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On this day in history

Did you watch that programme on the cause of the crash . . It was a French Farce - Main undercarriage wheels weren't attached properly (it was slewing all over the runway and almost hit a waiting passenger jet with the French President on board). It was over fuelled, It was overweight and the Pilot hauled it into the air before it had achieved full take-off speed. A piece of steel on the runway punctured a tyre which blew and punctured a fuel tank. Whilst trying to gain altitude and airspeed the Flight Engineer shut down an engine - without reference to the Pilot.

It crashed.

France pulled out of the Concorde programme and Britain decided it couldn't afford the maintenance costs on its own so it was scrapped.

It was popular and the "Concorde Experience" flights were making money - but the whole programme was far too costly and slower, wide-bodied jets with far lower air fares (and lower noise levels) were gaining popularity.

A fabulous plane for all that.

Bob.
I have seen many programmes about Concorde but I can't remember one that you describe, those reasons you mention sound like blame shifting to me. I have read this one which may be of interest,
https://www.thinkreliability.com/case_studies/crash-of-the-concorde/
I remember the 'joy flights' on Concorde, I bought one for my ma who was a great Concorde fan as was I, on the shelf above my desk I have a 2 foot long model ( the sort you might see in a travel agents window, it cost me £109)
 
It was a two-part programme on TV about a year ago.

It was found that a spacer had been left out when French Mechanics serviced the landing gear. This meant that the inner wheel's outer and outer wheel's inner bearings weren't supported. On take-off the wheels were like those on a shopping trolley - there were 'snake' tyre tracks on the runway after take-off.

The programme also said that additional customer luggage had been added and that the fuel tanks had been 'brimmed' - which was against the instructions of the day as some room for expansion has to be left. I think '80% full' is the maximum recommended. When the broken tyre hit the tank there was no space for the fuel to 'give' and the shock wave went straight to the tank walls - bursting it at the front.

It was around a ton overweight when it started its take-off.

The 'Black Box' showed that the Flight Engineer had shut down an engine - just when the pilot needed it most. The engine was running even though the plane was pouring flames.

One can't say that it would have ended well if all the bad decisions hadn't been made but maybe the fuel tank wouldn't have ruptured and it would have achieved proper airspeed. Who knows.

As usual, there is the 'Official' story and different elements coming out of the woodwork.

Bob.
 
It was around a ton overweight when it started its take-off.
I remember reading somewhere that Concorde burnt 2 tons of fuel just getting from the boarding gate to the runway before it took off.
 
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