Did the Concorde Ever Fly Again After the Crash
In September of 2015, a UK-based Concorde enthusiast group appear its intentions to bring the Concorde back into service. "Since 26th November, 2003, this has been the dream of the global Concorde fraternity," said Concorde Club President Paul James — a man of affairs who chartered Concorde 19 times during the '80s — in a statement on Gild Concorde'due south website.
"Our aim was to secure a Concorde for central London and utilise the aircraft every bit a global launchpad for getting Concorde dorsum in the air," said James. The program seems to have worked thus far. According to James, Club Concorde has secured £20 meg from an unnamed British businessman to obtain, house and display a £5 million Concorde about the London Eye on the River Thames. The concern plan too attracted the attention of 2 British merchant banks and an American businessman, each of whom have offered up £xl 1000000 that, co-ordinate to James, will exist used for the Club's Render to Flying program.
Currently, that plan involves obtaining a well-kept Concorde held at Le Bourget Airport in France. "Our plan is that Le Bourget supply the Concorde and the Brits, through us, supply the finance to eventually render this Concorde to flight," said James. "In the event of a return to flight, the Concorde would be based 6 months at a time, either at a base about London or at Orly airport. The precise allocation of fourth dimension spent in each country would exist governed by commercial opportunities, such as air shows or fifty-fifty charters."
"Our aim was to secure a Concorde for central London and use the aircraft as a global launchpad for getting Concorde dorsum in the air."
While Concorde Club believes that its £120 million in funding will help return a Concorde to airworthiness, much of the aviation community remains skeptical — even towards the prospect of heritage and non-passenger flights. "Information technology'south like trying to put the Apollo shuttle on to the moon once again," said one-time Concorde captain William "Jock" Lowe, who flew as a Concorde pilot for 25 years and helped found Social club Concorde (though he'south no longer a participating fellow member).
The beginning barrier to Concorde's return, co-ordinate to Lowe, is Airbus, which absorbed the avails of the original Concorde's manufacturers, Aérospatiale and BAC. Airbus made the conclusion to discontinue maintenance back up for the Concorde after Oct 2003, leading to the plane'south retirement — but the company still holds the design authority to the aircraft.
"That would be all the original design records, and a whole stack of materials that whatever regulatory dominance would require any work to be based on," said Lowe. For Club Concorde or any other arrangement to bring the Concorde dorsum to airworthiness, Airbus would need to corroborate, and the company currently shows no desire to practice and then. "They simply can't risk something going wrong with it in terms of the reputations of the companies involved…Then you haven't got a starting point."
Even if Airbus released the Concorde's blueprint government, the challenges of testing and rectifying the effects of thirteen years of inactivity and deterioration would be "mammoth," equally Lowe puts it. "Let'southward presume you could rip the whole matter apart and ultrasound the fuselage. There are thousands, many thousands of hydraulic seals on the airplane. All the flying controls, all the engine intake controls, the undercarriage and so on. Anybody of them would have to be remanufactured and replaced. Many of the items are time expired now."
"All the flying controls, all the engine intake controls, the undercarriage and and then on. Anybody of them would accept to be remanufactured and replaced."
Hypothetically, deteriorated parts could be refurbished or replaced, but that comes with its own set of regulatory headaches. "The ability to supplant the parts, for what is a very complex aeroplane — possibly the most complex at that place is — the manufacturing facilities are just non there," said Lowe. "And if you got them all together, what sort of testing regimen would be at that place? You've got to think information technology took vii years of flying testing to get information technology into service in the beginning identify. You lot'd almost have to first once more."
That procedure would too require retraining and relicensing an unabridged staff of individuals to work on the aeroplane. And co-ordinate to Lowe: "Nobody has any licenses to work on the aeroplane — all the licenses are long since finished."
Despite the overwhelming odds, there is some precedent for restoring a supersonic commercial jet dorsum to working club after existence decommissioned for years. After the autumn of the Soviet Union, NASA, in conjunction with other American and Russian aerospace institutions, launched a 5-year restoration of a Tupolev Tu-144, the lesser-historic Russian equivalent to Concorde, and the simply other commercial supersonic jet ever created. The project, reportedly costing $350 one thousand thousand, brought a Tu-144 retired in 1983 back into working condition for employ every bit a "Flight Laboratory," to test the viability of time to come supersonic jetliners.
Granted, the Tu-144's return to flying was an undertaking led by some of the world's foremost aviation authorities, and it was purely an experimental arts and crafts. If an organization like Order Concorde wanted to allow for charters and civilian flights, it would be a much more difficult challenge. Lowe finds information technology difficult to imagine the outdated Concorde would be once more approved for rider flights. And it does enhance the question: should a 50-year-old jet actually return to the skies?
"It was a fantastic machine, one nosotros're very proud of. It was a dream for most people. But it couldn't go on forever, and the fourth dimension for it has certainly passed."
The Concorde was loud — the sonic smash created by the jet was so agonizing that it was not immune breach the sound barrier until information technology was above the ocean. It used also much fuel — taxiing a Concorde to the end of the runway used over two tons of fuel, and 100 tons to fly from London to New York (a Boeing 777, for comparison, uses 44 tons to brand the aforementioned trip). And the aerodynamic shape meant the cabin was pocket-sized and cramped, even though passengers were paying extreme prices — well-nigh the terminate of the Concorde's service, circular-trip tickets costed around $10,000.
The lack of economical viability was the last blast in the bury for Concorde. While enthusiastic and well-to-do passengers were happy to pay the exorbitant ticket prices, after the Concorde'due south get-go (and only) fatal crash in 2000, and the slump in air travel following nine/xi, Concorde flights were having difficulty turning a profit. That, combined with Airbus's unwillingness to carry on maintenance support, meant that the Concorde had to be grounded.
"Nobody would've been happier than me to meet it carry on flight, either commercially or on a loftier-occasion holiday, but that had to been done xiii years ago, non now," said Lowe. "It was a fantastic motorcar, i nosotros're very proud of. It was a dream for most people. But it couldn't go on forever, and the time for information technology has certainly passed."
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