Will Concorde return to the skies?

A group of Concorde enthusiasts have clubbed together and are planning to buy two of the supersonic jets, I for one would love to see them fly again.

I think it was Miami where I first saw Concorde take off, such an elegant and beautiful plane many years ahead of its time, I do wonder if there is still a place in the skies for Concorde, maybe something like this will drum up a bit of interest for a possible commercial return.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-34301689

I seen Concorde fly over my house when I was a kid. As I recall I looked skywards as it attracted my attention as it sounded different, maybe louder or something.

I have got photo's of G-BOAC which sits at MAN. I expected it to be bigger when I was stood next to it. A fantastic feat on Anglo-French engineering.

I expected Concorde to be bigger too, it looked like a stretched version of an executive jet, held 100 passengers only apparently.

A sight for sore eyes watching it take off leaving a stream of heat haze behind it, would love to see it again and maybe if I'm lucky take the missus on it as a treat

Yes 100 and all sipping champers

I wonder if this plan will ever get off the ground?

Very droll Howerd

I very much doubt a bunch of enthusiasts would have the financial resources or political clout. It was withdrawn because of safety concerns that would have required engineering changes. It killed people. When I was inside concorde I was also. Surprised how small it was. However I used to hear it fly over in Reading and it was ridiculously loud. Plenty of people won't be sorry that's it's gone for that reason alone..

It is a flight of fancy...

Laugh. What is more surprising is that they managed to get any funding at all for the idea. Sure, 120 million pounds might be enough to buy what is effectively an aviation museum, but the cost of buying the aircraft, upgrading the planes to meet the required safety standard, obtaining the required airworthiness certification, maintenance costs to overhaul planes that have been sitting around rusting for more than a decade and then actually running the aircraft to make a profit? That would require the cooperation of the USA as a 'target' for the flight - who would be even more concerned about safety than before - since I seem to recall that one of the reasons that concorde only flew to the USA was that most countries wouldn't allow it to overfly them because of the noise level. Then you would have to persuade customers that it was safe to use & persuade the public it was safe to overfly them. I personally wouldn't fly on a place bought by a bunch of enthusiasts. If BA decided that it was unecomomic to continue to run the service back in 2003, then I can't see how it would be economic now either.

I seem to remember that running costs for concorde were far higher than for any other aircraft. The ground costs and the air costs would be enormous. I wonder how many hours they would burn through just testing and certificating. Serious obstacles to overcome.

Pie in the sky...

Pigs might fly.. an Airheaded notion..

We are in concordance...

concordantly expressed. I generally support blue sky thinking but I feel they would be flying by the seat of their pants should this flight of fancy ever get off the ground .

I'm sorry but I'm still in the office and running out of inspiration.

I think they may have to resurrect Jimmy Stewart to fly this Phoenix.

As you point out, there would be some rather large obstacles to overcome, but enthusiast are what they are, maybe they will get their wish and overcome them. In the article it states they have ex Concorde pilots involved, they must know all the ins and outs so to speak. It sounds rather like they want to just have one Concorde to do the commercially viable short pleasure flights, maybe that is their goal and if the idea takes off and the plane is welcomed back it may encourage other financial backers to get on board

well now that they've taxied onto the runway by publishing a plan, I hope they are firing on all cylinders, after all 120m is a lot of money to scatter to the four winds.

Makes you wonder where the hell do a group of Concorde enthusiast get 120 million quid from, maybe they know something we don't.

Monty pythons flying venture capitalists.. drawing inspiration from another of my posts.

I blame the French.