Could Concorde ever fly again? No, says British Airways

Why Mike? Surely the Vulcan is a product of knowledge gained in WW2. By all accounts it was a fairly simple aircraft, I'm not saying it wasn't wonderful because it was/is. Concorde was a whole different ball game as our cousins say, it too was wonderful but in a different era.

The Vulcan (initially) was a high altitude, transonic, heavy bomber, designed in the late 40s very early 50s. The Concorde, was a high altitude, Mach 2 airliner, designed in the early 60s. I think going from one to the other justifies the term "quantum leap". A bit like going from a Meteor to a Lightning, they are both jet fighters, probably only 10 years apart in design terms(1944 to 1954 for the P1), but light years apart in performance, I believe that the technical challenge going from a meteor to a Lightning also requires a quantum leap.

However essentially and sadly its all semantics really as the sad fact is that they are both now essentially museum pieces, flying or not, quantum leap or not.

cheers

Bill

Saw Concorde doing a very low flypast over the Meadowbank Arena in Edinburgh at the 1970 Commonwealth games

Impressive

Hi There

I lived near bournemouth airport and Concorde used to fly over the house and bank turn almost directly above it.

A beautiful site, I looked forward to it every year.

I never made parts for Concorde but did do some parts for the candlestick jacks made to support the wings during maintenance.

Safer than those plastic dreamliners.

regards David

If it's Boeing, I'm not going..............

Gentlemen,

A slight aside but you maybe interested to read a book called "Empire of the Clouds" by James Hamilton-Paterson ISBN 978-0-571-24795-0 it is a very good read regarding British Aviation from the late 40's to the present day and tells about the politics, designers, test pilots, military use and airlines and finally the total decline of manufacturing of complete aircraft to today where we make bits of aircraft, I've just finished my copy so if anybody is interested in reading it then I would be more than happy to post it on.

Martin P

ly been on concord once, and my it was a small thing!

Isn't a Quantum change the smallest quantity of change we can measure?

It is true that these aircraft are simply not in the same technology class at all. Both were stunning in flight.

Steve

Hi Steve

Certainly a "quantum" is as you say, but I always thought that a "quantum change" was a sudden, huge change, but I haven't done anything as crass as looking it up in a dictionary.

Somewhere there is a video of a B52, staggering into the air and climbing away very sedately, followed by a Vulcan taking off, climbing steeply away and doing a barrel roll!! Amazing aircraft, it could set off car alarms as well!!

cheers

Bill

I almost (almost) paid for the upgrade to put my (then) wife on the Concord - on one hand, I should have done it, on the other, well, lets leave it at that.

It was not that much extra - I checked with the travel office at her place of at the time employment - flying on the moment Europe to NY business class on a regular airline as opposed to Concord was not that much different.

Hmmm... Lost opportunities. The local Lancaster is maybe nearing the end of its life in the air - tires are the issue from what I read - hmmm - another opportunity that might be lost shortly...

Another JohnS.

My dear old Dad was an engine fitter on Lancasters during WW2, he used to reckon that two men could get inside a Lancaster tyre (not whilst it was attached to a Lancaster!) and be rolled down the runway...............

cheers

Bill

When I was doing my apprenticeship in the mid 1960s, one of or mechanics was ex RAF ground crew on Lancasters, the thing he remembered was changing spark plugs on hot engines, on frosty, dark mornings, after the aircraft had just returned from a raid, and dropping a plug down in among the hot engine. Ian S C

remember going to Reading rock festival in 1978 and 1979, and experiencing the awesome sight and sound of Concorde which seemed to pass right over the riverside site as it climbed out after take off. It was one of those WOW moments you never forget.

Phil W,

East Yorks, UK

G'day all.

I inspected the inside of the Concorde at Le Bourget many years ago. It was packed full of test instrumentation, about as wide as a motor coach but fascinating.

This post reminded me of another great aircraft that never made it past the pollies, radical for it's day - the TSR-2. Now that was another quantum leap in military aircraft, and if it had made it into service they might be still going today. Look what the Hawker P-1127 evolved into.

Regards from the land of the kangaroo

* Danny M *