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Club Concorde announce Return to flight project
Club Concorde recently announced they intend to return a Concorde to flight by 2019.
Led by Paul James the group say they will use 120 million pounds of funding to make the plan a reality.
The group is targetting F-BTSD in France and F-WTSA in Orly for a two pronged project that will see one of the aircraft returned to flight by 2019 and the other aircraft displayed by the Thames London eye as a tourist attraction.
Recent press coverage of the project has been intense and was even featured on National French TV.
Reception of the news has not been received well in France, a press release by the Le Bourget Museum said that the Concorde in question was not for sale, this Concorde is treated as a national treasure, similar to the Mona Lisa and can not be sold. Equally we are hearing that the town of Orly who own F-WTSA are less than keen to lose their Concorde.
In a statement today (22/09/15) Paul James of Club Concorde said
"We have several other potential targets for our Return to Flight project, including a new candidate on our radar over the weekend. We will try to change the attitude of the management of Le Bourget who have everything to gain from a return to flight project. This Concorde would not be lost to Paris as it would be returned home to Le Bourget at the end of its new life. The same would apply to the Orly Concorde."
Club Concorde have been trying to get these projects off the ground since 2011 but have so far failed to obtain a suitable Concorde.
A spokeswoman for Airbus, which was previously responsible for maintaining Concorde, said it would not be interested in any plans to take Concorde back to the skies.
"We have moved on and are looking to the future of aviation now," she said.
British Airways—which still owns eight Concordes, all of which are on display in museums all around the world—reaffirmed that it had “no plans to return Concorde to the sky” a spokesperson said, "While we would be willing to speak to Club Concorde about their plans, the fact remains that our fleet of Concordes are currently displayed at sites around the globe and we have no plans to change these contracts at this time.”
We will keep you posted on any developments in regard to this ambitious project.
And we wish Club Concorde the best of luck.