A British Airways Concorde has landed at an airfield in Oxfordshire following a three-hour, 40-minute supersonic test flight over the Atlantic.
|
|
Captain Mike Bannister waves as he taxi's for the verification flight of a British Airways concorde.
|
With Capt Mike Bannister at the controls, the plane flew towards Iceland, reaching its top speed of 1,350 m.p.h., before turning back to land at Brize Norton in Oxfordshire just before 6 p.m.
The verification flight will pave the way for a return to passenger service of both BA's and Air France's Concordes later this year.
Both fleets have been grounded since last August after the crash of an Air France Concorde in July 2000 with the loss of 113 lives.
All 109 passengers and crew on board died as well as four people on the ground in the Air France Concorde crash last year.
The crash happened after a metal object on the runway at Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris burst a tyre on the supersonic aircraft. This led to a rupturing of the fuel tank that triggered a fire and the crash.
Capt Bannister is testing out modifications made to the aircraft to ensure there is no repeat of last summer's tragedy.
Each of BA's seven Concordes is being fitted with new Kevlar-rubber fuel tank liners. The wiring in the undercarriage has also been strengthened and new, stronger, tyres fitted.
PA