4 Years Ago...

Third_Echelon · 25-10-2007 04:54PM

At the USS Interpid Museum in New York, there is one of the British Airways Concordes there... Lucky enough to get on to see it just before the museum closed for an upgrade for a couple of years...

The cabin was nice enough, but the cockpit looked archaic. The technology was well old and I'm sure maintenance of it was a huge cost factor.

Fantastic planes though...

The Don · 25-10-2007 05:19PM

seamus wrote: »

Afair, on examination, there were microfractures appearing along the wings of most of the ones in service and as you mention, the cost of repairing/maintaining the craft, along with a massive explosion in the demand for for low-cost economy seats, made them unfeasible.

BA had been running them at a loss for a number of years. The crash and the subsequent maintenance issues were just the excuse BA needed to ground them.

I saw a documentary on them a few months ago. There had been a number of incidents prior to that. They involved the wheels exploding (due to hitting an object on the runway at those high speeds) and pieces of the wheel puncturing the underlining of the fuel containers on the wing. They made the lining thicker after the first incident but it happened again after. But due to needs to keep the aricraft light they couldn't reinforce it too much.

There were other factors that I can't remember now aswell.

Steyr · 25-10-2007 07:10PM

Third_Echelon wrote: »

At the USS Interpid Museum in New York, there is one of the British Airways Concordes there...

She isnt on Intrepid herself she is located on a Barge alongside her, USS Intrepid is no longer in NY she has been moved for a major overhaul and will be back in 08 and will formally open on Veterans Day 2008.

robinph · 25-10-2007 07:39PM

On the right of this picture you'll see the hat of the last Concorde pilot that is now permanently stuck into the control panel. When Concorde went supersonic the fuselage would expand so there was then a gap of several inches at the side of that panel, once it cooled down again that gap completely disappeared so he's never getting his hat back again.

Steyr · 26-10-2007 12:42AM

robinph wrote: »

On the right of this picture you'll see the hat of the last Concorde pilot that is now permanently stuck into the control panel. When Concorde went supersonic the fuselage would expand so there was then a gap of several inches at the side of that panel, once it cooled down again that gap completely disappeared so he's never getting his hat back again.

Imagine the blistering speed at the top of the Pitot tube on the nose...:eek:

Hal1 · 26-10-2007 01:12AM

Built in the seventies and it would still be the fastest commercial passenger plane (Mach 2) if it was in the skies today....

Third_Echelon · 26-10-2007 09:00AM

Steyr wrote: »

She isnt on Intrepid herself she is located on a Barge alongside her, USS Intrepid is no longer in NY she has been moved for a major overhaul and will be back in 08 and will formally open on Veterans Day 2008.

If you read my next sentence I had mentioned that alright

seamus · 26-10-2007 09:42AM

Hal1 wrote: »

Built in the seventies and it would still be the fastest commercial passenger plane (Mach 2) if it was in the skies today....

Not to mention the passenger cost. Could you imagine in these days of fuel prices, the fuel surcharge if AL were operating a DUB-JFK route by concorde?

Third_Echelon · 26-10-2007 09:44AM

seamus wrote: »

Not to mention the passenger cost. Could you imagine in these days of fuel prices, the fuel surcharge if AL were operating a DUB-JFK route by concorde?

Yeah, same price as the fare I'd Imagine...

Fuel and general high costs was a big factor in Concorde's days being numbered I'd say. At the end BA and AF were just looking for excuses to end the service...

4 Years Ago...

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