Concorde fans hope to get jet airborne by 2019

[Eugene]

Source: BBC

Concorde fans hope to get jet airborne by 2019

19 September 2015 UK

Enough funds have been raised to buy a Concorde with the aim of getting it flying again by 2019, a group of British enthusiasts says.

Club Concorde, made up of former captains, charterers and aviation fans, says it has £120m in reserve for the "return to flight" plan.

The group also plans to put another of the supersonic aircraft on permanent display in central London.

Concorde, which can travel at twice the speed of sound, last flew in 2003.

Negotiations are now under way to try to purchase or lease the two aircraft. Club Concorde president Paul James said they were hoping to source both the display and flight jets from France but no agreements had yet been made.

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Read more: http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-34301689



A Concorde aircraft could be put on display on the River Thames

[dorkzilla]

1. I miss seeing them at JFK...

it was a thrill every time I saw one...it’s such cool-looking aircraft!

[HassleCat]

2. The idle rich

It's fitting, I guess, that people with too much money have nothing better to do than restore this white elephant. In its heyday, the Concorde was exclusively or the well-heeled. The thing cost so much to fly and maintain that they charged an astronomical price. I seem to recall $3600 one way. I'll look it up and put it in the edit. Anyway, here they are again, spending their money so they can hang out with each other and do stuff ordinary mortals cannot. This is what it means to be wealthy, to do things others can't do, and own things bigger and flashier than other people, and go places denied to most people, and shoot lions, and drive million dollar cars, and make oneself feel superior. Think Thurston Howell on the Gilligan's Island TV show and you get the idea.

On edit: According to an old article in Air & Space Magazine, the average round trip NY-Paris-NY was $12k, and burned one ton of jet fuel per passenger.

[MisterP]

3. hm, I thought this would be a "clean Concorde" redesign some engineers

were kicking around: first they'd get a business jet off the ground, then that'd open the gates to an SST redesign with wheels that don't blow every other landing