Re: Typical Branson
"Concorde was killed off because the French gave Boeing the excuse"
Airbus cut the life of Concorde short by not adding spall liners, but it had a good innings, all things considered. Given the age of the aircraft, and the small number built, there was probably a looming problem with bespoke spare parts getting more expensive, along with the fatigue life of the airframe that limits the life of every "modern" aircraft. Don't forget a lot of the Concorde designers would have retired by the time of the Paris crash.
Concorde was mainly being used for short tourist flights by then, pay a few hundred pounds and you can say you've flown supersonic, and was mainly kept flying as a flying advertising board for BA. There wasn't actually much incentive for Airbus to do the necessary engineering and associated regulatory paperwork, given the small number of aircraft flying, unless BA was willing to pay for the work. It's not as if most people saw Concorde and thought of Airbus, because most people didn't/don't know anything about type certificates and who held the type certificate for Concorde.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
