Concorde to make NY test flight

British Airways is to fly Concorde to New York tomorrow in its first full transatlantic flight since it was grounded.

The supersonic plane is to carry out a full test flight from Heathrow to New York tomorrow morning, some two weeks before commercial services are due to resume.

It has previously carried out two test flights but has returned to Britain after flying halfway across the Atlantic, without landing in New York.

The tests are to check the safety modifications put in place in the wake of the Air France Concorde tragedy, in which 113 people were killed when the plane crashed near Paris.

All commercial flights on BA and Air France Concordes were halted in summer 2000 when a metal object left on the runway at Paris’ Charles de Gaulle airport burst a tyre on the Air France Concorde.

Tyre fragments penetrated the fuel tank, leading to a catastrophic fire which caused the aircraft to crash on a hotel about 10 miles from Paris.

All 109 passengers and crew on board were killed, plus four people on the ground.

Passenger services on Concorde are set to resume on November 7 with a flight for corporate customers and the media, and the first commercial flight will be on November 9, a BA spokeswoman said.

Both BA, which has seven Concordes, and Air France, which has five, have made improvements to their planes, including fitting bullet-proof Kevlar rubber linings to the fuel tank to prevent any possible rupturing; new, tougher, Michelin tyres and a strengthening of the wiring in the undercarriage bay.

The return of Concorde will mean corporate high-fliers and others will be able to reach New York in about three hours 20 minutes, less than half the travelling time of a subsonic aircraft.

Air France will also be restarting Concorde services on November 7. No commercial customers will be carried on the test flights, a BA spokeswoman said.