burkey
Jun 19, 99, 1:29 pm
June 19, 1999 10:44
France studies Concorde jet follow-on
LE BOURGET, France, June 19 (Reuters) - French Prime Minister Lionel Jospin said on Saturday that France was studying the feasibility for a successor to the Franco-British Concorde supersonic airliner.
"Claude Allegre (research minister) has decided to set up a working party to examine the possibilities of developing, at the European level, a supersonic plane to succeed Concorde," Jospin told the French aerospace industry at a lunch at the Paris air show.
The swept-wing Concorde was built at great cost by the former BAC of Britain and France's Sud Aviation in the 1960s and is flown by British Airways and Air France . It is the world's only supersonic airliner in commercial service.
The U.S. NASA space agency has funded research on a supersonic transport but no plane has been produced.
Jospin also said he hoped attempts by the Franco-Italian ATR venture to launch a regional jet would be "crowned with success soon." ATR is jointly owned by Aerospatiale Matra and Alenia .
He added that he hoped European industry would have a major role in building the planned military Future Transport Aircraft (FTA), previously called the Future Large Aircraft.
"I hope European industry will be able to play a central role in the prime contractorship of this programme, on which rests the renewal of our aerial projection of assets," he said.
The Airbus Industrie [ARBU.CN] airliner consortium has created the Airbus Military Company to pitch its A400M proposal, which is based on an all-new aircraft design.
The Airbus project is up against a Russian/Ukrainian offer using an Antonov jet, Boeing Co's C17, and Lockheed Martin's C130J
As reported by Reuters.
France studies Concorde jet follow-on
LE BOURGET, France, June 19 (Reuters) - French Prime Minister Lionel Jospin said on Saturday that France was studying the feasibility for a successor to the Franco-British Concorde supersonic airliner.
"Claude Allegre (research minister) has decided to set up a working party to examine the possibilities of developing, at the European level, a supersonic plane to succeed Concorde," Jospin told the French aerospace industry at a lunch at the Paris air show.
The swept-wing Concorde was built at great cost by the former BAC of Britain and France's Sud Aviation in the 1960s and is flown by British Airways and Air France . It is the world's only supersonic airliner in commercial service.
The U.S. NASA space agency has funded research on a supersonic transport but no plane has been produced.
Jospin also said he hoped attempts by the Franco-Italian ATR venture to launch a regional jet would be "crowned with success soon." ATR is jointly owned by Aerospatiale Matra and Alenia .
He added that he hoped European industry would have a major role in building the planned military Future Transport Aircraft (FTA), previously called the Future Large Aircraft.
"I hope European industry will be able to play a central role in the prime contractorship of this programme, on which rests the renewal of our aerial projection of assets," he said.
The Airbus Industrie [ARBU.CN] airliner consortium has created the Airbus Military Company to pitch its A400M proposal, which is based on an all-new aircraft design.
The Airbus project is up against a Russian/Ukrainian offer using an Antonov jet, Boeing Co's C17, and Lockheed Martin's C130J
As reported by Reuters.