£15m plan to get Concorde flying

As the first step in a £15m project to get the supersonic passenger jet Concorde back in the air, the engines will be examined today. The Rolls Royce engines on a former Air France Concorde will have an initial examination to see what needs to be done to start them. The tests will be performed by a French-British team and will take place at an air museum near Paris. The work is being done through a partnership between the British Save Concorde Group, SCG, and a French group, Olympus 593, at the Le Bourget Air and Space Museum.

Vice-chairman of SCG Ben Lord said: “Today marks the most critical date in Concorde’s history since she was retired almost seven years ago.

“Two members of our management team are in France this weekend to observe these amazing developments.

“SCG has always maintained that she could return to flight in a heritage capacity, and the findings of today will hopefully go an awfully long way to proving our point.”

“This is just the beginning, but we are delighted and privileged to be working with a team of skilled Concorde engineers who both worked on the aircraft at British Airways and Air France.”

The first tests are to establish whether the engines can be started safely and whether the aircraft can ground taxi.

Mr Lord said: “After today, we will know exactly what needs to be done with those four engines in order to take this to the next stage of engine test runs with an objective to hopefully perform a ground taxi.”

There are hopes the plane can fly as part of the opening ceremony of the 2012 Olympics.