The Concorde is a very unforgiving and horribly complex airplane. Mishandle an emergency and it's game over. That's why only elite crews get to fly her. It has neither flaps nor slats to improve low-speed handling. Engine-out performance on takeoff is marginal at best. Lose two and it's not survivable. Both engines are podded together too so an uncontained failure of one can have potentially catastrophic results. The rotate speed is on the order of 200 knots compared to about 170 for a fully-laden 747, and 140 for birds like the 737/A320. As a result even the tires are very special and not the Goodyears on Your Father's Oldsmobile. It's a beautiful bird. Arguably the most beautiful airliner ever (with the Connie a good runner-up). A technological marvel. But an economic curiosity, if not an economic disaster, horribly expensive, and at the end of the day, not infallible. And like any piece of machinery, more maintenance-intensive as time goes on. The fuselage of the Concorde expands 9 inches at supersonic speeds, from friction. One imagines that you can only do that so many times. It's been doing that twice daily now for the last 27 years. It's a flying museum piece, and one too wrapped up in emotion and prestige for rational decision making. But at the end, rational decisions will spell her end. My guess is one year, maybe two, tops. If you have an opportunity to fly her, grab it because there won't be too many more chances. Mike Gammon ----- Original Message ----- From: "Dennis W Zeuch" <DZTOPS@aol.com> To: <AIRLINE@LISTSERV.CUNY.EDU> Sent: Thursday, February 27, 2003 6:00 PM Subject: Re: [Sky-1] Air France: Concorde Jet Loses Rudder Part,LandsNormally > jmgammon@sympatico.ca writes: > > > She's already disgraced herself... > > > > I wonder, with all the 'special' treatment these planes get - extra special > maintainance and all they do seem to be falling apart dont they? >