concord

[kobi]

why did they put concord to sleep?

[kira000]

The insider knowledge!

A variety of reasons but, basically it was too old! No manufacturer was making parts for it any more, so any repairs had to be done using parts cannibalised from scrapped concordes.

Repairing like this can be very expensive, and the demand for flying concorde and the price people were willing to pay had tailed off dramatically, plus it gulped down fuel like noones business!
So it just became too difficult to maintain and to epensive to try and keep it safe to fly.

The final nail in the coffin, was when its airworthiness certificate ( a bit like an MOT for a car), was withdrawn by the CAA, meaning it was no longer allowed to fly.

Hope that helps!

[Toureman]

Here's the real answer......

http://www.concordesst.com/faq.html

[jno]

I think the Paris crash was what really brought about its death; but they never made money and were getting old and expensive.

[terambulan]

It was the French who pulled the plug on it by refusing to pay their part of the funding.

There were also too few airports large enuf to land on.

[ELVIS68]

Bad runway maintenance, if the runway was cleared of debris it would still be flying today

[Gromit]

it always was an economical disater, it just took 30 years to admit the fact. Ironic that a socialist government embarked on a project that resulted in a plane that only rich people could afford to use, once it's development costs by the taxpayer had written off.

[kobi]

i thought it was a bit wierd for them to withdraw concord after that one crash. i thought it was propably more complicated than that but what a surprise the main reason seems to be money. too expensive to fly on, too expensive to maintain, not enough investment in its development to make it more efficient. depressingly as with most things in life it all came down to money.

Thats scary that even something as groundbreakngly revolutionary is unable to transcend 'money problems'. its so depressing to think no matter how great an invention is , if there isn't enough money it just dies. imagine if the first ever steam train wasn't profitable or the makers of the first home personal computers gave up manufacturing them because they were 'just breaking even'.

someone needs to pull their finger out and develop a more fuel efficient aircraft that more people can afford. there is no doubt theres demand. i hope they haven't given up on it. and hopefully thers a group in a cave somewhere doing top secret work to make it more suitable for the mass market. meanwhile where was the government?

[tufty7]

Kobi, I think if you research it a little more , the likes of Rolls Royce in Derby are spending millions upon millions on the new genaration of aircraft engines that are far more fuel efficient, i suppose thats why they are building Dreamliners and Aerobus planes which are massive , powered by efficient engines, less journeys , more passengers , Just makes me laff a lot that when there is a meeting about pollution and co2 emmisions they all jet in from all over the world like some gigantic quango party , Most politicians have polluted far more on there own than most people in your street have collectively