World’s Fastest Jetliner Retires To The Museum Of Flight

As previously noted, British Airways has donated one of its recently retired Concorde supersonic airliners to Seattle's Museum of Flight. It arrived Wednesday, November 5th, to huge crowds. The SST, one of only twenty Concordes ever built, will be the only one on display on the West Coast and one of only four outside Europe.

Concorde will stay on permanent public display. It will be parked in the Museum’s outdoor large-aircraft gallery along with America’s first jet Air Force One, the 747 prototype and other significant jets. Eventual plans call for the enclosure of all these aircraft in a very large Commercial Aviation Wing, which will be the third and final phase of the Museum’s ongoing major expansion.

Concorde, which first flew in April 1969, has been the world’s only supersonic jetliner since 1978, when the Soviet Tupolev Tu-144 was withdrawn from passenger service. With a cruising speed of more than twice the speed of sound—around 1,350 mph—Concorde can carry 100 passengers from New York to London in less than three-and-a-half hours at altitudes of up to 60,000 feet. Developed jointly by the governments of Great Britain and France, Concorde was flown only by British Airways (and its predecessor BOAC) and Air France. The latter airline retired Concorde from commercial service in May 2003; British Airways’ Concorde made its final commercial flight on October 24th. Since entering service in 1976, more than 2.5 million British Airways passengers have flown faster than sound on Concorde.

Concorde's landing also set a new World's Record, in its flight from New York to Seattle.

Tour Information

Concorde will leave the Museum Ramp sometime on Thursday, November 6th, for decommissioning and is likely to return on the morning of Saturday, November 8th. It will remain on the Museum Ramp (on the east side of the main Museum complex) until approximately November 15th, with possible brief absences for further decommissioning work. On or about the 15th, the aircraft will be towed across East Marginal Way to the Museum's outdoor large-aircraft gallery. We anticipate that Concorde will open there for tours by Museum members only on Saturday, November 22nd. The Museum anticipates that Concorde will open to the general public on Friday, November 28th. These dates are subject to change. Concorde tours will be free with Museum admission.

FMI: http://museumofflight.org