Air France Concorde to Taxi Again Under Own Power

**cancidas** · 02-05-2010, 07:23 PM

from FlightGlobal:

05/02/10
By David Kaminski-Morrow

One of the BAC-Aerospatiale Concorde aircraft formerly operated by Air France is to undergo a restoration programme to enable it to taxi under its own engine power.

The supersonic jet - aircraft 213, registered F-BTSD - is an exhibit of the French aerospace museum Musee de l'Air et de l'Espace, located at Le Bourget outside Paris.

Museum director Gerard Feldzer tells Flight International that it is supporting a restoration effort in order to provide spectators with an annual taxiing demonstration.

He says that the museum will work with an association of Air France technicians who used to work on the Concorde fleet before the carrier retired the type in 2003.

"We're working to maintain Concorde, that it stays alive," Feldzer says.

Technicians will inspect the aircraft's engines and systems. "It will take about one year to repair the fuel tanks and the hydraulics," he says. "It's a big challenge."

But he expects the cost of the effort to be relatively small. While some 10,000 man-hours of labour will be needed, he says, it will be undertaken primarily by volunteers.

Once the technical work has been carried out, the aircraft's engine systems will be tested initially without fuelling the aircraft. If these tests are satisfactory, the jet will be fuelled and the aircraft rolled out under its own power.

Each Concorde aircraft was fitted with four Rolls-Royce/Snecma Olympus 593 engines. Feldzer says that the engineers will attempt to repair all four powerplants, but that only two will probably be used for the taxiing demonstration.

"I hope we will be able to do this once a year," he adds, but stresses that the aircraft is not being returned to an airworthy condition.

Concorde 'Sierra Delta', which performed its first flight in 1978, was presented to the museum by Air France on 14 June 2003.

**Nick** · 02-05-2010, 07:30 PM

And if a taxi turns out to be a take-off, so be it, right? :)

**Derf** · 02-05-2010, 07:32 PM

Keep Dreaming....it is the French, they will give up half way down the runway!

**MarkLawrence** · 02-05-2010, 07:51 PM

I'll go for the front wheel off the ground!!! So BA - Air France can do it - next?

**Derf** · 02-05-2010, 09:35 PM

Originally Posted by MarkLawrence

I'll go for the front wheel off the ground!!! So BA - Air France can do it - next?

I do not give them that much credit.... I say 60kts tops!

**Phil75** · 02-10-2010, 02:52 PM

Hi everybody,

I am a volunteer at the MAE (Air and Space Museum of Le Bourget) and I have my ideas about his.

This "project" offers no guarantee of seriousness (financially and technically). If F-BTSD is "partially living"; she is technically thousand miles away to be able restart, despite what “illusion sellers” say.

Or, if it’s tried, at exorbitant cost, and with high risks for the plane, unique by her beauty, but also by her complexity.

Some questions for the group supposed to do that:

Restart the Olympus of F-BTSD with ... WHAT?

- No more spares…
- No more documentation (especially CMM)…
- No more test banks ...
- No more specific tools…
- No more support from manufacturers ...
- Which insurance company will agree to cover this "project"?
- Who will pay for fuel?
- Who will pay the loss of revenue for the museum due to closing to the public of this aircraft for at least 1 year? (special tickets are issued to visit Concorde)
- Who will pay for the disassembly of a side wall of the hangar to allow rolling the plane out?
- Who will pay for the warehouse rent where she will be stored for this "project" (of course closed to the public for security reasons!)?
- What equipment manufacturer will accept to produce elements designed at the beginning of the 70s, and at what price?
- What about the various authorizations required? (DGAC [French civil aviation authority], Veritas, “Prefecture” [French local administrative authority], ADP [Paris airport authority], firemen…)
- etc.

An example of lack of seriousness of this group? We have an example in the France 5 TV emission itself (to which the Flight Global article refers).

If you watch the video of this TV emission on France 5 website, at 31:30 you notice a person of this group operating the flight engineer panel switches without any care, and without worrying about possible consequences! (F-BTSD is regularly powered on with a ground power unit, allowing to move the droop nose and air intake ramps 1 and 2)

For information, following this, the three guys have been thrown out the F-BTSD cockpit by the staff member who accompanied them!. Why do you think the sequence in the cockpit is so short in this video?

Following this incident, the F-BTSD maintenance team had to carefully inspect the panels before the next power-on of F-BTSD.

Here is what was discovered:

- several fuel pumps switches ON (-> fuel pump running without fuel = DANGER !!! For security reasons associated breakers are pulled, but some of them were found pushed after that)
- equipment bay cooling switches OFF (they must be ON as equipments are warming significantly !)
- wipers switches ON (they must be OFF when visor is up, and must not be on if the windshield is dry)
- etc.

Golden Rule: if you do not know the equipment, or you do not know the context and configuration, you do not touch!

Do you know Gordon Roxburgh?

He is the leader of the English team who actually "rebuilt" G-BBDG at Brooklands Museum.

He is a reference about Concorde preservation ...

Read what these Englishmen think of this "project" here: http://concordesst.yuku.com/topic/4366?page=1

Including: http://concordesst.yuku.com/reply/50352/t/Concorde-to-taxi-under-her-own-power-again-.html # reply-50352

Originally Posted by Gordon Roxburgh

This Gérard Feldzer is completely misinformed, he's been obviously told lies about it costing between €5 & 10 Millions to fly, that’s out by a factor around 10, we can only suspect some idiot has said its going to cost 50K to do this taxi stunt, but it actual cost would be 500K.

Poor man, this could be his downfall.

Reminder: in 2006, you had that: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/u ... 605760.ece

The same "mediatic noise", the same press announcements and... the same actors!

What was the final result? NOTHING AT ALL!!! This group (ME-QN) sunk as quickly as the Titanic... but in 100 years, nobody will make a movie with this story...

All this is simply NOT SERIOUS.

One final point, the F-BTSD maintenance team of volunteers, operating the droop nose on the video of the article, has absolutely NO LINK with this group and this project.

**Tom_Turner** · 02-10-2010, 04:05 PM

Originally Posted by Phil75

An example of lack of seriousness of this group? We have an example in the France 5 TV emission itself (to which the Flight Global article refers).

If you watch the video of this TV emission on France 5 website, at 31:30 you notice a person of this group operating the flight engineer panel switches without any care, and without worrying about possible consequences! (F-BTSD is regularly powered on with a ground power unit, allowing to move the droop nose and air intake ramps 1 and 2)

For information, following this, the three guys have been thrown out the F-BTSD cockpit by the staff member who accompanied them!. Why do you think the sequence in the cockpit is so short in this video?

A very sad read, but thanks for posting Phil.

Tom

**Matt Molnar** · 02-10-2010, 07:26 PM

Originally Posted by Phil75

Hi everybody,

I am a volunteer at the MAE (Air and Space Museum of Le Bourget) and I have my ideas about his.

Thanks for the insight, Phil, and welcome to NYCA.

I'm of the opinion that even if they had the resources to get this done, it would be a complete waste of time. If they can't get her airworthy again, don't bother.