Concorde Back

[ORAC]

BBC website:

Concorde will have its certificate to fly passengers restored soon, it has been announced.
The British and French aviation authorities have agreed modifications to the aircraft paving the way to the certificate of airworthiness being returned.

The decision was taken in Paris on Wednesday afternoon.

British Airways confirmed that the Civil Aviation Authority and its French equivalent, the DGAC, have agreed to return the certificate.

The CAA's head of design and production standards said: "As an independent specialist regulator, the CAA has monitored all the work and the modifications very closely and is now satisfied that the changes will prevent any future catastrophic accident such as occurred at Paris. "

This could allow passenger services on the supersonic jet to resume within weeks.

[gordonroxburgh]

Yes this is great news, but we must pause and think about the 113 people that were killed in July 2000 when F-BTSC crashed.


Here is the Press release from the CAA It gives the details on the Airworthiness Directives that are to be carried out. These have already been done on 1 Concorde from BA and Air France.

Gordon.


The UK Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) and French Direction General de l’Aviation Civile (DGAC) announced today that the manufacturer’s package of changes has been approved, which will allow the return of the Certificates of Airworthiness to the Concorde fleet.

This decision paves the way for Concorde to return to commercial service. Once the changes are completed on each individual aircraft the regulatory authorities can return its Certificate of Airworthiness. Commercial operations can then resume at the discretion of the airlines.

Both the CAA and DGAC have issued a mandatory Airworthiness Directive detailing the required changes. These include:

·The fitment of Kevlar lining to key fuel tanks – this will reduce the flow of fuel from any leak which may occur, which together with the removal of electrical ignition sources will make sustained fire impossible.

·The use of the new Michelin Near Zero Growth (NZG) tyres on all eight main wheels - these tyres are designed to be more resilient to damage by foreign objects and only in extreme cases can smaller, lighter tread pieces be released, giving a much lower level of energy on impact than that which occurred at Gonesse.

·The armouring of electrical wiring in the undercarriage bay - the investigators believe that the fire may have been ignited by an electrical spark in the undercarriage bay, and that protecting this area eliminates that risk.

The other changes called for require:

·The water deflector retention cable must (if fitted) be removed and there is a slight reprofiling of the deflector to accommodate the new tyre.

·The antiskid protocols are changed. This is necessary because of the tyre change. (The anti-skid system is common to most airliners. If an aircraft is about to skid it automatically releases the brakes, for a short time, to prevent a skid developing.)

·The flat tyre detection and warning system must be working on departure.

·The electrical power to the brake cooling fans is switched off before take off and landing.

Commenting on the decision the CAA’s Head of Design and Production Standards, Mike Bell, said:
“Today’s decision is the culmination of a concerted effort by the manufacturer and operators to tackle the issues raised by last year’s tragic accident, and to return Concorde to service.

“As an independent specialist regulator, the CAA has monitored all the work and the modifications very closely and is now satisfied that the changes will prevent any future catastrophic accident such as occurred at Paris.”

The accident investigators have stated that they expect no further significant findings from the Paris accident which would have a bearing on these modifications. On this basis both the CAA and DGAC have taken the decision to allow the aircraft to return to service prior to the publication of the final accident report.

[Mycroft]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/europe/newsid_1527000/1527261.stm

BA say limited JFK service next month

[tech...again]

...it's official,

G-BOAF has now had its C of A returned with G-BOAE and G-BOAG soon to follow.

Looking like 1st October is the likely date...

Marvellous....

TA

:D :D :D :D :D :D

[BEagle]

Nice one Nigel!!

[ExSimGuy]

Great to hear that the bird is back, must chase daughter to check the cost of an ID90 LHR-JFK for next time I visit her - never flown Conc and want to do so soon :)