Aeroshite?

[overheadvalve]

I'm sure most of you have seen it but i love it, especially the part where Concord blows all the others into the weeds (clouds?)

 

Lookin good!

[rml2345]

That is a cracking advert for BA. Can't see Ryanair doing something quite so impressive...

[CortinaDave]

Seeing Concorde blast out of Edinburgh Airport on the last day of flying in 2003 was THE most impressive machine I've ever clapped eyes on. Such a waste that they are all left idle in museums now.

 

the concorde in Manchester was partially reactivated over the last few months and powered up for the first time in years with the idea of being able to move the nose up and down at open days etc and let people experience a "live" plane.

 

They actually had the thing properly powered up in August, and very few of its systems had failed despite not being switched on in nearly a decade - but sadly the Health and Safety brigade have now deemed the work has to stop and it is never to be powered again.

[dollywobbler]

That's a great vid. Love the attention to detail. There's an old Alexander-bodied double decker in the rear of one of those shots, as well as some hot Bedford CA action.

[simmo]

Was at working at Heathrow when as part of the Concorde service winding up three Concordes landed one after the other on the Northern runway massive crowds and the traffic stopped to watch on the peri track. Three perfect landings and more emotional that expected.

[The Reverend Bluejeans]

Wasn't it BA that let the Concordes sit and gather dust in museums though? Virgin wanted to buy them and keep them going iirc.

 

But yes, a good advert.

 

I'd love to see the old Pan Am logos back on 747's - such an icon.

[simmo]

Supposidily the deal was that if BA ever decided that they didn't want to use Concorde any longer they were to sell them for £1 to anyone prepared to take them on, something to do with all the tax payers investment in it. Most of Virgin's marketing involves taking the piss out of BA, they once mocked up the BA 1/3 size Concorde model in Virgin livery.

[Luxobarges_Are_Us]

Excellent footage, but the voiceover was too wordy and a touch patronising. Just like Briti...erm London Airways.

[gricer]

Love the way the Virgin/Concorde myth seems to grow.

 

Branson had no intention of taking on Concorde. He had no idea of how to run it, and would have had to take on the entire BA Concorde operation - which BA would not have sold him, as they hate him with a vengeance.

 

And even if he had managed to pull this off, he couldn't have operated Concorde- it was a done deal betwwen Airbus (owner of the type certificiate) and the airlines (especially Air France) that the fleet would be grounded. It suited BA to go along with this as there were headcount reduction targets that BA had to meet, plus Concorde faced a very expensive life extension programme in the next few years.

 

Branson didn't mock up a 1/3 model or anything - he simply sent a press release of an artist's impression of what a Virgin Concorde might look like, and duly received loads of front-page coverage, making Virgin look ace and BA look like a bunch of twats.

 

Result for the Bearded Pullover!

[ashmicro]

I remember Pepsi leased on an painted it blue for the new packaging. But they couldn't fly it because the blue paint wouldn't take the expansion at mach 2.

 

I love aircraft, and we had the RAF over here recently doing a flyby in a Tornado and a Eurofighter Typhoon. Truly awesome, even throttled back the sheer noise from a warplane is mindblowing. My mate was on nightshift at the time, and the planes woke him up. He phoned me, saying "What the FUCK was that?"

 

We were taken to RAF Aldergrove in a Chinook when I was in green, and I thought my head was going to explode. We all got out, somewhat green about the gills, dizzy and almost deaf. The Crabs* pissed themselves laughing at us.

 

Crabs=RAF. They say the term refers to sideslip when landing, but we (in The Army) always said it's because the RAF can't march for shit.

[simmo]

 

Branson didn't mock up a 1/3 model or anything - he simply sent a press release of an artist's impression of what a Virgin Concorde might look like, and duly received loads of front-page coverage, making Virgin look ace and BA look like a bunch of twats.

 

Result for the Bearded Pullover!

 

You sound like an expert so could well be my dodgy memory but I was sure beardy did something with virgin livery on the BA 'gate guardian' Concorde but earlier that the bid to take over the service, (I thought I saw it in Skyport), may of been when BA went with the ethnic art on the tailfins and Virgin said that they would happily become the UK flag carrier. I also thought Virgin did something to it on the last day of Concorde's service to Heathrow.

[Volksy]

I flew in and out of Toulouse airport this weekend, to visit a mate who works for Airbus. As you come in to land there is a load of old Airbus chod parked up, including the old silver Beluga planes and an AirFrance Concorde.

[gricer]

Simmo - there was some vandalisation of the Concorde. I think a tear was stuck or painted by its cockpit. But it certainly wasn't painted in Virgin colours. The Heathrow model is alive and well and living at Brooklnands, BTW.

 

Ashmicro - The Pepsi Concorde could fly - it just couldn't fly supersonically. Which rather deflated their ad campaign.

 

Volksy - The "old silver Beluga plane" is one of the Guppy fleet. There's one preserved at Toulouse at the excellent museum there. There's one in the UK too, at Bruntingthorpe. The Belugas are the A300-based successors, which still carry Airbus parts around Europe.

 

There are two Concordes at Toulouse, one of which represents the only chance of ever seeing one fly again. Airbus has kept it potentially live, and I wouldn't be surprised if it doesn't resurface as a research aircraft somewhere down the line. Current technology meands most of the shortcomings of the original 1960s-tech Concorde could be addressed (noise, range etc).

[Volksy]

It looked pretty cool from the air, Should have suggested going to the museum, but I think my mate would have been less than impressed with that idea, with him seeing it every day etc..

 

Toulouse is a bizarre airport, massive and new, but hardly any flights. Smoothest runway I've ever landed on, guess that it does get used a lot by the factory though.

[gricer]

The Toulouse museum is only open on Saturday mornings. You have to book in advance, then wait in the car park at the allotted time until someone comes and gets you. Excellent tour then follows, including a look inside the Guppy.

[CortinaDave]

I thought the Concorde at Toulouse had been decomissioned after the crash investigation hearing ended? they'd kept it live in case it needed to be used for ground runs as evidence etc but in late 2004-5 they wound that up and took the engines out of the plane. I may be wrong though.

 

The Concorde at le Bourget museum is kept partially live, ground powered and systems run up and nose moved etc a couple of times a month on a volunteer basis, plus it was one of the lowest hours planes so it would probably be best placed for any engine runs etc, but I doubt it will happen sadly.

 

Having said that I was amazed when I heard they'd powered the AC at Manchester and refilled the hydraulics etc - you never know whats going on behind closed doors. Bloody health and safety!!