I just read a saddening article about Concorde and wanted to share.....Heritage Concorde Project Flagship
As you can see this is an example of health and safety bureaucracy hindering a plausible and passionate project by Concorde enthusiasts to breathe life into one of the greatest icons of the modern world. We have come along way as a race but lately we seem to have lost the ability to take responsibility for our own actions. Now I do admit to being a bit of an aviation buff, I used to spend many hours at the airport viewing park in Manchester. Aircraft fascinate me, none more so than the magnificent Concorde, even today she looks beautiful, futuristic with her sleek lines and gracious pose. Concorde captured the hearts and minds of millions of people across the globe who would flock to get a glimpse of her. She was commercial aviations greatest achievement and an engineering masterpiece... She died under mitigating circumstances and of the twelve decommissioned Concordes only very few have been kept in pristine condition, G-BOAC based at Manchester is one of those few and my heart goes out to the Heritage crew who gave up their time and gave their expertise and love to follow their passion and breathe fresh blood into British Airways oldest Concorde, The Queens Concorde “Alpha Charlie” G-BOAC. Here is a little reminder......
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posted on 11 September at 10:06
Heritage Concorde returns British Concorde to life for the Olympics! http://heritageconcorde.com/?page_id=10055 Heritage Concorde can confirm that its team of engineers has restored Concorde G-BOAC back to life. The aircraft which is based at Manchester Airport returned to life for the first time on the 14th March 2011, when Steve de Sausmarez moved the ground power switch to close and became the luckiest British Concorde fan in the world. The idea behind “Project Flagship” was to carry out various repairs to the aircraft, and get her nose and visor moving. It was essential to fully lower the nose if the broken co-pilot’s main windshield was to be replaced, and the only way to do this and return the nose and visor to the fully up position was to use the aircraft electrical and hydraulic systems rather than using a crane. It was not possible to bring a crane into the hangar as had been suggested by another team a few years earlier, and even this would have left the visor permanently down, and the museum MANY thousands of pounds worse off. A technical and engineering subsidiary of Heritage Concorde, Heritage Concorde Tech, had already been formed, and our Concorde engineers have done all of the work on G-BOAC for free, even meeting their own travelling costs. The windshield had been broken, together with the curved visor panel on the same side, due to the actions of a former museum employee. Against all the odds, the visor panel has already been replaced by Heritage Concorde Tech engineers, who were on the verge of replacing the extremely unsightly broken main window. There was even hope that, via video link, the nose and visor could be moved in salute as part of the opening ceremony at next year’s Olympic Games. The Heritage Concorde “Project Flagship” was headed by Ricky Bastin, a former BA Concorde engineer, and Steve de Sausmarez, founder and head of Heritage Concorde. The Heritage Concorde team also consists of former Concorde ground engineer Ian Mosdell, and flight engineer Ian Kirby. In addition to the engineering team, we were joined by Katie John, Ellie Bastin and Ross Williamson and Sue Williamson from Manchester Airport Aviation Park.
The project team had been working away in secret for months with the hope of going public at the conclusion of the tasks during October 2011; the team had received wonderful support and full backing from the former manager at the aviation park, Mr. Colin Harris, and had moved ahead at truly supersonic speed. Heritage Concorde has restored the electrical and all three hydraulic systems, and had the aircraft powered for several hours on various occasions during 2011; a full list of these, including pictures, are detailed below. Concorde G-BOAC killed for the second time since 2003!
On the 31st August 2011, Heritage Concorde received the confirmation from the airport museum manager, that the project had been cancelled by the airport management, for reasons that the insurance covered only a dead aircraft, and not a live one, as well as health and safety issues – which do not seem to affect the French Concorde at Le Bourget. Heritage Concorde has since been instructed to return to the aircraft to drain the hydraulics and kill the electrics. But please do not direct any bad feeling towards the airport or aviation park regarding this decision, as all we need to do is to identify an answer to the present situation and move the project forward to the delight of millions around the world! So against all the odds, a British Concorde was returned to life by Heritage Concorde engineers, only to be killed once again, but this time by H&S. The team now feels that it is important to announce this project to the world following the decision by the airport management to cancel the project, a decision that will upset millions of aviation fans around the world. The whole project started following a conversation between Steve de Sausmarez and Sue and Ross Williamson at Manchester Airport AVP during January 2011. What followed this conversation has been truly amazing and achieved at a truly supersonic speed. The project has also received major support from the following… Richard Carr and his team at GKN, Birmingham UK Swissport at Manchester Airport, UK Colin Harris - Manchester The University of Dayton, USA Robin Voice at Brooklands Museum, UK Gordon Roxburgh and the Concorde Team – Brooklands Museum, UK The activities by Heritage Concorde involved repairing windows in the cockpit, as well as one panel of the visor, together with a number of other minor repairs. The aim of Heritage Concorde was to restore Concorde G-BOAC to the condition in which she arrived at the museum during 2003, and leave Manchester with something amazing – a live Concorde. During the course of the tasks that were carried out to the aircraft, including power-up, the Heritage Concorde team discovered that the various reports and comments relating to how the aircraft would respond and the condition of such systems as hydraulics and electrics have no foundation. The engineering team was delighted with the way G-BOAC returned to life. The aircraft now has three working hydraulic systems, unlike the French Concorde at Le Bourget.
Video of all of these described Concorde events are also available Media Contacts for further information, pictures and video of the events: Steve de Sausmarez Project Director and Head of Heritage Concorde Tech E-mail: [email protected] Tel: 07821492202
Ricky Bastin Chief Project Engineer (38 years working with Concorde) Director of Engineering Heritage Concorde Tech E-mail: [email protected]