Matthew O’Keeffe also feels the same pangs as Johnathan Pearce at the passing of that magnificent artifact of the 1960’s
I had mixed feelings watching the footage of Concorde’s last flight today.
Concorde belongs with Eurotunnel in the category of things which should never really have been built – at least not by profit-seeking realists. This may even be unfair to Eurotunnel which will now be with us in perpetuity and was built with private money. Concorde, by contrast, was financed by the British and French taxpayers at the behest of the very ridiculous Tony Benn (as Minister for White Hot Technology or some such nonsense). And now it is heading for the scrapyards.
And yet, and yet, through the 1980’s and 1990’s Concorde was the very symbol of the bull market. The shock troops of capitalism could lunch in London before having dinner and closing their deals in New York (it never really made sense the other way round, incidentally, on account of the time differences). As Jeremy Clarkson put it on the radio today, fast is good.
I travelled on the rocket only once myself – and that was the day after the Paris crash. I had a business trip to Wall Street planned that week, purely by chance. Meanwhile, all the supermodels, actors and other weak-kneed types had cancelled their Concorde tickets leaving British Airways happy to upgrade me from Club World to Concorde – with a seat in row one to boot! I was almost ecstatic as we went through the sound barrier and promptly ordered a bottle of their finest champagne – much to the disapproval of the partners from Goldman Sachs who were siiting next to me. Happy days …
One of the more striking statistics of 9-11 is that Concorde lost 40 of its frequent flyers. I’m not sure how many Concorde frequent flyers there could have been but my guess would be not more than a few hundred. Concorde has suffered from the slump in the stock markets on either side of the Atlantic in general but from the particular horror of 9-11.
To end on an optimistic note, historians may look back on this day as the real start of the next big upturn in the world’s economies. One thing that denotes economic cycles is that companies nearly always invest too heavily at the top – and cut back too savagely at the bottom. (British Airways is particularly bad in its timing – they sold Go for £100m to venture capitalists who sold it on to EasyJet a year later for £400m). That our national carrier should retire its flagship, on a route between the two centres of world capitalism, suggests to me that we may be at such a trough point right now. So farewell Concorde – but here’s to the next twenty year bull market.
Matthew O’Keeffe
I’ve got a column on the subject at TechCentralStation today.
The limiting factor in the ThrustSSC supersonic land speed record car was the shockwave that turned the top 12 inches of the desert surface into an emulsion – thus making it impossible to steer with its wheels (even though they were supporting the whole intended weight).
See http://www.flymicro.com/photolib/pix/251-9.jpg
More details at http://www.thrustssc.com/
At least one thing the Frogs can’t decently be bashed for !…
The Concorde’s passing is a sad event for aviation enthusiasts and technophiles in general. But a much more significant day for libertarians will be the last flight of a 747, which is sure to be many years off yet.
Kodiak wrote:
“At least one thing the Frogs can’t decently be bashed for !…”
Why not? It was the French crash that finally killed Concord.
(Tony Benn can pogue mahone.)
Simon Jester,
No, it wasn’t.
It was Goodyear of Akron (Ohio) that had the Air France’s Concorde crash. No less than 57 incidents involving tyres -manufactured by each of both, Dunlop (BA) & Goodyear (AF)- were counted between 1976 & the Roissy accident.
Air France made the decision to drop Goodyear for the World n° 2: Michelin. The French innovative company succeded in designing a revolutionary tyre that makes Roissy crash alsmost impossible to be repeated.
It’s funny that neither Dunlop nor Goodyear even tried to challenge Michelin’s high-tech move.
Nicely sidestepped, Kodiak. You avoided the point – that it was the Air France plane crash which killed Concord – brilliantly.
Simon Jester,
Just READ what I wrote. Why speculate about hidden ideas or sidestepped circumvolutions ?
Kodiak wrote:
“Just READ what I wrote.”
I did.
“Why speculate about hidden ideas”
I didn’t.
” or sidestepped”
I didn’t SPECULATE that you had sidestepped the issue – I noted that it had happened.
” circumvolutions ?”
Kodiak, if you’re going to use big words in English, you should learn what they mean first. Try dictionary dot com.
Simo Jester: ” circumvolutions ?”
Kodiak, if you’re going to use big words in English, you should learn what they mean first. Try dictionary dot com.
Please excuse my laziness as I merely Anglified French circonvolution for the English convolution or more simple twist.
That said, I’m still awaiting any embryo of counter-argument (j’espère ne pas avoir décalqué contre-argument sur un chimérique counterargument).
The tire in question had made 46 takeoffs and landings! If you look at the pictures of the pieces, you will see wear marks that you wouldn’t permit on your car. Even Michelin tires should never get to that condition on a high speed aircraft before being changed!
The mistake that doomed the Concorde was in leaving a critical spacer out of the left main bogie when it was overhauled 4 days before the crash. It was discovered on a workbench a few days AFTER the crash!
During Four test flights prior to the crash, the inboard main bushing (on a shaft that’s vertical with the gear retracted) began to progressively slip downward on the shaft until the last flight of the four, when the bushing slid into the cavity where the spacer should have been. Wear marks on the bushing, recovered from the spacer cavity of the landing gear bogie after the crash attest to this statement.
With the bushing no longer in place, the four wheels could move 1 1/2 degrees in any direction. This would not be noticed when landing or taxiing because of the way the gear is loaded during those events.
On the fatal day, as the Concorde reached 88 knots during the takeoff run, all three flight data accelerometers began recording a high frequency vibration in all directions (Most likely because the four left main tires were now vibrating similar to the way a grocery cart wheel sometimes vibrates rapidly, shaking the cart).
Between the point of the runway where the vibration started and the point the tire blew (at 187 knots) three pieces of the water deflector were found on the runway. A forth piece of the water deflector was found at approximately where the tire blew, and a fifth piece was found further down the runway, apparently knocked forward by the destructing tire. Water deflectors extend forward from the main landing gear struts and prevent massive amounts of water from being thrown up into the engines during wet pavement takeoffs.
The piece of metal from the DC-10 was found 7 meters forward, and 37 meters to the right of where the tire blew, ON THE RIGHT SHOULDER OF THE RUNWAY, NOT ON THE RUNWAY AS REPORTED!
It was found approximately where it would have been expected to be found after falling off the RIGHT engine of the DC-10, Not where it would likely have been thrown by a tire rotating at very high speed with the metal momentarily forced into it!
If you look at pictures showing the runway surface (grooved concrete) and the surface in the photo showing the piece of metal WHERE IT WAS FOUND, (shoulder rough Asphalt) it is apparent the metal was NOT found on the runway.
The destructing water deflector can best be explained as having been shaken to the point of destruction.
There’s more to the story, but for the moment, this will have to be suffinient!
All of the data and photographs mentioned in my above statements can be found in the French version of the final BEA Report and Appendices. Though not checked, I should imagine it would be in the English version as well.