§ 72. Mr. Onslowasked the Minister of Technology whether he will make arrangements for hon. Members themselves to assess the noise characteristics of Concorde.
§ Mr. Carmichael:It would be premature to do so at this stage. The noise characteristics of the prototype Concordes now flying are not the same as those of the production Concorde that will go into airline service.
§ Mrs. Ewingasked the Minister of Technology if he will arrange for Concorde to make an official appearance at the Edinburgh Air Show on 27th June.
§ Mr. Carmichael:This is for the manufacturers to consider. I am sure that any request by the organisers of this event for Concorde to fly over would be carefully considered, but appearances at demonstrations have to be kept to a minimum in order to avoid disrupting the flight test programme.
§ Mr. Brooksasked the Minister of Technology what is his estimate of the cost of the research and development programme of Concorde which has been saved by proceeding on a shared basis instead of solely by Great Britain.
§ Mr. Benn:The saving would be less than a half because of the additional costs involved in collaboration. These costs cannot be separately quantified. Without two Governments behind the project, Concorde would never have been built.