Concord Display Replaced at LHR

[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!

[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]

Concorde Model

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]

Originally Posted by TwoOneFour

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]

Originally Posted by BEagle

...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

[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]

Originally Posted by StbdD

... 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.

[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
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.)

[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:



with this:

[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.


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