Restored Concorde going on show in Britain

LONDON, July 21, 2006 (AFP) - A fully-restored Concorde is going on display to give people a taste of how it felt to fly in the luxury of the world's only supersonic passenger aircraft, a British museum announced Friday.

The aircraft, with its emblematic delta-wings and droopy nose -- but minus its powerful Rolls-Royce engines -- is going on show at Brooklands aviation and motor museum in Weybridge, southwest of London.

Concorde was retired from service in 2003, rendered unprofitable after an Air France plane crashed outside Paris in July 2000, killing all 113 on board.

But for 27 years it carried wealthy and glamourous passengers across the Atlantic at speeds of up to 1,350 miles per hour (2,173 kilometres per hour).

Prince Michael of Kent will officially open the Concorde Experience on Wednesday and from August 1 visitors at the Brooklands museum can take a seat in the plane and go on a "virtual flight".

The Concorde at Brooklands first flew in 1974. It was used as a test vehicle and for promotional work but was never flown commercially.

It has now been fully restored using many original parts.

"It's a magic plane," museum director Allan Winn told AFP.

"There's still huge interest in Concorde."

Widely seen as one of the greatest technological feats of the 20th century, the aircraft offered luxurious, if rather cramped, travel that was faster than the speed of sound.

By leaps and bounds the best commercial aircraft ever to grace the skies. :yes:

I have high hopes for Japan to bring us back into this Century with a faster, larger and longer-range SST. If they are able to do it properly [good fuel economy / different fuel all together, and less noise] they could knock Boeing and Airbus back to the stone age where they belong, with their slow 21-hour nonstop flights across the Pacific. ;)

:grouphug:

Mr. Fusion- I hear you..They definitely have the know-how and if any country were to complete such a project i would put money down that Japan would be it.

That said, why not try to refurbish the motors, or build new ones using todays technology for noise reduction and gas economy-?? Seems like such a waste of such a great aircraft to just refurbish it and stick it in a museum...


sigh..!

p5

^^ Putting in new engines would probably be difficult for a couple reasons:

1 - If the size and weight of the engines differs by any measurable amount, it may have to be reinforced or reconfigured structurally. Aircraft are like thousands of little weights tied to strings in three dimensions, if just one thing is changed, it can shake up the entire system. Concorde's weight and balance was so important, it had an extremely complex fuel system that shifted fuel between several tanks to properly balance while in flight. :yes:

2 - Noise reduction in SSTs is best accomplished by changing the shape of the aircraft, and to a lesser extent quieter engines. In that sense Concorde is stuck being noisy. :cheers:

Several people have approached Airbus [who owns the rights to the fleet] about leasing or purchasing Concordes for commercial or private use, including Sir Richard Branson and Virgin Atlantic. However Airbus has struck all offers down. :(

My hope for the Japanese SST program is that they will use a different fuel besides fossil. Even by making it more fuel efficient, oil prices are riding a slippery slope and may eventually doom the project just as the 1970s artificial shortage doomed Concorde.

:grouphug:

Really miss concorde

i wish i could've flown on one.

-

I hope the concorde comes out again because that used to be my dream!

It would've been nice to see at least one kept in airworthy condition.

Giant of the skies is now stuck inside
7 October 2010
The West Australian

A t 36, she is sexy, sleek and sophisticated and has no shortage of drooling admirers. Yet nowadays, this lady is strictly a home bird, happy to remain away from the world spotlight.

G-BOAA, the first British AirwaysConcorde to fly commercially, is content to see out its days at one of Scotland’s lesser known attractions, the National Museum of Flight, at East Fortune Airfield in East Lothian, about 35km east of Edinburgh.

It is one of seven BA Concordes in retirement at museums in Scotland, Manchester, London, Bristol, New York, Seattle and Barbados.

In its heyday, the supersonic airliner was the face of aviation’s future. Flying at Mach 2 — twice the speed of sound — at close to 60,000ft, it took just 3½ hours to travel from London to New York.

It seems almost inconceivable that, nearly four decades later, with Concorde long gone from the sky, conventional aircraft still take twice as long to make the same journey. But in a world jolted into awareness of environmental resources and impact, Concorde’s guzzling of up to 25,000 litres of fuel every hour destined it to join the dodo.

In the 70s, 80s and 90s, flying on Concorde was, for most people, only a dream. It was virtually the private jet of celebrities, royalty, business moguls and other VIPs who could afford to pay for one of its 100 passenger seats. Now, at the National Museum of Flight, for a relatively modest admission fee, it is possible to sample what the high life was like, even though Concorde is firmly grounded inside a giant, purpose-built hangar.

And the real surprise is that in its 25 rows of two seats either side of an extremely narrow aisle, there is less room than in cattle class in many of today’s aircraft.

Although many Concordes, like G-BOAA, had only one travel class, there was a definite pecking order. The more prestigious or famous the passenger, the nearer the front they sat. The Queen always sat in A1.

First registered in 1974, G-BOAA, aka Concorde 206, flew the inaugural BA service to Bahrain two years later. Services to New York started in November 2007. Almost 23,000 flying hours later, after more than 8000 landings and nearly 7000 supersonic cycles, the modifications deemed necessary after the Paris tragedy in July 2000 — when all on board an Air FranceConcorde and some on the ground perished — were not carried out and it never flew again.

After five years on the ground at London’s Heathrow, a massive military-style operation took it down roads and rivers and, finally, across fields to its present home in Scotland.

The National Museum of Flight is spread over four hangars at the World War I and II airfield of RAF East Fortune. Concorde occupies most of the main hangar, which also includes the cockpit and cabin of a Boeing 707.

But, if visitors are even half interested in aviation, there is much more to see in the other three hangars.

Military aircraft from both world wars are in Hangar 1, civil aviation from early flight to jet aircraft is featured in Hangar 2, and restoration work on aircraft from different eras continues in Hangar 3.

Included in other buildings are the airfield’s original parachute store, a radar room and a hands-on exhibition of the principles of aviation, including a flight simulator.

Housed in the grounds of the museum, near the hangars, are a De Havilland Comet, the world’s first commercial jetliner, a BAC-111 and a Vulcan Avro XM597 complete with Blue Steel missile.

The museum, which is run by National Museums Scotland, is open seven days a week from April to October and on weekends only from November to March. The 2010 cost of admission is £9 ($15) for adults and £7 ($12) concession.

It is free for children 10 years and under.

With 25 rows of two seats either side of an extremely narrow aisle, there is less room than in cattle class in many of today’s aircraft.