Concorde Flying again

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Read in the papers last week that Concorde will take-off in the weeks for tests on its new safety features and could be flying the LHR-JFK route later in the year. :-)
What great news to see it flying again.

I did read in The Mirror (not the most reliable of aviation resources) that it will fly out on Thursday. Can anyone confirm this or know of an actual time as I'd really like to be at Heathrow to see this happen. (and get a photo or two).

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24 years 2 months

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RE: Concorde Flying again

That is indeed great news....but i have been hearing this for quite some time know...lets hope it really flies this time.

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RE: Concorde Flying again

Concorde is expected to leave Heathrow to Brize Norton.G-BOAF is expected to take to the air later on this week maybe on Wednesday or Thursday afternoon for a 3hr 20 minutes test flight.Concorde would fly out on its normal London to New York route but turn back towards the UK after an hour and then head for RAF Brize Norton.Very good news.

regards Saab 2000

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RE: Concorde Flying again

Yes... fantastic news. I was reading in the Guardian about the new safety features on Concorde. Kevlar lined fuel tanks and rater impressive tyres which don't explode when they run over bits of metal.

It'll be great to see her back in the Air. Are Air France Concordes going to be back soon aswell?

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RE: Concorde Flying again

BBC Teletext today (16/07) says that BA has confirmed that concorde will carry this flight out tomorrow. It is due to leave LHR at aprox. 14:20 BST, fly out over the Atlantic, and land at RAF Brize Norton around 18:00 BST.

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RE: Concorde Flying again

Good luck, the members of this forum should be awarded with a free flight anywhere on Concorde. Specially considering the support we all h ave given to this nice plane.:-)

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RE: Concorde Flying again

Well, as I write this post, G-BOAF is now airbourne and should be on it's way back to Brize Norton. She took off safely from LHR, rotating at 190mph and darted straight towards the atlantic. Like Keltic said, good luck to her.

P.S. - A free flight on Concorde - I'd sell one of my kidney's to fly on one!

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RE: Concorde Flying again

Well dear V1 a kidney a bit too much.

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RE: Concorde Flying again

Yep, she arrived at Brize at about 5.40 this afternoon , i was going over but it was absolutely tipping down(heard her through the mirk). She will stay there until the end of the week apparently, possibly doing some further tests from there, so i'm on standby to dash over.
I have heard that the rest of the fleet will all do some post mod test flights in and out of Brize Norton over the coming months, should make some good viewing around here, just like the old days !.

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24 years 2 months

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RE: Concorde Flying again

The BBC has some stuff, too...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/olmedia/cta/events01/uk/concorde/slideshow/concor… slideshow, with interview with Cpt. Banister (requires Real Player)

story: http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/uk/newsid_1444000/1444046.stm

see 6 o'clock news report: http://news.bbc.co.uk/olmedia/1440000/video/_1444144_concorde_hall18_vi… (includes video of take-off)

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RE: Concorde Flying again

Went down to Heathrow today to see it happen. The Queens Building terrace was absolutely packed with people, I was interviewed for the Sky News web site (got my name mentioned but that was about all) and saw the journalist from BBC's Airport up there too. There were numerous cammeras and I got a few pictures myself:
http://www.plane-mad.com/thumb/bassc_lhr-3-t.jpg   http://www.plane-mad.com/thumb/bassc_lhr-5-t.jpg   http://www.plane-mad.com/thumb/bassc_lhr-4-t.jpg

Second one would have been a perfect picture if it wasn't for the Ghana DC-10!!

More and bigger versions on my web site: http://www.plane-mad.com

Great to see her up again, a thought everybody shared today apart from two protesters with a banner calling it "a beast" and the "British Airways Con", complaining about something or other (environmental I think).

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RE: Concorde Flying again

1 of the links on your website is doubled.
the middle take-off picture takes you back to the right taxi-ing pic.

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24 years 2 months

Posts: 734

RE: Concorde Flying again

Thanks for letting me know about that, its now fixed.

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RE: Concorde Flying again

HI'
Does anyone know the exact route concoured took on her flight. I live in County Down, Northern Ireland and approx. an hour after she left heathrow an aircraft passed over my house that i found strange. The noise this thing was making was was like a squadron of tornado's at low level i could'nt visually see any aircraft but nothing like this has ever passed over before. My house seems to be right under many of the trans-atlantic routes with 747's, 777's' a340's etc, flying over daily. On a good day you might get 10 aircraft flying almost in formation across the sky in one wide line. I've iddentified many as Virgin Atlantic and Canadian airlines while i know Pan-Am flight go right over here because the tragic lockerbie crash could have easily happened here.
There is'nt much on the military side over here apart from the usual chinooks, wessex's, lynx's and gazelles flying at about 200ft of the ground,i've even seen gazelles going behind the tree lines in land near my house.
Anyway its great to see G-BOAF get the air under her wheels again, bet the people living under the heathrow flight path are just over the moon!!!!

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RE: Concorde Flying again

Well...its really great to see the bird in air again. My best wishes with it for the future.

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RE: Concorde Flying again

Concorde's usual transatlantic route is a lot more direct than most airliners'. From Heathrow, it's due west, over the Bristol Channel where the afterburners get lit, and pretty much straight on to NY from there, passing just south of Cork. Not very close to Co. Down! Having said that, it flew an unusual loop yesterday, heading north towards Iceland, then coming back.

The BBC site I mentioned earlier has pictures of Yesterday's flight path.

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24 years 2 months

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RE: Concorde Flying again

Again it is EXCELLANT!!!news that Concorde is up in the sky again,only hope it can return to passenger operations in the near future,some reports said at the end of summer.Unfortunately you can't say the same for the Air France Concorde's,does snyone know anything about them?I really miss seeing the CDG-JFK Concorde flight flying over my house at around 4pm every afternoon and hearing Concorde's sonic boom.

Really good news,
regards Saab 2000

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24 years 2 months

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RE: Concorde Flying again

I don't know how the tests are going but I did read somewhere that Air France and BA had agreed that they would both resume Concorde passenger flights on the same day, so they must be going pretty well.

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RE: Concorde Flying again

I heard that Air France is being very reluctent to take the the Concorde back in the air. During a review done my Air France, many people dont want the Concorde back in the air. I also heard some where BA planning to buy Air France Concorde's.

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RE: Concorde Flying again

Several sources I've read suggest that BA and AF are working together to get the aircraft back in the air by September, although I could imagine that maybe some French people could be more reluctant than us Brits to get Concorde back in the air due to the fact that the July 2000 disaster happened on French soil with an AF machine.

The rumours of BA purchasing the AF fleet are utter hogwash to be quite honest. BA would never be able to sustain the extra airframes - there wouldn't be enough demand to fly eleven a/c in one fleet.

Plus, if AF didn't want their fleet, why would they be carrying out the mods in the first place? Many French people do want to see Concorde in the skies, as like us Brits, it is a matter of national pride.