Petition for keeping one Concorde flying

I have to say I find it interesting to hear people talk about petitions to
keep Concorde flying. Where do people expect the money would come from?
It's interesting that people are willing to put their name on a petition,
which requires no personal commitment or sacrifice, when all it would have
taken to keep her flying would have been for even half of those people to
buy tickets on her. It always amazes me how ready people are to spend
others' money.

Shawn
"Ali Hopkins" wrote in message
...

"pacplyer" wrote in message
m...
B S D Chapman mail-at-benchapman-dot-co-dot-uk wrote in message
...


The second
generation of Commet lasted many years... and 19 of those airframes
will
be arround for another 20 years

Pardon my pickyness, but it's Comet.


Flyable? I didn't know that. Are you sure?


Nimrod.

Ali

Before you make assumptive statements like this, you might like to ask a
polite question, and avoid looking daft by making snide remarks about
people you've no knowledge of. .

I been lucky enough to make four Concorde flights.All paid for, not
business, and out of my hard earned salary.

Is that enough of a contribution for you?

And I'd happily stump up for a preservation fund, I've done it for other
things; when they ask, I'll be there.

Ali


"ShawnD2112" wrote in message
...
I have to say I find it interesting to hear people talk about petitions to
keep Concorde flying. Where do people expect the money would come from?
It's interesting that people are willing to put their name on a petition,
which requires no personal commitment or sacrifice, when all it would have
taken to keep her flying would have been for even half of those people to
buy tickets on her. It always amazes me how ready people are to spend
others' money.

Shawn
"Ali Hopkins" wrote in message
...

"pacplyer" wrote in message
m...
B S D Chapman mail-at-benchapman-dot-co-dot-uk wrote in message
...


The second
generation of Commet lasted many years... and 19 of those airframes
will
be arround for another 20 years

Pardon my pickyness, but it's Comet.


Flyable? I didn't know that. Are you sure?


Nimrod.

Ali

I appreciate that, Ali, but you have to admit you are in the minority.
Most of the discussions I've heard or read on the topic over the last 9
months or so have been along the lines of "I wish someone else would pay to
keep it flying so I can go see it for the entrance fee to an airshow". The
economics, which you, as a fare paying pax, are familiar with, are pretty
far away from that.

Shawn
"Ali Hopkins" wrote in message
...
Before you make assumptive statements like this, you might like to ask a
polite question, and avoid looking daft by making snide remarks about
people you've no knowledge of. .

I been lucky enough to make four Concorde flights.All paid for, not
business, and out of my hard earned salary.

Is that enough of a contribution for you?

And I'd happily stump up for a preservation fund, I've done it for
other
things; when they ask, I'll be there.

Ali


"ShawnD2112" wrote in message
...
I have to say I find it interesting to hear people talk about petitions
to
keep Concorde flying. Where do people expect the money would come from?
It's interesting that people are willing to put their name on a
petition,
which requires no personal commitment or sacrifice, when all it would
have
taken to keep her flying would have been for even half of those people
to
buy tickets on her. It always amazes me how ready people are to spend
others' money.

Shawn
"Ali Hopkins" wrote in message
...

"pacplyer" wrote in message
m...
B S D Chapman mail-at-benchapman-dot-co-dot-uk wrote in message
...


The second
generation of Commet lasted many years... and 19 of those
airframes
will
be arround for another 20 years

Pardon my pickyness, but it's Comet.


Flyable? I didn't know that. Are you sure?


Nimrod.

Ali

"Ali Hopkins" wrote in message
...
Before you make assumptive statements like this, you might like to ask a
polite question, and avoid looking daft by making snide remarks about
people you've no knowledge of. .

I been lucky enough to make four Concorde flights.All paid for, not
business, and out of my hard earned salary.

Is that enough of a contribution for you?

The tickets you bought did not cover the cost of the flight. AFAIK Concorde
never turned a profit. With the condition the airlines are in nowdays it
would have been pretty hard to sell the stock holders on keeping them
flying.

And I'd happily stump up for a preservation fund, I've done it for
other
things; when they ask, I'll be there.

Ali


"ShawnD2112" wrote in message
...
I have to say I find it interesting to hear people talk about petitions
to
keep Concorde flying. Where do people expect the money would come from?
It's interesting that people are willing to put their name on a
petition,
which requires no personal commitment or sacrifice, when all it would
have
taken to keep her flying would have been for even half of those people
to
buy tickets on her. It always amazes me how ready people are to spend
others' money.

Shawn
"Ali Hopkins" wrote in message
...

"pacplyer" wrote in message
m...
B S D Chapman mail-at-benchapman-dot-co-dot-uk wrote in message
...


The second
generation of Commet lasted many years... and 19 of those
airframes
will
be arround for another 20 years

Pardon my pickyness, but it's Comet.


Flyable? I didn't know that. Are you sure?


Nimrod.

Ali

"Dave Stadt" wrote in message
. ..

"Ali Hopkins" wrote in message
...
Before you make assumptive statements like this, you might like to ask
a
polite question, and avoid looking daft by making snide remarks about
people you've no knowledge of. .

I been lucky enough to make four Concorde flights.All paid for, not
business, and out of my hard earned salary.

Is that enough of a contribution for you?

The tickets you bought did not cover the cost of the flight. AFAIK
Concorde
never turned a profit. With the condition the airlines are in nowdays it
would have been pretty hard to sell the stock holders on keeping them
flying.


You aren't in the UK, are you. If you'd seen the public outcry in this
country and the folks who turned out to see her land for the last time - and
all the subsequent departures - I think you might consider the weight of
public opinion as an influence on what we here call share holders. And Air
France, of course, is a whole other ball game from BA in terms of
ownership. BA never gave either the share holders or anyone else any say in
the matter; it would have been rather interesting to hear what the real BA
stakeholders had to say about it, given that the Big Bird was the BA
corporate symbol. Indeed, the entrance to LHR is guarded by a rather large
and obvious Concorde replica. And then, there's the wider "ownership";
Concorde was paid for by *us*, the British people, unlike your average civil
airliner. She is viewed in a unique way.

And yes, I am well aware that my tickets did not cover the cost of the
flight; mind you, the same can be said for many other flights of the
several hundreds I've made. I was replying to the inane point made by some
other bloke about people whinging but not being prepared to fly on her. Your
point is not a logical inference to be drawn from either the OP or my
response to the OP, it seems to be answering some other issue.

Ali

In message , Ali Hopkins
writes

You aren't in the UK, are you. If you'd seen the public outcry in this
country

I'm in the UK; I saw no such "outcry".

--
Andy Mabbett
"The Internet is a reflection of our society[ ...]. If we do not like what we
see in that mirror the problem is not to fix the mirror, we have to fix
society." Vint Cerf

Dave Stadt wrote:

The tickets you bought did not cover the cost of the flight. AFAIK
Concorde never turned a profit. With the condition the airlines are
in nowdays it would have been pretty hard to sell the stock holders
on keeping them flying.

BA's Concorde fleet made an *operating* profit.

Although this operating profit never covered the full development costs,
the taxpayer (the British one, at least) is better off than if the
aeroplanes had simply been scrapped when the oil "crisis" hit in the
early 70s.

On Fri, 6 Feb 2004 06:15:28 -0000, ShawnD2112
wrote:

I have to say I find it interesting to hear people talk about petitions
to
keep Concorde flying. Where do people expect the money would come from?
It's interesting that people are willing to put their name on a petition,
which requires no personal commitment or sacrifice, when all it would
have
taken to keep her flying would have been for even half of those people to
buy tickets on her. It always amazes me how ready people are to spend
others' money.



I was one of the folk that phoned up for discounted tickets, but couldn't
afford the full price fare.
Let there be no doubt, I expect that nearly everyone in the country would
have had "fly on Concorde" in their list of things to do before you die,
but most people couldn't afford to do so. I would have done so -
eventually. It might have been another two or three years down the
road... it could have been ten. But I was most upset that I have had the
chance to do so refused.

The sad fact is that Concorde was viable had the Americans not shunned Air
France (the reason they stopped flying straight away), and if the fear of
flying following 9/11 haddn't dissuaded the new "replacement" executives
from becomming the replacement regulars.

The regulars had kept her ticking over while the dreamers could have their
once-in-a-lifetime chance.


Shawn
"Ali Hopkins" wrote in message
...

"pacplyer" wrote in message
m...
B S D Chapman mail-at-benchapman-dot-co-dot-uk wrote in message
...


The second
generation of Commet lasted many years... and 19 of those airframes
will
be arround for another 20 years

Pardon my pickyness, but it's Comet.


Flyable? I didn't know that. Are you sure?


Nimrod.

Ali







--

....And so as the little andrex puppy of time scampers onto the busy
dual-carriage way of destiny, and the extra-strong meat vindaloo of fate
confronts the toilet Out Of Order sign of eternity... I see it is time to
end this post.

"B S D Chapman" mail-at-benchapman-dot-co-dot-uk wrote in message
news
I was one of the folk that phoned up for discounted tickets, but couldn't
afford the full price fare.

It's not the done thing to say "me too" on here, is it? :-)

I would have done so -
eventually. It might have been another two or three years down the
road... it could have been ten. But I was most upset that I have had the
chance to do so refused.

Yup...

The sad fact is that Concorde was viable had the Americans not shunned Air
France (the reason they stopped flying straight away), and if the fear of
flying following 9/11 haddn't dissuaded the new "replacement" executives
from becomming the replacement regulars.

The regulars had kept her ticking over while the dreamers could have their
once-in-a-lifetime chance.

There was a programme on TV about this. 40 of Concorde's regular
passengers were killed in the WTC. Not only were these the regular
passengers, they were also the people (along with others) who had the
authority to sign off travel for lesser executives on Concorde. With them
gone, Concorde's passenger load was around 50%. They needed about
70% to break even. It was also in a period of recession in the economy in
general and in air travel particularly. Keep them another couple of years
and passenger numbers would probably have gone up again.

Paul