Concorde may take to the skies again

Published on Saturday 29 May 2010 20:26

EXPERTS are examining the engines on a French Concorde in the first move towards relaunching the supersonic passenger service.

The 15 million tests are taking place at Le Bourget Air and Space Museum near Paris in a partnership between the British Save Concorde Group (SCG) and a French group, Olympus 593.

The four Rolls Royce engines of the former Air France Concorde known as Sierra Delta will undergo a baroscopy, which is an initial examination to see what work needs to be done to start the engines.

Yesterday, SCG vice-chairman Ben Lord said: "Today marks the most critical date in Concorde's history since she was retired almost seven years ago.

"Two members of our management team are in France this weekend to observe these amazing developments since SCG has always maintained that she could return to flight in a heritage capacity and the findings of today will hopefully go an awfully long way to proving our point.

"This is just the beginning, but we are delighted and privileged to be working with a team of skilled Concorde engineers who both worked on the aircraft at British Airways and Air France."

The tests will first determine whether the engines can be safely started and whether the aircraft could complete a ground taxi.

One long-term ambition is to attempt to have Concorde airborne and feature in the opening ceremony of the 2012 London Olympics, and Lord said that with the French airframe it was possible to have the aircraft flying in time.

SCG is still trying to return one of the British Airways Concordes to the skies with a price tag of about 15m needed to achieve it.