“Club Concorde” consists of a group of ex-pilots, airline executives, engineers and Concorde enthusiasts who want to see the airplane in the air again. According to the Guardian, the club has a “dream of a global Concorde fraternity” preserving an iconic symbol of the golden age of air travel.
The Concorde was first flown in 1969 and entered into service in 1979. The Concorde was operated by British Airways and Air France. The supersonic airliner continued to carry passengers for 27 years.
On July 25, 2000, at least 113 people were killed after a chartered Air France Concorde on its way to New York crashed into a hotel and restaurant a few miles outside of Paris. Four people at the hotel were killed, and at least a dozen were injured. Police said all 100 passengers and nine crew members on board Flight AF-4590 were killed, and the French Interior Ministry said four others died at the 40-room Hotelissimo.
In 2003, service was discontinued because it proved too expensive to operate. It is one of only two supersonic passenger jet airliners to have entered commercial service, the other being the Tupolev Tu-144.
Now, the surviving supersonic jet airliners are scattered across the globe in aviation museums and science centers. They are still fully functional, but in need of maintenance says the club. The plane Club Concorde is looking to buy is located at the Le Bourget airport in Paris.
The club has revealed that they now have the $250 million needed to buy the Concorde and do the restoration needed to make it airworthy. Time is reporting that in a blog post in July, the club said they had the funding to buy the plane.
“The main obstacle to any Concorde project to date has been ‘Where’s the money?’ a question we heard ad nauseam until we found an investor,” wrote Paul James, Concorde Club president, and former Concorde charterer. “Now that money is no longer the problem it’s over to those who can help us make it happen, without financial risk to themselves.”
Will we ever see another jet airliner capable of flying at twice the speed of sound? The answer is yes, if Boeing and Lockheed Martin continue their work on the development commercially available supersonic airliners.
