The Concord

[NUKE]

If it was so viable, why have no more than 12 been in operation?

Why are they being retired....why not build more?

Of the 12 that have been in service, one crashed killing all aboard, resulting in the worst safety record of any major aircraft.

The French insisted on the "e" in Concorde. Why?

Low hours per plane, safety record and small fleet combined with no profits equate to the Concorde being a complete failure.

[Furball]

crash was caused by debris on the runway, and it was piloted by frenchmen so do dont hold that against BA concorde's

there was huge interest in the project until it was banned from flying supersonic over land.

[Boroda]

Originally posted by NUKE
Why are they being retired....why not build more?

USSR stopped it's supersonic passenger jet program in 1978...

One of my friends still can't forgive himself... In 1977 they were coming back to Moscow after mountain-hiking in Asia. He decided it's smart to save 15 rubles (IIRC about 1/3 of the plane ticket price) and fly ordinary Tu-154 instead of supersonic Tu-144 He didn't know they will be out of duty in less then one year...

[NUKE]

Originally posted by Furball
crash was caused by debris on the runway, and it was piloted by frenchmen so do dont hold that against BA concorde's

there was huge interest in the project until it was banned from flying supersonic over land.

 LOL

Dosn't matter what caused the crash, saftey record is worse on record.

From the early 60's, when America planned an SST, we tested the results of an SST over America and it resulted in 8000 noise complaints and 5000 damage claims ( due to booms) in a 6 month period.

The fact remains that the Concorde was a failure economically and in it's safety record.

[NUKE]

Originally posted by GScholz
They can't have been that bad since NASA just bought one.



The US A/C designers just couldn't make a competitive design. They made such a fuzz about the Concorde that they almost got it banned from US airports. The "can't beat it then ban it" routine.

Americans stopped or own SST because of environmental and noise restrictions......

Plus, we could have easily built the American SST.... economics played the smart role and we didn't build it, even though it would have flown more than 2 x's the  the people at mach 2.7

I remember the Concorde not being able to land at most US fields.

[Boroda]

Originally posted by GScholz
They can't have been that bad since NASA just bought one.



The US A/C designers just couldn't make a competitive design. They made such a fuzz about the Concorde that they almost got it banned from US airports. The "can't beat it then ban it" routine.

Hmm. It's a picture of a Tu-144LL, used by NASA and LII..

[Furball]

it had the best safety record/miles covered, until that crash.

Economic failure? maybe, but the concorde was paid for by the british taxpayer (not sure how french paid for theirs) so all Ba had to cover were the running costs, which are sky high.  But the prestige of flying the worlds only supersonic airliner brings a lot of customers in.

That is why Sir Richard Branson is trying to buy british airways concorde's for Virgin Atlantic.

Having seen it flying, and hearing/see it taking off. Theres nothing like it

[NUKE]

Originally posted by Boroda
Hmm. It's a picture of a Tu-144LL, used by NASA and LII..

Hmmm, never questione what you pic was of....

[NUKE]

Originally posted by Furball
it had the best safety record/miles covered, until that crash.

Economic failure? maybe, but the concorde was paid for by the british taxpayer (not sure how french paid for theirs) so all Ba had to cover were the running costs, which are sky high.  But the prestige of flying the worlds only supersonic airliner brings a lot of customers in.

That is why Sir Richard Branson is trying to buy british airways concorde's for Virgin Atlantic.

Having seen it flying, and hearing/see it taking off. Theres nothing like it

12 planes flying low hours and one of them crashing killing all aboard is an overall safety disaster. Departures per accident is the worst on record by far

[Furball]

thats why i said "until that crash"

[GRUNHERZ]

The concorde was never more than a pretty toy, it was largely irrelevant to world economic affairs unlike the 747 - unless of course you Euro types just had see that freak Micheal Jackson "sing" in very short order...  And if you want to talk speed from the 1960s lets talk about the moon landoing where glorious AMERICAN citizen scientists put a man on the moon - or according to some euro disbelivers and tinfoil hat club members faked it very poorly but convinced everyone else.

[vorticon]

the only reason why the concords saftey record is poor is because they made so few of them...and considering its crash had nothing to do with the plane really...theres no reason why they should stop making them...
and usually everyone on board dies when a plane crashes...

[Dowding]

lol American scientists? Some of them had a very convincing German accent, eh? And comparing a 747 to a Concord is a apples and oranges argument if ever I saw one.

The Americans couldn't do it - and it wasn't just about environmental and economic concerns. Money counts for nothing in terms of international prestige - Americans should realise that just by watching the pictures of golf being played on the moon. The US design was too ambitious to be realised, it was too probablematic to be solved and it was easier/less costly to give up and pretend it didn't matter.

'Viable' is a relative term.

[Dowding]

Nuke -

1) what do you think the definition of 'concord' is?

2) What do you think the French translation of the word is?

And there is your answer to the name thing. Hardly a mystery.

[GRUNHERZ]

Of course they were German in descent, but they were americans and became american citizens. Remember that neat little thing about america we welcome immugrants and they are drawn to the USA because of americas superiority in many fields.