Concorde landmark to go....
Rebel PPRuNer
Joined: Aug 2000
Posts: 2,839
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From: Toronto, Canada (formerly EICK)
Shades of Willie flogging the paintings at EI HQ - but passengers - sorry, customers - didn't get to see those.
In some ways it's better to let Conc go - it's old BA making promises the new RyanBA won't fulfill - likely to create disappointed nostalgia than a rush to ba.com for a ride on an ageing 734 or 763.
Here's an idea - is there an atrium in T5 gate area big enough to house it? YYZ has been putting huge arty things into the new T1.
In some ways it's better to let Conc go - it's old BA making promises the new RyanBA won't fulfill - likely to create disappointed nostalgia than a rush to ba.com for a ride on an ageing 734 or 763.
Here's an idea - is there an atrium in T5 gate area big enough to house it? YYZ has been putting huge arty things into the new T1.
Joined: Dec 1999
Posts: 4,432
Likes: 33
From: LHR/EGLL
This is an interesting debate. Why should the model of concorde be kept? For the same reason we build statues of long dead national heroes, for the same reason we take our children to museums, for the same reason we save old aircraft like the Lancaster and spitfire flying..........because we have a proud history of success in this nation and consigning everything to a history book and without any visual reminders we will become exactly what some in high place want us to be; a bland and soulless nation without any character. It might cost 1.5 million, which is a price worth paying for all the millions of visitors that pass by and are reminded that the UK once lead the world in a certain area of aviation. Maybe the lottery should pay for it to stay?
And instead of getting the lottery to pay £1.5m to keep the model there, I'd far rather see a donation of £1.5m to one of the museums that currently has a full size model of Concorde so it can be well looked after.
I just think it's a bit silly for BA to advertise their services by reminding passengers of their past!
Joined: Dec 2005
Posts: 487
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From: Farnborough hants UK (eglf)
Concorde to Farnborough please
hi
if none of you want this model anywhere can i suggest its Donated to
FAST musuem At Farnborough . lot of work on concorde was done by RAE
Farnborough and it would be nice to have Somthing there to Show for it
even a Taxyable one there at Airshow time would have been a great crowd
puller or would that have upset a few people MORE POPULER than some of
the things shown there of late .
Tony
if none of you want this model anywhere can i suggest its Donated to
FAST musuem At Farnborough . lot of work on concorde was done by RAE
Farnborough and it would be nice to have Somthing there to Show for it
even a Taxyable one there at Airshow time would have been a great crowd
puller or would that have upset a few people MORE POPULER than some of
the things shown there of late .
Tony
Joined: Dec 2005
Posts: 487
Likes: 0
From: Farnborough hants UK (eglf)
Success
HI
Yes you have a good Point . The UK Bit is execellent same as concorde pity about the rest . Will the carbon Brigade win the Day and bring the A380 and others down Somehow i doubt it people will always Fly
Yes you have a good Point . The UK Bit is execellent same as concorde pity about the rest . Will the carbon Brigade win the Day and bring the A380 and others down Somehow i doubt it people will always Fly
Joined: Jun 2006
Posts: 806
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From: Maders UK
And if you wanted to remind people about the UK's leading the world in aviation, could you explain why you'd do it with a model of a hugely expensive, uneconomical, shortsighted commercial failure - one that the UK tried to cancel - rather than a much more worthy success story? 
And the USA's refusal to permit supersonic overflight didn't contribute to the demise of this great machine at all then?
SB
And the USA's refusal to permit supersonic overflight didn't contribute to the demise of this great machine at all then?
SB
Joined: May 2006
Posts: 857
Likes: 26
From: Dublin
Kalium Chloride:
Perhaps, but plonking a real life Avro RJ/BAe 146 on the roundabout won't have quite the same effect, now will it?! 
JAS
I never said it should be replaced by an A380. I was talking about a British aeroplane.
JAS
Joined: Jun 2006
Posts: 806
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From: Maders UK
Kalium,
Great machine? Depends how you define 'great. It's a shame we couldn't put all that technical skill into an aircraft that had a future.
Great because it could do things that no other airliner can to this day.
Simple as that.
I think in the 70s it was state of the art and definitely had a future. However IMHO there were decades of complete lack of continued investment in developing this aircraft - as far as I can see the only "glass" on the concord cockpit was in the windscreen - I was always amazed by the mass of analogue avionics filling up that tiny space.
The costly upgrade that BA put down as the main reason for dropping concord was evidently well overdue.
In practical terms though and putting romanticism aside I completely agree, carrying on with concord was rather like having a WAG type wife - good for the image but poor for the bank balance.
SB
Great machine? Depends how you define 'great. It's a shame we couldn't put all that technical skill into an aircraft that had a future.
Great because it could do things that no other airliner can to this day.
Simple as that.
I think in the 70s it was state of the art and definitely had a future. However IMHO there were decades of complete lack of continued investment in developing this aircraft - as far as I can see the only "glass" on the concord cockpit was in the windscreen - I was always amazed by the mass of analogue avionics filling up that tiny space.
The costly upgrade that BA put down as the main reason for dropping concord was evidently well overdue.
In practical terms though and putting romanticism aside I completely agree, carrying on with concord was rather like having a WAG type wife - good for the image but poor for the bank balance.
SB
Joined: Aug 2002
Posts: 6,173
Likes: 0
From: London (Babylon-on-Thames)
G-BOAA dismantled at LHR and barged north to the Royal Museum of Flight at East Fortune near Edinburgh. Safely undercover.
G-BOAB intended to be the centrepiece of Terminal 5 - future is looking very uncertain, parked near the BMI hangar at LHR.
G-BOAC on outdoor display at the viewing area at Manchester Airport.
G-BOAD outdoor in temporary storage in New York as it's home on the USS Intrepid is refurbished.
G-BOAE Barbados -don't ask!!
G-BOAF on display at Airbus (UK)'s Filton facility.
G-BOAG undercover at a museum in Seattle.
www.concordesst.com for more
G-BOAB intended to be the centrepiece of Terminal 5 - future is looking very uncertain, parked near the BMI hangar at LHR.
G-BOAC on outdoor display at the viewing area at Manchester Airport.
G-BOAD outdoor in temporary storage in New York as it's home on the USS Intrepid is refurbished.
G-BOAE Barbados -don't ask!!
G-BOAF on display at Airbus (UK)'s Filton facility.
G-BOAG undercover at a museum in Seattle.
www.concordesst.com for more
Joined: Sep 2004
Posts: 74
Likes: 0
From: Virginia, USA
As a young boy living in England, my family flew home to the U.S. twice a year. I was always fascinated by the Concorde model at that roundabout.
From a purely romantic point of view, I am sad to see it go. Too bad, but it is all about the money.
It is stored at Floyd Bennett Field in Brooklyn. You can see it on departure from runway 31L at JFK.
From a purely romantic point of view, I am sad to see it go. Too bad, but it is all about the money.
G-BOAD outdoor in temporary storage in New York as it's home on the USS Intrepid is refurbished.
Joined: Feb 2001
Posts: 223
Likes: 0
From: UK
G-BOAE Barbados -don't ask!!
Update on G-CONC :
Its being dismantled next week and handed over to Brooklands Museum who are investiagting where it can be put around the local Weybridge area where it will mean a great deal to the generations whose family members worked in the giant aircraft factory at Brooklands, where more component parts of Concorde were actually built than any other factory in the UK or France. The Museum will look to temporarily rebuild it on thier site, ahaed of a suitable location being found.
Joined: Oct 2002
Aviation Qualifications: PPL
Posts: 8,208
Likes: 351
From: London UK
Although intended to be in the centre of T5 BAA reconsidered when they thought about all the retail space it would take up. There was some excuse about the building foundations "suddenly" being found to be not strong enough.
Joined: Feb 2001
Posts: 223
Likes: 0
From: UK
There was never any advanced plan for G-BOAB to go inside T5, a few ideas were mooted but thats about it.
The plan all along was for it, under BAA guardianship, to be a gate guardian, but surprise surprise BAA have gone all commercial and think BA should pay for it to be a gate guardian, even though BAA are the guardians of the aircraft.
If I was a betting man; G-BOAB will eventually end up on the flight line at Duxford, more of a chance of survival there than rotting away at LHR.
The plan all along was for it, under BAA guardianship, to be a gate guardian, but surprise surprise BAA have gone all commercial and think BA should pay for it to be a gate guardian, even though BAA are the guardians of the aircraft.
If I was a betting man; G-BOAB will eventually end up on the flight line at Duxford, more of a chance of survival there than rotting away at LHR.
Joined: Aug 2002
Posts: 6,173
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From: London (Babylon-on-Thames)
Betting man : Here and now. They'll scrap it on site at LHR. Follows in the footsteps of the BOAC Comet, BA Trident 2 and very nearly Trident 3. And let's not even mention the JCBs at the British Airways Collection at Cosford.
No call five years from now as the moment will have passed. Corrosion willl be found and this will be the perfect excuse. Who's going to pay to move the Concorde to Cambridgeshire if thet can't even move it across the airfield at Heathrow?
No call five years from now as the moment will have passed. Corrosion willl be found and this will be the perfect excuse. Who's going to pay to move the Concorde to Cambridgeshire if thet can't even move it across the airfield at Heathrow?
Joined: Feb 2001
Posts: 223
Likes: 0
From: UK
BA's problem is that can't scrap a Concorde, its too big a part of the UK nations heritage. It would be a PR disaster, and they know that. This was why BA chose to save all 8 of their a/c in 2003 and not just the 7 that were part of the flyable fleet.
The Knowledge gained from Concorde stored in the open is that they are no major corrosion issues 20 years on, when the external T5 options have drawn blanks in a few years, BA will look to move it from LHR one way or another.
The Knowledge gained from Concorde stored in the open is that they are no major corrosion issues 20 years on, when the external T5 options have drawn blanks in a few years, BA will look to move it from LHR one way or another.
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 776
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From: In my own little world
I don't see why the BAA cannot do something similar with G-BOAB to what the French have done at CDG.
and here at night.
Wouldn't cost all that much either.
But hey why would the BAA want to preserve part of our aviation heritage. It doesn't make them any money !!.
and here at night.
Wouldn't cost all that much either.
But hey why would the BAA want to preserve part of our aviation heritage. It doesn't make them any money !!.