Yes, this one:

http://media-cdn.tripadvisor.com/med...n-national.jpg

Might be more viable to build an e.g. 1:2 scale replica that was only sub-sonic ?


Which engines could be used ? The big, fat modern high-bypass ones won't do. Perhaps some old DC-9 or B707 ones ?

One of the AF Concordes was reputed to have been kept in at least taxiable condition in case of necessity for the crash investigation. Is this still so?

Do you remember the bunch of blokes who said that there were a dozen Spitfires in crates somewhere in Asia? They made money until it was proved otherwise.

No, no, no!
They are there, honest.
People have just been looking in the wrong places.

We need your help - you'll even be provided with a personally autographed Certificate of Recognition if you call in the next 20 minutes.
Visa, MasterCard, PayPal etc.....

There's still an AF Concorde on a bridge at Toulouse - you can see it over the other side of the airport from the main pax terminal.

Not been around it myself, but I'm told that from an engineering perspective it's being used for ground engineering training so probably quite good, but from a cosmetic perspective it's pretty horrible.

G

About 50 years ago I gave an organization called 'Bring back the B-36' a hundred dollars to help to pay for restoration a B-36 that was in Texas at the old Greater Southwest airport* on display.

The B-36 never flew and I didn't get my money back.

But I'd bet a beer that the B-36 will fly again before the Concorde.

Hope I'm wrong.


* It was destroyed when DFW was built. However one on the runways is still being used as the main highway leading into DFW from the south.

The EJ200 of the Eurofighter produces 64% of the thrust of the Olympus, so that may be a choice for a 1:2 replica. Maybe somebody would even be happy to sell some, as probably that aircraft will not be produced in the numbers once forecasted, nor will it be in service for 50 years (like some other western fighters).
However, I seriously doubt that a 1:2 replica would cost only 50% of a real Concorde. You still need 99% of the know-how. So it probably still is simpler to bring a real one back to the air.
The one in IAD is most probably the one in the "most airworthy" condition anyway.
That poor "cosmetic perspective" goes down to the bone... That airframe sits outside for over 10 years now, and even if the Toulouse weather may be slightly more favourable than the Filton one, it still takes its toll. Seen it about 3 years ago, and it probably does not look better today.

I believe their initial plan is to move and refit G-BOAB next to the Thames as a tourist attraction/venue. Most of G-BOAB's interior and cockpit is now in Delta Golf at Brooklands, on which I recently got married. So I imagine they are going to completely rejig the interior.

I suspect the notion of flying Concorde again may be more of a publicity thing than anything else. I'd love to fly on her more than pretty much anyone but I'm not convinced it is feasible at all. I'd love to think it was but in terms of keeping old planes going... I think my money is better off going to Orbis, who have the second DC-10 as their flying eye hospital. For now.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Phileas Fogg
As for the AF Concordes, well Le Bourget are unwilling to sell, one is in a field near ORY, one is on stilts at CDG, one is on a rooftop in Germany, a couple in TLS, have I missed any?
Yes, this one:





I believe the one shown is at the Udvar-Hazy museum near Washington, along with the prototype 707 and Enola Gay.
https://airandspace.si.edu/visit/udvar-hazy-center/

Yes, it is. I didn't identify it in my post as I assumed most readers would recognise it.

It's part of the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum.

Greater Southwest Int Airport B-36
 

It was destroyed when DFW was built. However one on the runways is still being used as the main highway leading into DFW from the south.

I took photos of it in 1968 and I had always thought that the GSW B-36 had been saved.

Here is the Wikipedia entry on it....
AF Ser. No. 52-2827 – Pima Air & Space Museum, adjacent to Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Tucson, Arizona. This aircraft was the final B-36 built, named "The City of Fort Worth", and loaned to the city of Fort Worth, Texas on 12 February 1959. It sat on the field at the Greater Southwest International Airport until that airfield was closed and the property was redeveloped as a business park adjacent to Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport. Some attempts were made to begin restoration at that location through the early 1970s. It then moved to the short-lived Southwest Aero Museum, which was located between the former Carswell Air Force Base (now Naval Air Station Joint Reserve Base Fort Worth) and the former General Dynamics (now Lockheed Martin) assembly plant, where it was originally built; some restoration took place while at the plant. As Lockheed Martin had no place to display the finished aircraft, and local community efforts in Fort Worth to build a facility to house and maintain the massive aircraft fell short, the NMUSAF retook possession of the aircraft and it was transported to Tucson, Arizona for loan to the Pima Air & Space Museum. It was fully restored and reassembled at that museum, just south of Davis-Monthan AFB, Arizona, and is displayed at that location.[63]

I read the OP's quote as meaning that the Greater Southwest airport was destroyed when DFW was built, not the B-36.

Concorde & B-36...opposite ends of the spectrum
 

Ah yes, reading it again I think you are correct. Thanks

I've seen both aircraft types fly.
I must say the Concorde was beautiful.
The Peacemaker looked like it was fighting its own war while in the air!
The sound though was unforgettable.

Amazing what can be done when cost isn't an issue.
The B-36 is an enormous machine featuring six big pusher radials and a couple of turbojets just hung off the wing.
Concorde was a remarkable aircraft given that it was a mid 'sixties design.
Gorgeous to look at and capable of carrying a hundred odd Champagne swilling caviar on toast munching pax across the Atlantic at mach 2.
I'd love to see her fly again, but the cost would greatly exceed one hundred million pounds.
That money would be better spent in preserving the remaining examples, most of which are in really bad condition.

Perhaps this is the nearest we're going to get to keeping her iconic shape in the sky:
https://youtu.be/js8--4zamJQ

Yep. The one time I ever saw a B-36 in flight, I was alerted to its presence by the air starting to tremble. Looked around and there was a B-36 off in the distance, at altitude.