It got the OK

It got the OK.”The planes could have been approved for another 20 years’ use, and on their present record could be licensed until 2005.Perversely, part of Concorde’s safety record and apparent longevity stems from the fact that it travels at twice the speed of sound: this means it suffers less wear and tear in terms of flying hours than more traditional “workhorses” such as Boeing 747s.However, that will all be on abeyance until the findings emerge from yesterday’s crash – and if that disaster was in any way age-related it could spell the end of a magic show that began more than 30 years ago but which has looked increasingly tired.Even if every other Concorde is cleared it has also taken away a cachet that the planes had: no crashes. After yesterday nobody can ever feel quite the same about stepping on to a Concorde again.. An air of calm resignation filled the British Airways’ Concorde Lounge when passengers were told Flight BA003 to JFK airport in New York was cancelled. The news was broken to passengers at Heathrow Airport Terminal 4 shortly after 6pm – but many other passengers decided long before that not to turn up. An air of calm resignation filled the British Airways’ Concorde Lounge when passengers were told Flight BA003 to JFK airport in New York was cancelled. The news was broken to passengers at Heathrow Airport Terminal 4 shortly after 6pm – but many other passengers decided long before that not to turn up.
According to one passenger leaving the lounge, members of staff told him that 90 people had cancelled after hearing of the crash outside Charles de Gaulle Airport.

“They told us the flight was full,” said an advertising executive, who asked not to be named. “About 90 people rang ahead and said they were not going to turn up. Obviously, a lot of people were shaken up.”I had second thoughts myself. They told us about the cracks in the wings last week, then this morning I heard about the plague of killer mosquitoes in New York, and now this. This is God’s way of telling me not to get on that plane.”Passengers were given the choice of flying on another day or taking a later flight, thought to be aboard a Boeing 777, two hours later.Not everybody chose the replacement flight. A computer executive, who asked not to be named, said she had told her employers she planned to fly a day later instead. “I just don’t want to get another flight yet, after what has happened,” she said “My employers have been fine about it.

I just think it’s tragic what happened to those poor people in Paris.”Inside the lounge, opposite Gate 10 on the first floor, the mood was calm. Concorde passengers who chose to take the later flight, were offered champagne and snacks while they waited amid the potted palms on the lounge’s blue-and-grey carpet.”I think BA have behaved magnificently,” said the advertising executive. “They broke the news calmly and everybody took it calmly and they have done everything they can to accommodate us and find alternative flights.”But Russian advertising executive Dimitri Kuroskov was annoyed that he would missing his business meeting in New York. Mr Kuroskov, 32, from Moscow, who was transferred on to a Boeing 747, said: “Concorde is double safe.

What happens is going to happen.”I’m going to miss my meeting, but I will sleep well on the 747. Waiting for board was very psychologically suspenseful.”BA was deciding last night whether to cancel its four Concorde services between Heathrow and New York today.The first service, BA001, is due to leave London at 10.30am with a second New York-bound service, BA003, scheduled to leave at 7pm. Two Concordes are due to leave New York’s JFK airport bound for Heathrow, the BA002 arriving at 5.25pm UK time and the BA004 due in at 10.25pm.Hacan ClearSkies, a group representing people living under the Heathrow flight path, welcomed yesterday’s suspen-sion of flights because, it said, they put the lives of people on the ground at risk.. Some 27 years on, could a crash in Paris be the beginning of the end of a second supersonic airliner project? Sunday 3 June 1973 was the closing day of the Le Bourget airshow and the star attraction was the TU-144.

Some 27 years on, could a crash in Paris be the beginning of the end of a second supersonic airliner project? Sunday 3 June 1973 was the closing day of the Le Bourget airshow and the star attraction was the TU-144.
It was dubbed “Concordski”, and with good reason. The plane looked exactly like Concorde, which had made its own maiden flight in 1969, and its development was assumed to have been speeded by some unauthorised acquisitions of Anglo-French aeronautic secrets. Now it was making its debut appearance in the West.The test pilot at the TU-144’s controls carried out a spectacular “on-off” landing, touching the tarmac for a second before taking the thundering aircraft back into the sky.Suddenly the plane’s angle of ascent grew ever steeper, until it seemed to be just hanging in the air. Then to gasps of disbelieving horror, pieces of the plane’s body broke off, torn away by the huge pressure.The TU-144 toppled out of the sky, disintegrating as it fell. The bulk of the carcass smashed into the ground at the nearby town of Goussainville. In addition to the TU-144’s six crew members, nine people on the ground were killed, and 28 more were injured.Any hope the Soviet Union had of breaking into the lucrative Western civil aviation market had vanished. The question now must be, will the disaster to the Air France aircraft seal Concorde’s fate, just as a Paris afternoon once doomed its Soviet equivalent?.