BA hopes overhaul will make Concorde safe
British Airways has started modification work to ensure that Concorde flies again.
New liners for fuel tanks are being fitted to BA's seven supersonic aircraft. The firm hopes the move will prevent any repetition of the fire which brought down an Air France Concorde last July.
BA will operate test flights with a view to having Concorde back in passenger service, possibly by the spring.
Meanwhile, Air France is expected to put one of its Concordes back into the air for the first time since last summer's crash near Paris which killed 113 people.
The flight - from Paris - will take the aircraft from the French capital to a military aviation base at Istres, near Marseille in southern France. Air France will then conduct further tests on the ground.
A report by French air accident experts said the crash was almost certainly caused by a metal strip that fell from a Continental Airlines' plane which used the same runway as the Concorde.
The strip gashed one of the Concorde's tyres, sending rubber debris hurtling towards fuel tanks and prompting a fuel leak and fire that brought the plane down.
