France, Britain Optimistic About Resumption of Concorde FlightExperts of France and Britain Friday expressed their optimism about a resumption of the flight of Concorde supersonic aircraft, which were grounded after the crash of an Air France Concorde in July last year.The French General Direction of Aviation said in a communique that the French-British working group on the future of Concorde has taken note of the results of the tests made in France last month on the Concorde and will wait for the results from the extra tests to be conducted in Britain this month. "Up to now, the tests accomplished have made us optimistic about the resumption of the airworthiness of Concorde," it said. An Air France Concorde underwent two weeks of security tests last month at a military base near Marseille and the results of the tests were described as satisfactory. The tests included the observation of the trajectory of colored liquid spilled on the wing of the Concorde in order to establish the hypothesis that the fire which broke out on the Concorde that crashed in July was caused by the spillover of oil from the reservoir. The explosion of one of two tires of the undercarriage was believed to have damaged the reservoir and caused the overflow of oil, which triggered the fire on the aircraft. All the 109 people on board the plane and four people on the ground were killed in the crash. |
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