Sad day

I've just watched the pictures of the last three Concorde flights landing at Heathrow. Such a sad day

My office all went onto the roof to watch Concorde fly past on its way in to Edinburgh airport. Very cool.

We initially were all looking the wrong way as it came round on a right hand circuit and all the regular flights were on left handers.

Astonishing angle of attack to fly that slowly. Amazing plane. And I never once got on it.

Very sad

I seriously considered earlier this year taking a trip to New York on it. By the time I convinced myself that it wasn't complete madness all the tickets had sold out. At least that saved me a small fortune...

Anyone know what's happening to the planes? Mothballed? Destroyed?

Bound for museums.

Looks like they will be off to museums, most of them in the UK. There is still the possibility that one may be kept flying for special occasions, but that is going to be extremely expensive for whoever does it.

I'd me amazed if one of them didn't go to the States somewhere though.

These are the seven BA planes that I am talking about, no idea what is happening to the Air France ones.

Richard Branson, chair of Virgin Atlantic, was interviewed this morning on BBC World Service, saying he wanted to keep the Concorde up and running, likening it to a work of art. While everybody else has said the Concorde is insanely expensive to run, Branson calls such claims "myths", pointing out that British Airlines was given the Concordes free of cost and proceeded to make billions of dollars of profit out of them.

I rather fear the main reason Richard Branson has been involved is for PR purposes. I think he knew that he would never be given a Concorde, so it was a very safe thing to do...

According to BA it had been flying with only about 20 people onboard a flight since the combination of the Air France crash, 9/11 and the US economic downturn.

The airframes are 30 years old, so the longer it went on the more it cost to use them.

Branson has tried to buy the fleet from BA, but BA won't allow it. Shame really. The project was funded by the Government am I right? So it would be the Government, not BA who should decide whether or not to sell them.

I wonder if Air France will sell him a few?

Apparently there are some parts that are no longer available, and to make the tooling to create those parts would be prohibabtively expensive.

Branson would also have to pay BA a massive amount of money to maintain the planes as they are the only ones who know how to do it, and they have all the equipment, hangers, etc.

All the Air France ones have been dismantled and put in museums IIRC.

Very sad

I'd me amazed if one of them didn't go to the States somewhere though.

According to an article in the Financial Times (long story, don't ask), one might end up in the states:

In reply to:

---

Another is likely to spearhead BA's marketing effort in New York, its most important foreign market, aboard the USS Intrepid, the aircraft carrier museum moored at Manhattan's Pier 86 at 46th Street.

---

It is sad about the retirement, the Concorde is the only plane that was left on my 'must fly' list, at least until the A-380 comes out.

Yeah, very sad. There goes my chances of ever going supersonic. At least I managed to get on a tour of Concorde when I was younger. I still can't believe that BA let 30+ Cub Scouts run amok on it!

I just got back from driving down to edinburgh to see it take off from the airport

There goes my chances of ever going supersonic.

Get yourself on a MIG my friend! I'd venture it'd be more fun than riding the Concorde any day (albeit a shorter flight).

-Zeke

If I remember rightly BA and Air France got the planes for free.

Greetings!

The obligatory 11 mile high club reference / link.

All the Air France ones have been dismantled and put in museums IIRC.

Some parts are for sale

Such a sad day

Agreed. In a few ways to me. It's a bad sign that the Concorde was our last major air innovation in the private sector as far as getting people somewhere faster. And now the planes are 30 years old.

I wish I had the money to fly on one. They definitly were very unique.

Well, at least I can be proud of my Bristol. The British part of Concorde was pretty much Bristol - they were being assimilated into British Aerospace at the time.

There she goes

Leaving edinburgh today

I'd me amazed if one of them didn't go to the States somewhere though.

Air France Concorde already landed at Smithsonian Dulles annex. Story

If they plunked a BA Concorde on the Intrepid, that's pretty much take the rest of the deck, I think. They already have a Blackbird up there.

Air France Concorde already landed at Smithsonian Dulles annex.

Kind of sad as many would contend that it was the US that killed Concorde (some 30 years ago). I seriously doubt the Boeing SST was ever seriously intended to enter production, but it did a great job of motivating the US airlines to cancel their Concorde orders.

I got a look at an SST "prototype" at the Hiller museum yesterday. Snoop nose borrowed from Concorde, canards from Concordski (TU144), and vast retractable delta wings that couldn't have been much more than wishful thinking. It looked about 30% larger than Concorde and would have been quite a sight had it ever flown.

Rob

Kind of sad as many would contend that it was the US that killed Concorde (some 30 years ago).

Not only with the SST, but also with all the restrictions on Concorde operations. Prime example of Capitolism (politics driven by lobbying, as opposed to real, honest, open-market Capitalism).

sad day indeed.

Well, how about an Empeg group buy? We could all contribute to buying one, and its up keep. We even have Patrick who dabbles in jet engines to carry out maintenance.

Just think... it would be great for holding Empeg meets on the same day at different locations. AND we could have the only supersonic car stereo!

I wonder what it would take to upgrade my Private Pilot License with a Concorde qualification

Something for Patrick?

the US that killed Concorde (some 30 years ago).

I think you're talking about the restriction on supersonic flight over land? As I remember, that had nothing to do with the Concorde, but rather, with the military. In the 1960s, it was common for military craft to travel at supersonic speeds over populated areas. We had to have everything on shelves wired up, our windows were constantly breaking. After that legislation, we only had to wire our nicknacks and repair windows because of earthquakes.

The Boeing SST's target market was the us / asia travel market, but they couldn't figure out how to get the government to pay for the r&d.

I don't know why the US never bought any Concordes for that route....

I think you're talking about the restriction on supersonic flight over land

No, that didn't help but I can see that in general it was probably necessary. As you say, Concorde was good for trans atlantic/pacfic routes and US airlines had orders in for (if I remember correctly) over a hundred planes.

The US government were a little upset about that (not invented here) and put their own SST project out to tender. It went to Boeing, who embarked on a comprehensive consultative stage with their customers and successfully got every last Concorde order cancelled. A few years later the SST project was killed by the government.

Rob

I'd be amazed if one of them didn't go to the States somewhere though.

Final list of Concorde mausoleums.

Peter

I can't believe they missed out the Fleet Air Arm museum in Yeovilton. The Concorde in there is pretty impressive, as is the entire museum. You have got to go see it if you like naval aircraft - it's interactive and exciting.

And my dad has flown most of the planes in there - not just the type, but the actual ones. I think that's pretty cool.

Seattle have got their Concorde now:

http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1019&message=6581710

Kind of sad as many would contend that it was the US that killed Concorde

I thought this was what killed the Concorde. It was expensive to operate and carried few passengers. That goes against the trend in commercial aviation which was revolutionized by the 747.

We have a new Air and Space museum here in Chantilly, Virginia (USA). I understand one of them will be here... which is about 100 yards from my office.

That goes against the trend in commercial aviation which was revolutionized by the 747.

Minor nitpick.

That was the then current trend. The new trend that Boeing is touting is that the big movers are not going to be as popular in the future, which is why they are offering a 757-sized aircraft instead of a bigass (technical term) aircraft like the A380.