I should have flown on it, I guess the crash sort of put me off but what a ride it must have been. I had an Uncle who told me about riding in the Hindendburg, it made many flights before it burned up. He told me about slowly cruising over the Amazon a few hundred feet up, That must have been awesome too
These are a couple of rumors I have heard: 1. the Brits want to keep flying the Concorde but the French don't (why? I dunno...), and the way the French forced the retirement was by making the parts (the ones made in France) exorbitantly expensive so it makes the Concorde unfeasible as a commercial carrier. 2. the deadly crash was due to the over-pressurization of the fuel tank (again, by the French). So when there was a puncture, it was like a bomb going off. Again, these may be rumors, and I have nothing against France and the French people (hey, I LOVE french fries!!), perhaps some of you folks into aviation are more in tune with this than me? I am curious....
I saw the Concorde on charter at the Indy 500. They parked it right on top of our Beechcraft Baron!!!! The shade kept our picnic supper cool in the storage bins. The plane was awesome enough, but some of the ladies climbing out were just as impressive! After the race, we sat along the runway in front of the Beech dealer as that baby rolled and lifted off. It about blew us over. Just awesome. Thanks for the post, Navygakman!
The crash was caused by runway debris cutting a tire which fouled into one of the engine intakes. Goodyear is #1 in Racing.
