Concord problem - again

[wes_wall]

A British Airways Concorde is reported to have twice abandoned take-off from a Caribbean airport last weekend after the captain was warned of engine problems.

More at:


http://news.airwise.com/display/story.html?name=2003/03/1047295049.html

[The Nr Fairy]

I saw this reported on Ceefax ( BBC TV teletext service ) yesterday.

Apparently "one of the jet's four thrusters failed". Sigh.

[Leclairage]

Alas the Old Lady will take herself out of service due to falling passenger numbers/confidence

To re-make my earlier point, BA should be encouraged to offer at least one with supporting hardware to someone who will keep it flying for display purposes at the price they paid the british government for the whole lot.
£1

[Saint-Ex]

What a joke! If the press were to report every aborted take-off in the same way there wouldn`t be room for much else in the "papers". Would be passengers should be happy that normal and safe procedures were followed.

[FlapsOne]

One 'newspaper' reported that it aborted it's second take-off on the taxiway.

Many years ago, in quite the most viscious snow I have ever seen, I aborted my take-off in the crewroom.

Funny, it never made the press!!!!!!!!!

[NW1]

at the price they paid the british government for the whole lot. £1
Not true. The original deal was that BA (whilst still a public company) would pay the government 80% of Concorde's operating surplus for the airframes (in other words similar to an operating lease), and cutting a long story short, at around the privitisation of BA they also took on resposibility for the Concorde operation and bought out both the support costs and the 80% deal at a cost of over UK£16million (1984 values).

So yes, BA did pay for their Concordes, were responsible for managing the aircraft into a profitable operation against all odds at high risk and with much expense in man-hours and money. Also remember that no other airline was prepared to even try (witness all the cancelled orders which took the aircraft out of production). The gamble paid off. But what you must understand is that the undertaking of a Concorde operation is absolutely huge and very high cost. There is no way a Concorde could be kept flying for fun or nostalgia without the revenue on the line.

The "supporting hardware" involves hundreds of manufacturers and suppliers in many countries and millions of £ per year not to mention all the engineers - whose experience is irreplaceable and essential to even get a Concorde's engines running. BA's efforts have already given the UK an on-going SST operation against the odds now approaching its 3rd decade - it has no duty to bankrupt itself by trying to support a multi-million pound airshow after fleet retirement - whenever that may be.......