There is an advertisement on Discovery Turbo for a documentary on the Concorde which is to show on Sunday night.

Was just wondering what your personal opinions where of this plane, and if you have ever been on one to share your experience of what it was like?

 

It was a huge shame it was put out of service although there are "rumours" of it coming back !

I have only ever been to the prototype exhibition as RNAS Yeovilton as its close to me.

Just think where aeroplanes could be now if we carried on the same rate of development !

 

Didn't go on one as such but in New York at the USS Intrepid Sea /Air museum they have one you can go on board.

Lovely plane, can't believe we've gone back in time with it.

 

IMO it's a massive shame that we don't have the option for supersonic air travel anymore. Yes, it was expensive and extremely loud but I feel genuinely gutted that I didn't get the chance to experience it. Seeing the one parked up @ Manchester Airport is pretty sad.

 

Might be the same documentry that was on BBC recently - if so, it's well worth a watch.

 

My old man flew on concorde and sat behind Mike Tyson...pretty cool story, for him.

 

 

Just seen the prototype at Duxford.

Lovely looking plane but I guess it dont stand a chance nowadays when you fit 500-800 ppl into a A380. On the other hand, perhaps its enough rich ppl around to keep it in service?

 

Concorde used to fly over my dad's place a couple of times a day.
I used to love watching it fro some unknown reason. It was such a distinctive shape to see in the sky, and I agree with what's been said about it being a real shame that supersonic air travel isn't availabel to the public any more.

I would have loved to go on one of them, especially if it could have been used for longer flights.
Would have made getting over to Indonesia to see my mrs family a hell of a lot less hassle. Much more expensive, but definitely less of a pain in the arse!

 

channel 4 you mean?

yeah deffo worth a watch. Quite emmotional at the end for all the crew that were on the concordes.

Dunc

 

My nans house used to be right under it's flight path, you could always tell it was concorde before you saw it due to the noise! Used to run out into the garden to see it when I heard it, sounds sad, but I was only a kid back then lol.

 

It's going to be on Discovery and Discovery HD at 2100 on Sunday

 

Awesome plane, with an outstanding safety record, damn shame they took it out of service. was definitely a rich mans play thing, but as a piece of engineering, and what it was capable of, was hugely impressive. seen it do a fly by with the red arrows at an airshow when i was a kid, noise was unreal.

 

Pretty sure the surviving condordes were recently fully refurbished ready to back into service and now they are just sat parked up ready to fly. Quite weather they ran out of money or had problems with the paperwork I'm not sure. Would be great to see them fly again!

 

Pics or stfu. I have a couple of friends from Indonesia and they are stunning !

 

You'll be lucky.
Obviously I'm biased when it comes to my other half, but she has many many many VERY hot mates!

 

Yeah, Ch4 my mistake.

Found it funny when they said that they had to radio the spy planes to get out the way as a commercial aircraft was coming by. There they were in their full oxygen masked gear at 60,000 ft thinking they're something special when along comes this plane - faster than theirs - and the passengers are supping champagne as they wizz on by.

 

wouldnt surprise me if the CAA just dont want them to fly. The CAA have always been a bunch of cunts when it comes to decent/fun things.

Plus im sure the eco freaks will whinge.

And the health, safety and noise lot. These days if you have permission to do something historically then great you might be able to keep it. Now that concorde has been out the air for a while i bet there would be tons of objections from silly old farts and NIMBY cunts who dont want a concorde flying past daily. And sadly they will probably win, just like they are winning more and more with motorsport and trackdays.

 

Awesome aeroplane, such a shame it doesn't fly anymore. Have never actually been on one in flight but have walked through the one on static display at Duxford and it's surprising how small it is inside.
I heard a rumour a couple of years back that Richard Branson wanted to buy them all up and get them back in the air again but for some reason he wasn't allowed. Personally i don't think they will ever fly again but i would love to be proved wrong.
One formation that would be fantastic to see together would be Concorde, the Vulcan and the Red Arrows, aahhh well we can hope.

 

My Mum won a competition in the Liverpool Echo for two to fly on concorde. Seeing as though my Dads a big gay and wont fly I got to go on it.

I was only 8 and the thing I remember most was how shite caviar tasted!

 

It was stopped from flying when Air France decided to stop running them as they were not making money and so not contribute towards the increasing maintainance costs that they shared with British Airways. Well that's the story on the documentry anyway. It was a bummer for B.A. as they'd just spent a fortune getting Terrance Conran to redesign the interiors after the post accident updates.

 

IMO it was one of the greatest engineering achievements of recent time and it's a shame we've not gone forward with it, we've gone backwards. It would be like, after the first car accident, we then banned cars.

 

I would love to see concorde return to the skies and have the chance to fly on it, but at the same time i wudnt as i told the wife i will only fly to america if concorde returns as i hate flying long distance (2 hours is long enough for me)

 

Watched this the other night, was good to hear from the people that flew it & on it. As others have said it's sad to think it will probably never fly again, odd how the loss of a machine can bring a lump to your throat especially when you hear the crew talking about their experiences.

I think certain things in life aren't all about the cost but the experience & way it makes people feel, Definitely a step back from a technology point of view once it stopped flying.

 

Finally mach 2 stella:

 

BLOODY FRENCH!!!!

Cheese eating surrender monkey coonts!!!!

 

Have you have given someome a foot massage at 1320mph Rick !

Impressive

 

Cheeky fucker! Left New York on Speedbird 002 it in September on the year of its retirement, amazing experience.

 

Thats awesome Rick, I am massively jealous ! ( of the flight not foot massage )

 

i belive rod tarry worked on the orignal project aswell

 

No wonder he is anal about top speed then.

 

I think your confusing this with the re-furb prior to re-entering service after the Airfrance Crash in 2001.

Sorry to shatter the dream mate, Olympus593 (A french organisation of ex-concore maintanence crew) have started boroscope checks with a view to re-lighting the olympus engines of F-BTSD. The idea is to get the plane able to do taxi runs for visitors, not a return to flight.

Summed up, BA still own all their airframes and WILL NOT allow anyone to return them to flight, there are no spares, and no chain of supply. Biggest and most important problem is the CAA revoked the type certificate, so without the backing of Airbus, Rolls Royce, and either BA (not happening, there is a contract preventing this tied into something) or AF (who have no spares as they were all auctioned off), there will never be a flying concorde again.

Save concorde group have massively over-hyped reality by saying that there will be a concorde flying over the olympic opening ceremony...... with a budget of Ł15m to do it, REALISTIC estimates think more like Ł150m to get one into service, IF you had all the support required.

Just not going to happen

 

why are BA being so anal?? is it some thing they dont want anyone ever having another logo on a concorde other than BA?? so they can say in 50 years. "yeah concorde was ours".

Why did CAA revoke the type certificate??

 

I got to stand on the flight deck of one when it was being built at weybridge,

it was seperate to the fusilage and the wiring loom was layed out next to it,

not something you see everyday!

My dad worked in dept 14 on the side of the concorde hangar at brooklands

and he made some interior trim parts for them.

A mate of mine from school did his apprenticeship in the same dept and he

ended up being parts manager for all of the uk concordes, I think he did

well on ebay when they shut that lot down

puddy

ps. just read the last two posts above mine and another mate of mine works for the aircraft industry and he said the exact same things

about the air worthyness certificates,he said they will never fly again either.

 

Simple Warren. It'd cost too much money to get them back into a suitable condition to be deemed safe enough to get the certificate or air worthyness back. Those pesky shareholders wouldn't stand for it if their dividend got cut.

 

but if virgin are stumping up the cost willingly why should BA give a fuck?? saves BA having to pay to store all the spares and the airframes etc. Plus they can charge royalties im sure or some training contract to make wonga out of virgin etc.

Just seems pathetic that they wont see the sky because of pathetic corporate infighting rather than any good technical reason.

 

There were several technical reason Concorde was not allowed to be sold to Virgin Atlantic.

Air legislation in the UK, France and USA stated at the time that "Air France and British Airways were the only Airlines allowed to operate and maintain the Concorde type due to its complexity and low production run" or words to that effect.

With that in mind Airbus would only offer maintenance support to either of those Airlines because no other airline was legally allow to operate Concorde.

Richard knew that of course, but he was more than happy to play the "I can save Concorde from my nasty competitor" tune, knowing his bluff would be never called for the above reasons.

 

And they were both given the planes almost for free when no other airlines would buy them.

 

there's always been abit of jealousy regarding Concorde,from the 'US' not allowing it to fly across the midwest,to the Russians with their 'concordski' rip off,stunning technological masterpiece,so advanced for its time.......

 

Branson is a shrewd business man and any chance he has to get one over on the competition and make them look bad in the publics eye is seized upon and who can blame him.

Lets be honest none of the public had even the faintest idea that even if he bought the whole fleet of aircraft airbus had already stated they would not renew the airworthyness certification.