The day British Airways died IMHO...
Personally, I'd say that BA died in my eyes
long before that. I've flown with BA numerous times, and on every occasion I've always had to put up with:
- Late departures,
- Lost baggage (Would ye believe my bag going from Hamburg to Heathrow via Bangkok?!?!?
hock: ),
- Long waits on taxiways, and
- Every time meals were served - No matter where in the aircraft I was seated - They'd only have the vegetarian option left by the time they came around to my seat!
On the other hand, I've flown a greater number of times with Ryanair and I havn't yet been able to fault them in any way:...
- They're always punctual (Only two 30+ min delays over 50 or more flights! 8)),
- Cheaper than any flag carrier,
- The service is just as good IMO,
- Ye only pay for what ye actually need on board,
- And their pilots often plough the aircraft straight through patches of turbulance, too!
8)
Yeah, the drive to be faster, bigger, better, bolder seems to have given way to profit.
IIRC - Though I've never bashed one, admittedly - Concorde was about the size of a Pacer and still took a whopping three hours to do LHR-JFK, didn't it?
Personally if I was going for
Bigger, better, and faster: I'd be toying around with cunning ideas, rather Gnomish Engineering practices, and trying to find ways of fitting a 12-litre Diesel engine and high-speed hydraulic drive system onto an A380!
hock:
Wouldnt it be great if one could be brought into "preservation", just like the railways. Obviously the running costs would be astronomical, never mind the ability to get a certificate from the FAA but it would be good all the same.
I agree with regard to preserving Concorde...At least 4-8 should be kept airworthy and used for charters, official purposes, and the occasional "unexpected" vehicle substitution. 8)
Personally, I never got the chance to experience Concorde at all...But I live in hope that someday Ryanair might buy up a few for their proposed transatlantic routes and see if they can work their cost-cutting magick and somehow knock the operational costs right down!
hock:
8)
(It might mean that they'd only be run on half-power throughout the flight, but at least one would still be able to
fly on Concorde...Even if the journey time was equal to that of a 747-400!
)
Incidentally...Wouldn't Concorde's CAA/FAA certification still be valid? Ye can still see the occasional Spitfire or Lancaster slicing through the skies nowadays on occasion, and they're a good 30-odd years older than Concorde!
hock:
.