I was pointed in the direction of this forum by a few people.
To answer a few points.
G-BOAA could have been made airworthy, but at massive cost. This was not due to the parts that were removed(which had been fully documented) but due to it not having flown since 2000 and being placed in long term storage in 2001, as it was due an Inter 4 (C) check.
The plan was for it to be the final aircaft back in service and due to its required check, the care and maintenance programme was suspended.
To fly it again would have required hundreds of parts to be removed for overhaul, as they have been unused for over 3 years. This was the show stopper.
BA wanted to close down the concorde operation as soon as G-BOAF was off to Filton. To put AA back in the air would have taken at least 6 months; that meant keep engineers and crews on the aircraft current, as well as all the facilities in place with no revenue coming in.
To fly her in would have cost in the region of 5 times more than moving her by road or sea, not a cost BA or NMS would be able to fund.
The East fortune runway was touch and go for a landing anyway, even at fully restored length it was at minimum length for a Concorde (2000m) and the loadiing from a Concorde landing on such an old ruway, with the surface being not quite the standard you expect for such a large aircraft really meant is was a no go.
With the Runway also being a historic monument, it could not have been resurfaced or strengthened.
All in all getting G-BOAA is a massive plus for East Fortune and will put it on the map for not just for the evation enthusiast, but the general public who will flock to see it in 2005 once open. These people will then get to see the other aircraft in the collection and be educated on their importance.
It is really sad that some idiots (sorry only word I can think of) here compare what we did to Concorde’s AA and DG as demolition. As of Today G-BOAA is 90% complete with essentially only the tail fin to be put back on. If you guys on here knew or understood the detailed planning that went on to ensure the aircaft would go back together you really would be eating your words.
Each wing took over a week to remove properly and ensure it would easily be repairable. Stress engineers form Concorde’s production days were consulted to confirm that they aircraft would go back together before any work was signed off.
In essence all that was done was that a production join was added to the wings were they was not one originally, once painted up it will look like any other join/repair on the aircraft.
I hope everyone here will agree that doing this was a far better that it being made into beer cans as Air Fracne did with one of their aircaft in 1994.
http://www.airliners.net/open.file/697308/M/
As for the forums first topic, will she fly again…no. All the serviceable spares, test facilities and specialist ground qeuipment is gone. With the aircraft decomissioned for Health and safety reasons, you simply don’t turn them back on, with out a very very very large cheque book to fund it!
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