G-BOAB @ LHR

More info on OAB here:
http://p102.ezboard.com/AB-back-home/fconcordesstfrm2.showMessage?topicID=6300.topic

I’ve been asking around at work and as far as I can establish she has been moved because of the nearby building work, apparently she was getting very dirty because of the dust. The intention is to move her back to the same spot in due course.

Now that’s the best suggestion I’ve heard. Done as though she’s on stand waiting for her next flight.

1L.

With its own Airbridge and being airside it could act as a very kool museum without taking up much cost of building a building to house her? I think if they charged £1 in it would pay for upkeep and give the most amount of people a chance to see her as not everyone can get to Filton but loads connect via LHR!

I would love to see her on a “fake” stand at T5, somewhere it can be viewed normally.

Although part of me thinks this would be a great idea, perhaps she’d be better off under cover – external storage of a large airframe can only ever result in gradual decay given the UK climate, unless much time (and thus cost) is lavished on her.

I’d rather see her preserved for future generations, just to remind them of the days when Mach 2 travel was (first?) a reality for people who were not highly trained Military aircrew. I fear long-term external storage will see her gone within twenty years. But, with one example stored indoors at East Fortune, and hopefully ‘Delta Golf to go under cover at Brooklands, then maybe Alpha Bravo can be sacrificed to the elements?

Paul F

I’ve been asking around at work and as far as I can establish she has been moved because of the nearby building work, apparently she was getting very dirty because of the dust. The intention is to move her back to the same spot in due course.

I would love to see her on a “fake” stand at T5, somewhere it can be viewed normally.

Now that’s the best suggestion I’ve heard. Done as though she’s on stand waiting for her next flight.

1L.

I doubt she will ever make an internal appearance at T5 as she would need to be built into the building and given the building is already complete….

I would love to see her on a “fake” stand at T5, somewhere it can be viewed normally.

Hey all,

I noticed her there today parked facing a wall.

Just so long as she is not facing the scrapman!

As it’s now many years since she and her sisters were retuired and put out to grass, does anyone know when she was originally scheduled to have been placed on display at LHR? Is she perhaps being stored pending the completion of T5?

– How long will it be before the bean-counters at BA realise she is costing them more money to keep than the additional revenue she is (supposedly) earning as an advertising tool?

– Are they just waiting for the day when it will be “safe” for them to announce she is no longer viable to keep (No doubt the current bandwagons of “Health and Safety risk assessment”or “Carbon footprint/green” issues will be used as justification), and that “reluctantly” they have no choice but to scrap her?

– In these days of political correctness gone totally mad, then BA will soon have to concede that she was not a “green” means of transport, and thus will they no longer want to be seen to have been proud of operating such an “inefficient” means of transatlantic travel – at that point her “negative” green-image may be the final nail in her coffin?

Or am I being too pessimistic, perhaps she will eventually be placed on display for the public to see at Heathrow (IIRC this was the publically stated reason for keeping her at LHR), a shining testament to UK and BA’s proud heritage and achievement? I just hope she hasn’t rotted beyond the point of no return by the time they come to move her to the final display location. 🙁 🙁

Paul F

AB was a ‘real’ Concorde that was never modified to fly after the Air France crash. Since then it has either been round the back of the hangars at Cranebank, positioned next to the 27R holding point, or until recently next to the BMI hangar.

The model at the entrance was G-CONC, and is now at Brooklands.

By G-BOAB do you mean the Concorde that’s on display at the entrance to Heathrow??