Concorde! on BBC2 now
 

Stevie wrote:

Nooooo... Filton is the home of Concorde. They were born there and
those that don't survive will, no doubt, go there to die

And...the only chance of keeping at least 1 Concorde flying for
special occasions will be if they do retire one at Filton where
they've got the people and facilities there to service her.

Does anyone know if BA have officially announced the retirement plans
yet?

http://www.concordesst.com/retire/diary.html seems to have a comprehensive
'diary' of events. It appears from there that the 'last ever' flight will
be G-BOAF from Heathrow to Filton on Nov 17th although the 'real' retirement
will be on October 24th when 3 Concordes land at LHR at 90 second intervals.

Concorde! on BBC2 now
 

"dave F" wrote in message ...

I think it would be fantastic if they could store a Concorde in T5, seems a
bit odd but hey! Heathrow is the home for Concorde :-)

They could put a real one in front of the main tunnel entrance instead of
the model?

Henry

Concorde! on BBC2 now
 

"Henry Nebrensky" wrote in message
om...
"dave F" wrote in message
...

I think it would be fantastic if they could store a Concorde in T5,
seems a
bit odd but hey! Heathrow is the home for Concorde :-)

They could put a real one in front of the main tunnel entrance instead of
the model?

Perhaps that is the plan for disposing of the two non-flying Concordes
(G-BOAA and G-BOAB). The five flying examples have had their future homes
revealed but there has not yet been an announcement about the disposal of
these two. As they are not in a position to be flown out, perhaps one might
yet find itself in a display position at Heathrow.

Concorde! on BBC2 now
 

On Tue, 21 Oct 2003 15:35:24 -0700, Henry Nebrensky wrote:
They could put a real one in front of the main tunnel entrance instead of
the model?

Stacked with enough fuel and an elastic launch band to lift off from it's
standing position without a runway? That would be cool.

mind you, Concorde is cool. Blair can be in Washington in 4 hours, but it
takes Bush 6 to get here, just shows how much better the UK is. One (Two)
of them should be kept as a UK "Air Force One", the cost is minimal, the
prestige is high, and of course the leader (no matter how incompetent) of
our country deserves something decent to travel on, save Prescott be in
charge for a few hours :D

Concorde! on BBC2 now
 

In article , Henry
Nebrensky writes
"dave F" wrote in message news:bmv36
...

I think it would be fantastic if they could store a Concorde in T5, seems a
bit odd but hey! Heathrow is the home for Concorde :-)

They could put a real one in front of the main tunnel entrance instead of
the model?

Some years ago I met a US group at Heathrow to begin a tour. One of
the ladies thought that the model was the real thing and commented on
how tiny it was....... (Sad but true.)

--
Ian Jelf, MITG, Birmingham, UK
Registered "Blue Badge" Tourist Guide for
London & the Heart of England
http://www.bluebadge.demon.co.uk

Concorde! on BBC2 now
 

"Richard J." wrote in message ...
CMOT TMPV wrote:
Once upon a time -- around about 10/19/03 16:07 --
possibly wrote:


So when is the final flight from or to London? And where do I stand?
Final arrival is 24 Oct forever. Three Concordes will arrive 90
seconds apart, taxi to the maintenance bay for a special retirement
ceremony. See concordesst.com

Those flights (BA9010, BA9021, BA002) will land on the northern runway
(09L/27R, direction depends on the wind) probably around 16:00 on the 24th.


Final flight *from* London is provisionally scheduled to be 17 November,
when G-BOAF is flown to Filton, her place of birth. Details at
http://www.concordesst.com/retire/diary.html

This final flight will probably be delayed now because BA wont be
officially announcing the final retirement places for Concorde until
next week at the earliest.

Apparently there's some contractual problem with one of the locations
and they want to sort that out first before they announce any of the
sites. Airbus (who will officially be the company given the
Bristol-Filton Concorde as it's their bit of land she'll be put on)
are a bit peeved though as they'd already started planning a big
welcome home party for her on that date.

Concorde! on BBC2 now
 

Paul Weaver wrote in message ...
On Tue, 21 Oct 2003 15:35:24 -0700, Henry Nebrensky wrote:
They could put a real one in front of the main tunnel entrance instead of
the model?

Stacked with enough fuel and an elastic launch band to lift off from it's
standing position without a runway? That would be cool.

mind you, Concorde is cool. Blair can be in Washington in 4 hours, but it
takes Bush 6 to get here, just shows how much better the UK is. One (Two)
of them should be kept as a UK "Air Force One", the cost is minimal, the
prestige is high, and of course the leader (no matter how incompetent) of
our country deserves something decent to travel on, save Prescott be in
charge for a few hours.

I doubt the cost is minimal otherwise I'm sure BA would themselves be
keeping one or two planes for charters, other prestige stuff - and
political favours.

Concorde! on BBC2 now
 

Once upon a time -- around about 10/22/03 09:37 --
possibly wrote:

"Richard J." wrote in message
...
CMOT TMPV wrote:
Once upon a time -- around about 10/19/03 16:07 --
possibly wrote:


So when is the final flight from or to London? And where do I stand?
Final arrival is 24 Oct forever. Three Concordes will arrive 90
seconds apart, taxi to the maintenance bay for a special retirement
ceremony. See concordesst.com

Those flights (BA9010, BA9021, BA002) will land on the northern runway
(09L/27R, direction depends on the wind) probably around 16:00 on the 24th.


Final flight *from* London is provisionally scheduled to be 17 November,
when G-BOAF is flown to Filton, her place of birth. Details at
http://www.concordesst.com/retire/diary.html

This final flight will probably be delayed now because BA wont be
officially announcing the final retirement places for Concorde until
next week at the earliest.

Apparently there's some contractual problem with one of the locations
and they want to sort that out first before they announce any of the
sites. Airbus (who will officially be the company given the
Bristol-Filton Concorde as it's their bit of land she'll be put on)
are a bit peeved though as they'd already started planning a big
welcome home party for her on that date.
**** on Airbus. They're all ****. If it wasn't for them Concorde could still
be flying. The ultimate reason is that they don't want to make parts. AF was
out regardless, but BA maintains that were Airbus to produce parts and
support the aircraft, Concorde will still be flying.

-- E

--
Never argue with an idiot. They'll drag you down to their level and beat
you with experience.

Concorde! on BBC2 now
 

CMOT TMPV wrote:
Once upon a time -- around about 10/22/03 09:37 --
possibly wrote:

"Richard J." wrote in message
...

Final flight *from* London is provisionally scheduled to be 17
November, when G-BOAF is flown to Filton, her place of birth.
Details at http://www.concordesst.com/retire/diary.html

This final flight will probably be delayed now because BA wont be
officially announcing the final retirement places for Concorde until
next week at the earliest.

Apparently there's some contractual problem with one of the locations
and they want to sort that out first before they announce any of the
sites. Airbus (who will officially be the company given the
Bristol-Filton Concorde as it's their bit of land she'll be put on)
are a bit peeved though as they'd already started planning a big
welcome home party for her on that date.

**** on Airbus. They're all ****. If it wasn't for them Concorde
could still be flying. The ultimate reason is that they don't want to
make parts. AF was out regardless, but BA maintains that were Airbus
to produce parts and support the aircraft, Concorde will still be
flying.

Companies will generally do anything if you pay them enough. Presumably BA
wouldn't pay what it would take to change Airbus's mind, probably because
there doesn't seem to be an ongoing demand from passengers. BA have halved
the number of flights to New York to only one per day.

Basically, Concorde is an outstandingly beautiful plane and an amazing
phenomenon, but as a commercial aircraft it is a disaster. It was
horrendously expensive to buy (BA were subsidised by the Government, as were
Air France presumably). It makes an operational profit only by charging
very expensive fares which only a few can afford. It generates enormous
pollution, both from its excessive fuel consumption and appalling noise.
And it's the least safe commercial airliner currently flying, in terms of
fatalities per million passenger miles.

I shall be looking out for the three Concordes on Friday afternoon like
thousands of others, but I also think that it was a sensible decision to
retire them this year.
--
Richard J.
(to e-mail me, swap uk and yon in address)

Concorde! on BBC2 now
 

On Wed, 22 Oct 2003 22:17:18 +0000, Richard J. wrote:
probably because there doesn't seem to be an ongoing demand from passengers.

Many frequent flyers died on September 11th

Basically, Concorde is an outstandingly beautiful plane and an amazing
phenomenon, but as a commercial aircraft it is a disaster. It was

Hence it should be kept for diplomatic missions