Thu, Nov 06, 2003
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Tupolev Tu-144 was withdrawn from passenger service.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.
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