Open Access

Josef Mertens

• Since certification of Concorde new certification standards were introduced including many new regulations to improve flight safety. Most of these standards are to prevent severe accidents in the future which happened in the past (here: after Concorde’s certification). A new SCT has to fulfill these standards, although Concorde had none of these accidents. But accidents - although they sometimes occurred only for a specific aircraft type - have to be avoided for any (new) aircraft. Because of existing aircraft without typical accident types having demonstrated their reliability, they are allowed to go on based on their old certification; although sometimes new rules prevent accident types which are not connected to specific aircraft types - like e.g. evacuation rules. Anyway, Concorde is allowed to fly based on its old certification, and hopefully in the future will fly as safely as in the past. But a new SCT has to fulfill updated rules like any other aircraft, and it has to be “just another aircraft” [75].