FSLabs Concorde on the way (Beta testing for P3D first)

[Ray Proudfoot 8,960]

@G MIDY, you overlook the Charter flights arranged by Goodwood Travel. Those were a great earner for BA. The Round-The-Bay Mach 2, 50,000ft charter was a huge success. I wish I’d had the money to afford it.

Each year there were Concorde packages to the Grand National in Liverpool. That airport’s runway was just long enough for her.

Regarding the LHR-JFK-LHR flights those were predominantly for business customers whose companies paid the fare. BA did a survey asking those companies what they expected the cost of a return ticket would be. When the answer came back it was far higher than the current price so BA just ramped up the price. It was peanuts to successful companies where their Chief Execs could fly to New York, do a few hours of business and be back at LHR 12 hours after departing on the morning service.

AF never had the same success with their Concorde fleet.

[Luis Hernandez 570]

1 hour ago, G MIDY said:

you don't get a lie-flat bed either

Do you need a lie-flat bed for a 3 hour flight? Or better said, for a 3-hour long fancy dinner?

Last year I went onboard G-BOAD, legroom was not bad at all. Certainly a lot more than the 32" the majority of legacy airlines offer down here... or the 28" LCCs do.

[rjquick 229]

4 hours ago, Luis Hernandez said:

Do you need a lie-flat bed for a 3 hour flight? Or better said, for a 3-hour long fancy dinner?

Last year I went onboard G-BOAD, legroom was not bad at all. Certainly a lot more than the 32" the majority of legacy airlines offer down here... or the 28" LCCs do.

If I had ever had the money and opportunity to fly on Concorde, the last thing I would want to do is sleep through it. lol. I think my adrenaline levels would be high the whole way.

[MachTwo 386]

52 minutes ago, rjquick said:

If I had ever had the money and opportunity to fly on Concorde, the last thing I would want to do is sleep through it. lol. I think my adrenaline levels would be high the whole way.

By all accounts it was a pretty uncomfortable affair travelling overnight on the aircraft. The Bahrain Singapore route that British Airways flew in the late 70's departed out of Bahrain at midnight (too hot to depart with enough fuel for Singapore in the daytime). Air France departed Rio around 11pm on the return to Paris, with a 2am tech stop in Dakar. During this stop, passengers were required to deboard so that the aircraft could be refuelled, before continuing their journey back to Paris, arriving into CDG at 6am. It's difficult to imagine this as anything other than a challenging and far from relaxing night of travel! 

[environmental_ice 238]

On 5/20/2023 at 6:51 AM, Steve Dra said:

Not that the members of this forum represent the entire FlightSim community....but a quick show of hands here at Avsim (and who reads this) of who's buying the FSL Concorde for P3d.   I'll start:

No  

(Ray, I think you may be one of the very few who's gonna' check yes here... I don't think the numbers will be better even if this post was in the P3d forum)  
I just don't see the numbers and if I were to guess...I think the price is going to be north of $130 for sure. And at that price it will only attract the most hardcore simmers (who also want to learn to fly her)...who most, like many mention here, have moved from P3d completely.  If they sell more than a thousand copies I'd be surprised.  That's $130k for what has to be much more in labor costs to develop it over the years. 

Anyway...for those hoping to see if for MSFS...unless they have been developing it in secret since MSFS released with zero announcements, I don't expect any chance of a MSFS release this decade...maybe 2030 at the earliest?  I cite empirical evidence if you recall how long it took to release sharklets for the A320 from when it was announced to when it was released.🤔  Rapid development is not an FSL trademark. 😄

Im still waiting on sharklets. jk..😅 but on a more serious note there is a market for the A321neo, A350 and Ill even say the A220 ( there technically isnt anything available right now) There are freeware groups doing development on all of them in some capacity but that doesnt mean nobody else can. With that being said nobody is working on a hardcore Concorde either so even if it takes FSL until 2030 to release it, I think it would do well. Id probably buy it (MSFS) Concorde has always been cool to me.

Edited May 25, 2023 by environmental_ice

[IanHarrison 522]

9 hours ago, MachTwo said:

By all accounts it was a pretty uncomfortable affair travelling overnight on the aircraft. The Bahrain Singapore route that British Airways flew in the late 70's departed out of Bahrain at midnight (too hot to depart with enough fuel for Singapore in the daytime). Air France departed Rio around 11pm on the return to Paris, with a 2am tech stop in Dakar. During this stop, passengers were required to deboard so that the aircraft could be refuelled, before continuing their journey back to Paris, arriving into CDG at 6am. It's difficult to imagine this as anything other than a challenging and far from relaxing night of travel! 

I am sure it was no worse than what I had to endure last year (before all the direct routes were working again). Leave Johannesburg in the early evening, stop at Dubai at 1am, change terminals and leave for Heathrow at 3 am. A 13 hour flight that direct is 8 hours.

[Bernard Ducret 790]

17 hours ago, Ray Proudfoot said:

AF never had the same success with their Concorde fleet.

Be kind to others Ray and forget about the flag waving (I am not French), this is not nice! 

I was once a passenger on the (full) evening flight KJFK-LFPG AF Concorde in 1992 and have read a number of books and articles about this iconic airplane. I don't think one or the other airline deserves to be run down on their Concorde business handling, they both did their very best with the limitations of that wonderful aircraft (Andrew's post above shows what BA had to do in Bahrein to be able to operate their Singapore route). That BA SIN route did not survive long, the same happened to Mexico and Rio for AF, the operational constraints were such that the commercial aspect suffered.

AF made 30 successful round-the-world charters put together by various organisations such as American Express (4), Kuoni (4), Intrav (12), TMR (5),Concorde Spirit Tours (2)! The fastest round-the-world eastbound trip was made by the F-BSTD in 24 hours 42 minutes of which 18 hours and 46 minutes were at supersonic speed in August 1995. Many other charter flights were sold to companies like Pepsi, Coors and many other, the list would be too long and boring to read.

Let's keep ourselves busy and passionate with the upcoming FSL simulation and the extraordinary airplane that flew to more than 250 airports worldwide under one banner or the other.

Edited May 25, 2023 by Bernard Ducret

[MDFlier 2,031]

On 5/23/2023 at 5:35 PM, Ray Proudfoot said:

Since late October 2003 it hasn’t stood still. It’s gone backwards. From Mach 2.0 to Mach 0.85 in 24 hours. That was nearly 20 years ago. Since then… what? Diddly squat!

The lack of progress is shameful. The only time in aviation history there has been no progress.

I completely agree with your sentiments, Ray.

There is still hope. Elon says NY to London will take 24 minutes on Starship. Mach 20.0+ !!!

And the takeoffs and landings will be MUCH more interesting. 😄

Edited May 25, 2023 by MDFlier

[Ray Proudfoot 8,960]

@MDFlier, not seen that aircraft / starship? Assuming it's built I think I'll be pushing up the daisies by the time it makes it to a flight sim program. Champagne will be replaced by Bud Lite I guess! 🤣

[Christopher Low 5,354]

He is talking about the SpaceX Starship, Ray.

[jarmstro 2,403]

Outside of the two state airlines who's governments had funded Concorde's  development not one single plane was sold to a commercial airline. These two, very small fleets were ridiculously expensive to operate and maintain. As an aeroplane Concorde was a technological marvel and surely one of the most beautiful machines ever built by mankind. But as an airliner it was, to all intents and purposes, absolutely useless.

[Ray Proudfoot 8,960]

28 minutes ago, Christopher Low said:

He is talking about the SpaceX Starship, Ray.

Thanks Chris. I'll start to get interested when one takes off. 😁

[MDFlier 2,031]

25 minutes ago, Ray Proudfoot said:

Thanks Chris. I'll start to get interested when one takes off. 😁

Oh... they've taken off already. They've had several test flights. All but one having ended in a spectacular explosion ( or RUD, as Elon says. Rapid Unscheduled Disassembly).

They'll get it right. I love the test plan. Launch, blow up, learn, fix, launch, rinse and repeat until you get it right. So much fun. 

Edited May 25, 2023 by MDFlier

[regis9 4,014]

1 hour ago, MDFlier said:

All but one having ended in a spectacular explosion ( or RUD, as Elon says. Rapid Unscheduled Disassembly).

I think I’ll wait for v2.0 before booking a ride 😀

[Ray Proudfoot 8,960]

Getting back to Concorde @MachTwoadvised on the FSL forum the P3D version was due to go to beta this week.

Still patiently waiting to read confirmation.