The installation of fuel tank membranes may provide the answer to getting the Aerospatiale/British Aerospace Concorde fleet airborne again.
The aircraft's vulnerability to a catastrophic accident from wheel or tyre breakup damaging fuel tanks emerged after the 25 July Air France Concorde crash at Paris Charles de Gaulle airport.
The installation of a rubber/Kevlar fuel tank lining is being considered, and the two airlines aim to have their modification plan in place by year end. BA has set a February target date to fly the first aircraft.
The airline has told government officials that any delay to Concorde's return to operation beyond mid-2001 would make the supersonic airliner's resurrection economically unsustainable.
UK Air Accident Investigation Branch chief, Ken Smart, says the membranes approach can be pursued independently of the continuing accident investigation.
Although the inquiry investigators are now allowed by the judiciary to reconstruct the aircraft's critically damaged left wing, only 15% of the lower skin has so far been laid out in the frame and "there is a deal more to be done before damage patterns emerge", he says.
At a Concorde Working Group meeting on 12 October between the French and UK authorities it was accepted, says Smart, that delays to the investigation caused by French judicial procedures were "unacceptable", but no resolution of the problem was reached.
Flight International exclusively revealed last week that the UK had officially protested that French judicial procedures were seriously slowing down the whole investigation (Flight International 10-16 October).
Source: Flight International
