Official : British Airways Retires Concorde (merged)
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For those who want to fly concorde but will never get a chance, the following link is a very complete review of the experience, including, about midway thru the document, about a 1 minute video looking out the window, with sound of the take off roll. It shows just how noisy and "bouncy" it is.
http://www.travelscholar.com/concorde
http://www.travelscholar.com/concorde
Au Revoir Concorde - beginning of the end
It's the end of the road for Air France's regular Concorde service today. AF001 is enroute to CDG from JFK.
ITV News channel covered the departure live with some pretty uninformed commentary, shame they didn't do their research.
Not sure if they will cover the landing. Paris ETA is 1647BST, I believe.
ITV News channel covered the departure live with some pretty uninformed commentary, shame they didn't do their research.
Not sure if they will cover the landing. Paris ETA is 1647BST, I believe.
Rebel PPRuNer
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I see load was about 56 - a chunk of those probably AF worthies. No wonder Conc had to go, the French don't seem to know how to market it any more. Contrast with BA's chocca Concs. All the more reason why all operational Concs should go to Britain and stay aloft. Let non-refitted Concs go to the boneyard or the Spams if necessary.
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How can Dubai be a new route. Concorde has to go over water doesnt it? Due to the carpet affect of its Super Sonic trail? Is he saying it will fly at .99 Mach?
Anyone care to elaborate?
Anyone care to elaborate?
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First Concorde route was Heathrow-Bahrain.
I believe the accel point was over the Adriatic, and from then on M2.0 all the way across Saudi and down the Gulf. Flight time about 4 hours.
Dubai could be quite a successful route; plenty of high-yield traffic, but to build the market would have to be a daily service to compete with Emirates/BA. With only 5 aircraft, how would SRB propose to service JFK and DXB daily?
Also, would the Saudi's allow supersonic overflight of their (admittedly, empty) territory?
I believe the accel point was over the Adriatic, and from then on M2.0 all the way across Saudi and down the Gulf. Flight time about 4 hours.
Dubai could be quite a successful route; plenty of high-yield traffic, but to build the market would have to be a daily service to compete with Emirates/BA. With only 5 aircraft, how would SRB propose to service JFK and DXB daily?
Also, would the Saudi's allow supersonic overflight of their (admittedly, empty) territory?
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BahrainLad
Would Concordes have the range to do LHR/DXB, especially westbound, and via a relatively circuitous route over the Mediterranean/Adriatic, without a major payload penalty ?
Would Concordes have the range to do LHR/DXB, especially westbound, and via a relatively circuitous route over the Mediterranean/Adriatic, without a major payload penalty ?
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I don't know. You'd have to ask a Concorde professional.
(Alas, I'm not one of those!)
I don't recall LHR-BAH being flown with any kind of payload penalty. I've seen a 3900nm range for Concorde on an average mission; LHR-DXB great-circle is approx. 2970nm.
But a high amount of subsonic cruise has an adverse effect on the range performance of the aircraft. But like I said I'm not an expert.
Again, I'd be more interested in Bransons plans for aircraft utilisation, demand for the equivalent of 100 F/class seats to and from Dubai etc.
He's slowly learning: offering £5m for the operation shows this, but there's still a long way to go if he wants to get his hands on the Concorde fleet. I still don't understand why he didn't pressure the French for theirs: much lower hours on those machines.
(Alas, I'm not one of those!)
I don't recall LHR-BAH being flown with any kind of payload penalty. I've seen a 3900nm range for Concorde on an average mission; LHR-DXB great-circle is approx. 2970nm.
But a high amount of subsonic cruise has an adverse effect on the range performance of the aircraft. But like I said I'm not an expert.
Again, I'd be more interested in Bransons plans for aircraft utilisation, demand for the equivalent of 100 F/class seats to and from Dubai etc.
He's slowly learning: offering £5m for the operation shows this, but there's still a long way to go if he wants to get his hands on the Concorde fleet. I still don't understand why he didn't pressure the French for theirs: much lower hours on those machines.
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I heard that if SRB got the concorde from BA, that he would have a problem with the maintenance crew. That is because so I hear, they are all in the union, and Branson does not do Unions, so for that reason, the COncorde ground crew dont want to go to Virgin.
Any clarification on that?
Any clarification on that?
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I would guess if SRB got his hands on them, he would outsource operations (inc flight ops) and engineering to BA.
There would be no way the CAA would let a new "wet behind the ears" operation handle something as complex as Concorde. It is the 27 years of knowledge and experience with the aircraft, along with the people who run it, that keeps it in the air.
There would be no way the CAA would let a new "wet behind the ears" operation handle something as complex as Concorde. It is the 27 years of knowledge and experience with the aircraft, along with the people who run it, that keeps it in the air.
Too mean to buy a long personal title
If Branson really had been serious about this from the start, I wish that he had engaged in less point-scoring off BA and got around to making an offer to Air France much much earlier than he did. One of the things which might have made a difference to future maintenance costs would have been continuing to ensure that the overhead costs of the maintenance/airworthiness support operation were spread across a much bigger fleet than just BA's.
Oops pardon me
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If BA plan to keep one flying for Airshows etc, given the lack of support the CAA have in these instances (ie the last Comet 'Canopus').Could it be suggested that if they plan to do this, then the support from Airbus as design holders would still in fact be in place?
Therefore if support is available for one aircraft, then why cant Mr Branson enjoy similar?
Lots of posts here about why he cant do the deal..........how about a few more from the pro group!
I for one would give my right arm for a go in the eng seat of what is still the prettiest bird in the skies.
Coop & Bear
Therefore if support is available for one aircraft, then why cant Mr Branson enjoy similar?
Lots of posts here about why he cant do the deal..........how about a few more from the pro group!
I for one would give my right arm for a go in the eng seat of what is still the prettiest bird in the skies.
Coop & Bear
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BA says Virgin bid for Concorde won't fly
LONDON - British Airways Plc spurned a five million pound ($8.4 million) bid for its Concorde aircraft from rival Virgin Atlantic Airways on Sunday, and said it would retire the supersonic jet as planned in October.
"Concorde is not for sale. Our position is absolutely unchanged on that," a British Airways (BA) spokeswoman told Reuters. "We're clear that Concorde will not fly commercially beyond October 2003."
Earlier on Sunday, Virgin raised its bid for BA's five remaining Concorde aircraft to five million pounds from its previous offer of just five pounds.
"We have operators ready to help us keep it flying and would serve New York, Barbados and Dubai, a new destination for the plane," Virgin Chairman Richard Branson said in a statement.
A joint British-French venture, Concorde first took off in 1969 and can fly at twice the speed of sound, or around 2,100 kilometres per hour.
But despite cutting trans-Atlantic journeys to three hours, demand for the high-priced service has fallen in recent years, while the costs of operating the fleet have sharply risen.
The famous hooked-nosed jet was also dealt a heavy blow in 2000 by a crash shortly after take-off in Paris which killed 113 people. The planes were grounded for over a year afterwards.
Air France, the only other airline to fly Concorde, stopped commercial flights last month.
If snubbed, Virgin said it would ask BA to join it in forming a charitable trust that would keep at least two of the supersonic planes in semi-commercial service. Virgin pledged to donate one million pounds towards the trust.
But the BA spokeswoman said it was not feasible to continue commercial flights because Airbus, the aircraft manufacturer that supplies Concorde's spare parts, has said it would not support them beyond October.
"As the aircraft gets older it costs more and more to maintain and therefore its just not viable," she said.
BA said it was still finalising its plans for the aircraft following its retirement.
"One of the things we're considering is the feasibility of keeping one aircraft flying for airshows or special occasions such as the Queen's birthday or events similar to last year's Golden Jubilee," the spokeswoman said.
Luchtvaart.pagina.nl
"Concorde is not for sale. Our position is absolutely unchanged on that," a British Airways (BA) spokeswoman told Reuters. "We're clear that Concorde will not fly commercially beyond October 2003."
Earlier on Sunday, Virgin raised its bid for BA's five remaining Concorde aircraft to five million pounds from its previous offer of just five pounds.
"We have operators ready to help us keep it flying and would serve New York, Barbados and Dubai, a new destination for the plane," Virgin Chairman Richard Branson said in a statement.
A joint British-French venture, Concorde first took off in 1969 and can fly at twice the speed of sound, or around 2,100 kilometres per hour.
But despite cutting trans-Atlantic journeys to three hours, demand for the high-priced service has fallen in recent years, while the costs of operating the fleet have sharply risen.
The famous hooked-nosed jet was also dealt a heavy blow in 2000 by a crash shortly after take-off in Paris which killed 113 people. The planes were grounded for over a year afterwards.
Air France, the only other airline to fly Concorde, stopped commercial flights last month.
If snubbed, Virgin said it would ask BA to join it in forming a charitable trust that would keep at least two of the supersonic planes in semi-commercial service. Virgin pledged to donate one million pounds towards the trust.
But the BA spokeswoman said it was not feasible to continue commercial flights because Airbus, the aircraft manufacturer that supplies Concorde's spare parts, has said it would not support them beyond October.
"As the aircraft gets older it costs more and more to maintain and therefore its just not viable," she said.
BA said it was still finalising its plans for the aircraft following its retirement.
"One of the things we're considering is the feasibility of keeping one aircraft flying for airshows or special occasions such as the Queen's birthday or events similar to last year's Golden Jubilee," the spokeswoman said.
Luchtvaart.pagina.nl
