Crazy Canuck: The problem here is Airbus. Airbus has refused to supply parts or its expertise to any other airlines besides Air France and BA for the Concorde so it would do no good for Branson to buy the Concordes anyway as he would not be able to use them. That said he did offer BA 1 pound for all their Concordes. (The same price they paid for them). Branson made an offer on the Concordes just to stir the general public resentment in the UK towards BA, it was win/win for him even if BA had agreed to let them go for one quid then people would be angry about that because of the 3.5 billion pound expenditure on her development and construction. Branson is the devil.
And don't get my wrong I actually cried when Concorde touched down for the last time but, really it wasn't such an advance. The jet plane cut the travel time on the NY-Somerset, UK route from 3 days (ship) to about 7 hours; the Concorde cut the time from 7 hours to about 3 hours 40 minutes. A total savings of 3 hours 20 minutes, the seats were slightly larger than Economy, the windows were tiny, and the roof very low. There really wasn't much space and it wasn't very comfortable. The thing that made it so special in my opinion was not the technology but the people who flew her, including the excellent BA staff. I mean where else might you get a 3hour audience with Margaret Thatcher, or an ex-Beatle?? Who were always predictably in rows 1 through 5 . It used to be in the UK when you finally got on Concorde you said to yourself I’ve made it in life, I’m important enough for my client to spend six thousand pounds to want to see me today. I think what upset me the most was not the end of SST travel but the end of an era, there is no glamour in flying on an airline anymore.


[This message has been edited by travelit (edited 10-27-2003).]