The airframe has plenty of time left on it. The decision is likely strictly commercial. Product support for such a tiny (and expensive to maintain) fleet is prohibitively expensive. The same thing happens from time to time on the GA side. Beechcraft is purchasing all Starships it ever made and will destroy them so they no longer have to provide support. Mooney is doing the same thing with its Porsche-engined aircraft. Business is business! Mike Gammon > > From: "kurtzke@xxxxxx" <kurtzke@xxxxxx> > Date: Mon, 6 Oct 2003 09:06:18 -0700 > To: AIRLINE@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx > Subject: Re: Concorde Farewell > > Is it that the design is defective or that the airframe is past its > lifetime? If the first, then it would be a crime (metaphorically, at > least) to fly one, or to suggest that one can fly one by continuing to > support it which means Airbus is doing the right thing. If the latter, > why not have Airbus build some new (improved) Concorde's for PR? > Suppose you were an official at an airline that was going to purchase > airplanes, and Airbus flew you to its plant & offices on a Concorde. I > don't know about you, but this Boeing fan would be impressed. > > john > > On Friday, October 3, 2003, at 05:28 PM, Alireza Alivandivafa wrote: > > > In a message dated 10/3/2003 4:13:37 PM Pacific Daylight Time, > > jmgammon@xxxxxxxxxxxx writes: > > > > << Hopefully BA will follow through on its plan to keep one airworthy > > for > > airshows, etc. I'd love to see them accept pax on it too. But I > > doubt > > it. I guess Airbus have indicated they will no longer support the > > type, > > which will kill Virgin's idea to keep them in service. >> > > > > Yeah, well, that is Airbus being morons. Maybe they can get Tupolev to > > support them? They stole the plans anyway >