Alastair.

email on way.

Regards,

kev35

“Why do people want to see it? Because it’s unlike any other airliner in the world; it’s not just a boring tube that gets Joe Bloggs and his family from A to B.”

It goes from A to b, occasionally to C and on odd occasions a trip to D. Joe Bloggs and his family are never going to travel on it because they’ll never be able to afford it. And it could never take them the places they want to go.

“It’s something people aspire to, its a dream for many, its something out of the ordinary.”

Concorde flights are a long way down your average families list of aspirations. It is a tool for the fabulously wealthy, never intended for the use of the ‘common’ man. It’s an outdated symbol of the class war that still exists today in Britain.

“Can you ever imagine a retirement like this for 737s? No, why? Because everybody goes on them, they’re common as muck, they look like everything else and they’re not particularly beautiful or awe inspiring. Everything that Concorde is. “

A retirement like this for the 737 would be far more valid. An aircraft that made cheaper air travel a reality. One that made holidays abroad the norm rather than the exception. One that made trans-continental travel affordable. An aircraft that continued to build on the security of the American aviation industry. What did Concorde do? Sound the death knell for the TSR2, an aircraft that would still be ahead of its time today. It ensured the death of the British aircraft manufacturing industry by catering to such a small clientele that it was never going to be the success story that we attribute to the 737, 747, 757, 767, 777 series. How can such a small production run be considered a success?

“Beautiful or awe-inspiring”? OK, I’ll grant that the aircraft is a technological marvel, but not any use as a form of transport such as the 737, to which you seem to be comparing it. The X-15 was amazing technologically but served no other purpose. As to beauty, I believe it to be one of the least attractive commercial aircraft of the last fifty years.

I think you and I will never agree on this one.

Regards,

kev35

It’s strange to think that if you stand in the grounds of Hendon today, with all the bustle of Hendon and Colindale around you, that just seventy years ago some of the greatest and most spectacular air displays would have been going on overhead. The old ‘Empire Air Days’ and the like.

Regards,

kev35

Concorde at MAN? Well, with the best will in the world it’ll rot away within 20 years unless they get it under cover. Then we can have discussions about whether it would be kinder to scrap it.

Barbados? Why not? It’s a warm country it might survive better.

Filton. Fair enough. But will people be allowed access to the aircraft there?

Seems Cosford lost out on the grounds of cost although the rest of the British Airways Collection is based there. The airfield is too short and it would have to be dismantled. (Concorde, not the airfield.)

Can’t comment on the American destinations, don’t know anything about them.

Regards,

kev35