The GN of the sky? Good bye Concorde

[gn85]

For those of you who are aeronautic fans, I just watched the take-off on television of the last Concorde.

I sure hope they bring it or something like it back. Granted, it was made by the French along with the Brits, but nobody's perfect. It's still a beautiful plane.

Kinda reminds me of the GN in a way... it's got class, but incredibly fast!

Goodbye Concorde

 

[arista5]

will be somewhat missed by me, yes it was a piece of history and one bad azz plane.

BUT

It did fly over my house each time it left JFK (except when the wind changed) and was very very very loud! so i dont mind that part leaving

 

[PNYKLR]

The part I dont understand is why British airways wouldnt let Virgin Atlantic take over the Concorde - Am I Missing something?

 

[gn85]

Simple,

They didn't want Virgin Atlantic to show them a better way to do it! I just recently flew with British Airways from Baltimore to Heathrow and then on to Hamburg. I wasn't particularly impressed with their service. Not as I thought I'd be. Wonder if they didn't like the prospect of being upstaged... not to mention, they would loose prestige and good pilots/crew to Virgin Atlantic.

Many are arguing if the economy really killed off this plane.

 

[GN One Day...]

Supposedly, air travel is not in the shape it used to be. That, or the airlines haven't been run right in years. Sad to see the Concorde go. That industry can't keep up with 30 year old technology. There should've been a fleet of those things by now.

 

[ULYCYC]

It passes over me during congested traffic holiday patterns. I always liked looking at it. But as Mike said I feel sorry for the people who live near the daily takeoff or landing approaches.

 

[troGNman]

A cool Concorde moment

I remember the Live Aid concert in '85 when Phil Collins performed in England, then hopped on the Concorde and played in Philadelphia on the same day! I thought that was pretty cool.

I watched the Channel 7 News (NYC) last evening and they had live footage of the Concorde making its last arrival into JFK.

I remember my father telling me about the times that he would be fishing in the Raritan Bay near Sandy Hook and he would see the silhouette of the plane on its approach. It must have been an awesome sight.

 

[hot6-231]

Last flight of the Concorde........Who really cares??? It's not like the plane was ever built to carry poor working slobs like us anyway!!! Besides, look who built it.......

 

[gn85]

Originally posted by hot6-231
Last flight of the Concorde........Who really cares??? It's not like the plane was ever built to carry poor working slobs like us anyway!!! Besides, look who built it.......

Well,

If you don't like the plane, then don't post. It was built by the French and the British. I'm sure there isn't much love for the French on this board, but that's your politics.

As said before.. for aeronautics fans.

 

[GN One Day...]

Cars weren't originally meant to be for every man, Ford to it to that level long after they were around.
PC's weren't originally used in houses, too specialized, too expensive. Many of us have a couple now.
VCR's and later DVD players weren't in every household at first, it took a few years before they became widespread and the price came down on them.

The point is that this was a great idea, and an advance it its field to the next level. It's too bad that it isn't one that was developed and explored to the point of being used by everyday people. Travel is a slow industry to filter down to Everyman, just a fact.

 

[Timo]

It's too bad it cost so much to operate, which meant the tickets were insanely expensive. For the time being, supersonic flight doesn't make much economical sense. Heck, some airlines are just starting to recover.

I wish I could have afford a flight on it anyways. Maybe they'll figure out a way to do it cheaper.

 

[BLACK6PACK]

I was watching a show about this. They said that the concorde would never have turned a profit if the british and french governments hadn't picked up the development costs. They also said that you won't see a new fleet anytime soon because in the lifespan of the planes they wouldn't make enough money to offset the costs of the fleet.

There are only a few routes that it was legal for them to fly. If and thats a big IF, they had continued development of the scramjet engines from the 50s and figured out how to cancel out the sonic boom, we would all probably be flying at supersonic speeds right now.

 

[49-blues]

I got to see it leave today-live! cause i work there-one fine piece of machinery!

 

[gn85]

I was watching BBCs coverage of the arrival of Concorde. They had 3 Concordes circling London in a lower then normal lap then landing in sequence with the one from New York landing last. A rare sight. After landing, they had 'fan fare' of letting the Concordes taxi around Heathrow.

I can understand their pride and disappointment that this plane is being retired. That's like the day that we hear the space shuttle won't fly again.. or god forbid any more tragedies.

 

[NJTurbo]

I wonder what is up with the whole flying deal. Most of the planes are 25 years plus old, when do you think there will be a update and some breaking advance in the way we travel. I love to fly and for me it is tough to sit in a small seat with a bag of peanuts, i guess it is just me need it yesterday are we there yet I am sad to see them retire it kinda sucks. Again when it comes to Air Travel i think we are really lacking in state of the art engines that can travel more quickly, the same basic design of the jet engine has been around for over 50 years. What is next and what is the deal

 

[49-blues]

I believe the new 777 was completely reconfigured as a airplane.

 

[1badTTA]

Sad to see it go, but it was innevitable.

The current trend in aircraft design is efficiency, mainly fuel. The engines out there now use about half as much fuel to produce the same power as those used 30 years ago. The benefits go way beyond simply being cheaper, with less fuel used you can fly farther, carry more weight/less fuel etc... The Concorde was just a niche market that was thought to be the next wave of air travel. If different engines were fitted to it (highly unlikely) it might have been able to stay around longer but the demand for supersonic commercial air travel as well as the restrictions placed on it killed the whole idea of making it proffitable. Someday someone will design a replacement but it won't be in the near future as many advances will need to be made before it would be worth the effort of attempting it again.