By CHARLES ARTHUR
LONDON - British Airways is adding bulletproof lining to the wings of its seven Concordes and hopes to have the supersonic airliner flying again by mid-year.
Jim O'Sullivan, BA's technical manager, said the modifications would prevent a repeat of the catastrophic fire that caused an Air France Concorde to crash taking off from Charles de Gaulle airport last July.
The £17 million ($56 million) programme will require engineers to crawl into the tiny spaces between the top and bottom of the wings, where the fuel is stored, and fit hundreds of tray-like protectors incorporating Kevlar to the bottom of the fuel tanks. Kevlar is used in bulletproof vests.
The Paris crash killed 113 people, and French and British authorities quickly suspended Concorde's licences to fly.
"I'm satisfied that we have found the solution," said O'Sullivan. "We will resume flying only when we are assured it is safe to do so. It is difficult to predict when, but we hope Concorde will be back in service by spring or late spring."
The modifications, which also mean adding armour plating to the wing recesses for the landing gear, are being done in close consultation with Air France, the only other operator of Concorde, and with the jet's manufacturers, Aerospatiale and BAe Systems.
The Paris crash was caused when a strip of metal on the runway punctured a left wheel as the Concorde was taking off.
The shrapnel hit the underside of the wing, causing a puncture that spouted 100 litres a second of highly inflammable kerosene fuel. That ignited, and the roaring fire downed the aircraft in 90 seconds.
O'Sullivan said that if the lining had been fitted then, even with the same puncture the fuel leak would have been cut to less than one litre a second - too little to catch fire - and the Concorde would have been able to land safely.
The public learned subsequently that tyre shrapnel had punctured the wings of Concordes on six previous occasions, but the fuel did not ignite.
Kevlar lining is used in military helicopters and vehicles and Formula One cars to prevent disastrous fuel leaks. But it was introduced in the late 1970s, more than 10 years after Concorde was designed.
Mike Bannister, head of BA's Concorde operations, said: "We are getting a lot of encouragement in this from Concorde's regular customers, who say they are looking forward to seeing it back in the air.
"They say they can't wait to fly on it again, because business trips that used to take three hours 20 minutes now take eight and a half hours. Before, they would allow two days for travel. Now they need four."
Assuming that Concorde regains its licence, BA intends to keep it flying until at least 2010 and perhaps 2015, its expected lifespan.
"By then, I would hope we would have a replacement," said Bannister. "I wouldn't want to have to explain to my grandchildren that we used to cross the Atlantic in three hours and now do it in nine.
"The people who travel on Concorde are just the sort of movers and shakers to get that replacement to happen."
As a first step towards getting Concorde in the air again, Air France will fly one of its fleet to a military base at Istres tomorrow for two weeks of high-speed ground tests. It will be the first takeoff of a Concorde from Charles de Gaulle since the crash.
At Istres, technicians will stage tests simulating fuel leaks at high ground speed.
Coloured water will be sprayed from beneath the wing where the tanks and engine are as cameras record the trajectory of escaping liquid.
- HERALD CORRESPONDENT
Fireproof tanks for British Concordes
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