"Death of the Corcorde & the terrorists attacks." Sun Jan-06-08 07:12 PM by _Chewy_
When they retired the Concorde in 2003, I was sadly disappointed to see this great work of technological achievement killed off. I just watched an hour special PBS Nova program on the history of the Corcorde and it was absolutely fascinating.
One item that caught my attention was how the 9/11 attacks contributed to the Corcorde's fate. In 2000, the Concorde suffered it's first accident in flight, killing all 115 passengers onboard. The fleet was grounded for a year during which time they refitted the plane with more safety measures to strengthen the plane. To regain the public confidence, Corcorde decided to fly all of their staff members (100 +) on a return flight that would take them 1/2 way out to the Atlantic Ocean & back. On the very same morning, the World Trade Center was falling apart as terrorists made their attack on September 11. It would be 2 long months before the Corcorde returned to regular scheduled flights into New York City. Sadly, the Corcorde never regained its footing.
One Corcorde official interviewed on the show stated that many of their frequent flyers worked in the WTC. They were about 40 businessemn, CEOs, business owners that frequently traveled on the Corcorde who all died on September 11. Just another example of how the shockwave of the 9/11 aftermath drastically affected the shape of human history. Truly sad.
#2. "RE: Death of the Corcorde & the terrorists attacks." In response to mlangdn (Reply # 1) Mon Jan-07-08 09:39 AM by Pcqandaman
Quote:
QUOTE: It was a beautiful flying machine.
I agree. I always thought it looked a lot bigger in flight than on the ground. It was one of the few (only?) aeroplanes that was referred to without using "the" or "a". You said "Look there's a Jumbo" or "Look there's a Spitfire" but you said "Look there's Concorde". Although there were more than a dozen in regular service!
#5. "RE: Death of the Concorde and the terrorists attacks." In response to _Chewy_ (Reply # 0) Tue Jan-08-08 12:59 AM by Allyn
I still fly the Concorde in simulation; it is by far the most challenging and fun of any FS 2004 aircraft. Hopefully, an FS-X compatible version will be available later this year.
#6. "RE: Death of the Concorde & the terrorists attacks." In response to Allyn (Reply # 5) Mon Jan-07-08 08:51 PM by basa48
This a pic of one of the last Concordes taxying to its final resting place at my workplace Manchester Airport. Note the flags out of the cockpit windows.
I am among the group of airport personnel wearing hi-viz just aft of the main landing gear !!
#10. "RE: Death of the Concorde & the terrorists attacks." In response to Allyn (Reply # 8) Tue Jan-08-08 12:50 PM by basa48
Quote:
QUOTE: You're next to one of the vans or aiport vehicles. That must have been quite exhilarating and sad,€€ too.
It was a strangely emotional day. Although Concorde rarely visited Manchester we all felt it was like a lost daughter to us and the turn out when it did visit was remarkable.
Yes, whilst I cannot identify myself exactly, I was one of the group stood near the vehicles.
That aircraft now has pride of place in our visitor viewing park along with a Trident, a Vampire and a DC-10 nose cone.
#9. "RE: Death of the Corcorde & the terrorists attacks." In response to _Chewy_ (Reply # 0)
They also pointed out on that show that the Concorde never made a profit. The British and French governments subsidized every passenger that ever flew in it, in spite of the ridiculously high fares charged. That was the real reason it stopped flying.
The Concorde, for all its brilliant engineering, was doomed to fail from the beginning. It could not possibly carry enough passengers in the cabin on any flight to pay the cost of the trip. That is why Boeing wisely dropped the SST it was building to compete with the Concorde.
#11. "RE: Death of the Corcorde & the terrorists attacks." In response to Shelly (Reply # 9) Tue Jan-08-08 01:17 PM by basa48
Quote:
QUOTE: They also pointed out on that show that the Concorde never made a profit. The British and French governments subsidized every passenger that ever flew in it, in spite of the ridiculously high fares charged. That was the real reason it stopped flying.
The Concorde, for all its brilliant engineering, was doomed to fail from the beginning. It could not possibly carry enough passengers in the cabin on any flight to pay the cost of the trip. That is why Boeing wisely dropped the SST it was building to compete with the Concorde.
Certainly in the early days Concorde was a loss maker, but was a charismatic flagship for BA and Air France.
The decision not to allow supersonic flight overland also contributed to its operational losses.
I did believe in the later years, particularly after it was removed from scheduled operations, it made a small profit running charter flights.
The official reason for its withdrawal was BAE's insistence it would be too expensive to bring up to operational standard (after the grounding following the Paris crash) and maintain.
EDIT: From the web site (after I decided to read it !!)
Quote:
Concorde made an tidy operating profit for the airlines, but with the aircraft approaching 30 years of age a large investment programme would be required to update many of the systems on board the aircraft. With the premium first class market as it is post September 11th 2001, there is no hope of the airlines being able to fund this investment and keep the aircraft in profit.
Therefore, the airlines decided to write off the current levels of investment in the aircraft, of around £100M, rather than risk having to write off sums that could top £200M in the coming years, if the premium travel market did not improve.
British Airways have stated that they intended to "Celebrate Concorde" in its final months, and attempt to give people through the UK a chance to fly on-board the aircraft, before they were retired to museums.
It is a sad time, but the inevitable really only came forward a few years. We should celebrate what Concorde was and still is - the only profit making Supersonic Passenger Jet to ever to go into regular revenue service. The Americans or Russians could not even do it - that's how far ahead of its time it was ... and still is!
#12. "RE: Death of the Corcorde & the terrorists attacks." In response to basa48 (Reply # 11) Tue Jan-08-08 04:04 PM by Night_rider666
Yup - the reality of supersonic flight bit Concorde in the ass very early on, limiting the routes it could be used on.
Bottom line though is that actual operation was secondary to British engineers showing the World how brilliant British design was at the time. Making it viable after the fact was secondary - we were just showing off
'Artificial intelligence is no match for natural stupidity'
Well longer anyway, by a foot or too 
