated in the respective 'host' countries.:ooh:

[BEagle]

Just Google 'Jumeirah Janes' to read about how appallingly bad the behaviour of drunken ex-pats is in Dubai these days....

The degenerates of Dubai: How the widespread behaviour of our expats is causing a backlash | Mail Online (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1036384/The-degenerates-Dubai-How-widespread-behaviour-expats-causing-backlash.html)
is a very interesting account.

How long before the bubble bursts?

[ChristiaanJ]

Some nice news on the ConcordeSST forum :

"Planning permission has been granted for G-CONC, the Concorde model, to go on display at the entrance to Mercedes Benz World / Brooklands."

(For those who don't know the situation : "Mercedes Benz World" is a recent complex, built on land adjacent to the Brooklands museum, Weybridge, inside the old Brooklands race track. The public entrance to the museum is now via "Brooklands Drive" across the Mercedes terrain.)

http://www.neil-online.com/photos/gconc_roundabout.jpg

[Skylion]

Emirates doesn't depend much on business to and from Dubai itself. If they did they would be nothing like their present and growing size. They offer a proposition of "one stop daily ( at least) to almost anywhere in the world south and east of Europe" and they do it well. If they really wanted to stir things up they could wrap the base of the model with the slogan :"Heathrow,- Gateway to Dubai",- which for many travellers it is although their even greater impact in UK is on the provincial cities to the world (other than the Americas).

For sure the appearance of the A 380 is not wonderful but one problem as people such as Cathay Pacific have observed is that this is the basic model and it isn't big enough. When stretched versions come along they will look a lot better,- and so will the economics.

[BEagle]

The Airslug replacing Concorde is like replacing this:

http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a341/nw969/KK.jpg

with this:

http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a341/nw969/FB.jpg

:yuk:

[ChristiaanJ]

BEagle, a bit crude... but yes, I agree.

[sanjosebaz]

... although their even greater impact in UK is on the provincial cities to the world (other than the Americas).This is very true, and also very attractive. For instance, daily flights to Perth (Australia, not Scotland :)) are heavily advertised in Newcastle. Of course they are not non-stop, but changing planes in DXB is a better prospect than LHR.

There is also talk of Emirates taking over the NCL-JFK slot which AA decided to drop at the last minute. That would make things interesting, as it would not have DXB in the loop.

[BEagle]

I had to fly from London Airport last week - normally I avoid the place like the plague and fly from BHX. But I didn't have any option this time.
http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a341/nw969/Internet/zxzxz.jpg

The first time I've seen that hideous Airslug squatting like a cuckoo on the Concorde roundabout. It really is appallingly ugly - and goes to reinforce the decline of ba as the leading London Airport airline.

Does anyone call the site anything other than the Concorde roundabout?

[ChristiaanJ]

You'll be pleased to hear that the restoration and refurbishing of G-CONC at Brooklands is now nearly complete.

(For those not knowing the full story: the wings had to be cut off to allow moving G-CONC to the Brooklands Museum. A blessing in disguise, because it made it possible to deal with rot and corrosion that had accumulated over the years.)

I'll let you know when she moves to her definitive location.

CJ