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Concorde Soars Away on Last Passenger Flight
Updated 9:23 AM ET October 24, 2003
By Mark Bendeich
ABOARD CONCORDE (Reuters) - Concorde, the world's only supersonic airliner, roared off into aviation history on Friday, heading home to London for the last time. The sleek, needle-nosed plane took off from New York's John F. Kennedy airport in brilliant autumnal sunshine for a historic flight that brought an end to the supersonic era.
It climbed to the edge of space for the last flight across the Atlantic, traveling faster than a speeding bullet.
From actress Joan Collins to model Christie Brinkley, the plane was packed with celebrities quaffing champagne and guzzling caviar aboard the ultimate status symbol for the rich and famous.
Formula One supremo Bernie Ecclestone, who took the first Concorde flight in 1976 and was now on the last, said: "I don't think we will see it again -- at least in my lifetime."
But the chance to take the last flight was tinged with sadness. Joan Collins said: "The fact that it is going to be phased out is quite, quite tragic."
Before taking the controls for the last time, pilot Mike Bannister told the passengers: "The world is watching us."
The crew waved American and British flags out of the cockpit as the British Airways plane pushed away from its New York stand for the last time.
Airport firetrucks saw off Concorde with an arched spray of red, white and blue foam to symbolize the flags of France, Britain and the United States.
The plane is due to land shortly before 1500 GMT at London's Heathrow airport where thousands of people are expected to cram vantage points and approach roads to see the sun set on a unique era in the history of flight.
Concorde's Anglo-French creators had hoped it would become a standard-bearer for a new generation of airliners. But the high running costs, deafeningly loud engines and sonic booms turned environmentalists against it and the plane quickly became little more than an exclusive toy for superstars.
The beginning of the end came in July 2000 when an Air France flight crashed outside Paris, killing 113 people and grounding the entire French and British fleets.
Concorde resumed flying in late 2001 in the teeth of a severe downturn in transAtlantic air travel that followed the September 11 attacks on U.S. cities that year. Then plane-maker Airbus said this year it would stop supplying parts and maintenance, sealing the jet's fate.
Concorde's supersonic adventure formally began in 1962 when French President Charles de Gaulle and British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan gave it their blessing, though the idea of a supersonic airliner had already caught the public imagination in the late 1950s when walking on the moon was also still a dream.
Despite pouring over $34 billion of taxpayers' money into the project, at today's prices, the British and French government only ever persuaded their national carriers to adopt Concorde -- and even then they had to give the planes away.
Air France stopped flying Concorde in May this year, noting at the time that flights were running about four-fifths empty.
Flamboyant British entrepreneur Richard Branson, whose Virgin Atlantic Airways is a bitter rival to British Airways, has offered to buy BA's Concordes for one pound, the same price the national carrier had originally paid for the jets.
But British Airways has said it would rather retire its Concordes and donate them to museums.
(Additional reporting by Jason Neely and Aleksandrs Rozens)
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