Concorde passes supersonic test

LONDON, England -- A British Airways Concorde has successfully completed the first supersonic test flight since last year's crash near Paris.

The supersonic aircraft -- Alpha Foxtrot -- took off from London's Heathrow airport at 1318 GMT and landed three-hours 20 minutes later after a flight which reached almost twice the speed of sound.

Just after touching down at RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire, central England, pilot Mike Bannister said: "The initial analysis is that the aircraft performed brilliantly."

The Concorde will remain at Brize Norton for the next few days while engineers pour over test data obtained from the flight to see how modifications made to the plane performed. Further verification flights could follow.

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Members of the public gathered at the rain-lashed Oxfordshire airfield to welcome back the supersonic aircraft.

BA chief executive Rod Eddington said: "This is another significant step towards returning Concorde safely back into service.

"After many hours of work by our engineering team it's good to have the aircraft flying again.

"This is an important day for everyone at British Airways and we look forward to carrying customers again soon."

Earlier, Christopher Darke, general secretary of the British pilots' union Balpa, told the UK Press Association: "We are delighted with this Concorde flight. It's another positive step towards returning Concorde to service."

The verification flight is expected to pave the way for a return to passenger service of both BA's and Air France's Concordes later this year.

Both fleets have been grounded since last August after the crash of an Air France Concorde near Paris in July 2000 with the loss of 113 lives.

Air France has operated the plane between Paris and an engineering base in southern France but BA is the first of the two companies to fly the plane at supersonic speeds since summer 2000.

Taking off from the southern runway at Heathrow in west London, the Concorde headed towards Iceland, reaching its top speed of 1,350 mph -- around twice the speed of sound -- before turning back to land at Brize Norton.

Joining BA senior pilot Bannister for the flight was Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) chief test pilot Jock Reid.

The decision on when Concorde can resume commercial flights ultimately rests with the CAA and its French counterpart which will grant the aircraft an air worthiness certificate.

All 109 passengers and crew on board died as well as four people on the ground in the Air France Concorde crash last year.

The crash happened after a metal object left on the runway at Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris burst a tyre on the supersonic aircraft.

This led to a rupturing of the fuel tank which, in turn, triggered a catastrophic fire and the crash.

Each of BA's seven Concordes is being fitted with new Kevlar-rubber fuel tank liners to avoid any repetition of the accident.

The wiring in the undercarriage has also been strengthened and new, stronger, tyres fitted.

Both BA and Air France, which has five remaining Concordes, hope to resume customer-paying supersonic services by late summer or early autumn.

Manufacturers, governments and regulatory bodies are working closely to bring about a return to the skies for Concorde.

The UK and French civil aviation authorities will have to be satisfied that everything possible has been done before granting the plane an airworthiness certificate.

The French national carrier has said it is "too early to say precisely when commercial flights of the Concorde will start again."

But BA has told CNN that it still hopes its Concordes will be taking passengers across the Atlantic by the end of the summer.

The company has stressed that it is not in a race with Air France and that safety will be the ultimate driving force behind any decision.