Concorde's last Hoorah

[pojo]

Concorde Flies Into The History Books

British Airways And Air France Have Ended Commercial Operation Of The Supersonic Airliner

Oct 24, 2003 10:04 am US/Central
NEW YORK (CBS) Adieu, cheerio, farewell.

The Concorde, the skinny needle-nosed 20th-century icon of international jet-setters for nearly three decades, soared into history Friday morning on its final passenger flight from New York to London.

Flight 002 took off at 7:38 EDT from John F. Kennedy International Airport carrying about 100 passengers and swooped into Heathrow Airport just past 4 p.m. (11a.m. EDT), minutes after two other British Airways Concordes. One flew from Edinburgh, Scotland, carrying winners of a competition, and the other had taken off from Heathrow an hour and a half earlier and carried invited guests on a loop over the Bay of Biscay.

At the controls of the jet that took off from Kennedy Airport was Capt. Michael, BA's chief Concorde pilot.

"There's a little sadness," Bannister said. "What we've tried to do is make the retirement of the Concorde a celebration. It's something we'd like to do with the style and grace and elegance befitting this majestic aircraft."

"It's been a wonderful achievement," said Ross Stainton, the former chief of the predecessor to British Airways, before boarding the Concorde's swan song.

Stainton, who was with the British Overseas Airways Corp. when the Concorde was developed and was aboard its debut flight, said he was "very sad, but also very proud."

Passengers aboard the New York-London flight included broadcaster Sir David Frost, actress Joan Collins, model Christie Brinkley, ballerina Darcy Bussell and Formula One car racing boss Bernie Ecclestone.

At Heathrow, thousands of enthusiasts gathered to watch the landings, but not everyone loved the Concorde. Over the years, many criticized its enormous roar and almost everyone found its fares of $9,000 and up for a trans-Atlantic round-trip too high.

Spectator Julia Zuk, 50, who lives near Heathrow, said she enjoyed her daily glimpses of the elegant jet and hadn't minded the noise.

"It's like wearing stilettos," she said. "They hurt your feet, but you know they look a lot sexier than ordinary shoes."

But in New York, a group of Queens residents celebrated the end of its sonic booms with a nonalcoholic champagne toast.

"It was jubilation, followed by a long sigh of relief," said Anson Kaye, a spokesman for U.S. Rep.Anthony Weiner, who represents the district.

The Concorde, conceived and built by the British and French governments, began commercial service in January 1976. It was hailed as a technological marvel but its economics were shaky and it never made back the billions of dollars of taxpayers' money invested in it.

Planners expected to sell hundreds of planes, but there was little interest in the expensive, fuel-guzzling jets. Its limited range and rules that forbade it from setting off sonic booms over land meant it mostly stuck to its trans-Atlantic back-and-forth.

For years it was the favorite form of Europe-to-America travel for celebrities and high-powered executives. Cruising speeds of 1,350 mph, meant westbound travelers got to New York more than an hour and a half before they left Europe.

The beginning of the end came when an Air France Concorde crashed after takeoff from Paris on July 25, 2000, killing 113 people and forcing both airlines to ground their supersonic jets for more than a year.

Overhauled Concordes returned to service two months after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, in the middle of one of aviation's worst slumps and a miserable global economy.

On Friday, the delta-winged plane made a stately final approach west along the Thames, granted a low-altitude approach for a last look at Big Ben and Buckingham Palace among the sights of central London.

It was a bittersweet end. Many Britons expressed pride in the technological achievement the Concorde embodied but sadness that its days in the skies were ending without a supersonic successor to take its place.

Bannister, the Concorde's pilot, said the superlatives accorded the jetliner are all true.

"The ability to buy back time, to travel at the edge of space and fly faster than the Earth rotates, the opportunity to be in two places at once — the designers were brilliant," he said.

British Airways said it would make an announcement next week about the fate of its seven Concordes. Most are expected to go to museums.

Not everyone was lamenting the Concorde's final takeoff. Resident's of the Queens communities of Ozone Park and Howard Beach have been living with the noise for almost three decades. A congressman who has complained about the airport noise held a champagne toast at a Queens park to mark the plane's demise and the end of its sonic booms.

"The last flight of the Concorde may be chock full of celebrities, but the celebrating will be right here on the ground," Rep. Anthony Weiner said. "At long last we will all be rid of this headache."


(© 2003 CBS Worldwide Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report. )

[Stephanie]

It is a little sad to think of these planes retiring. I remember all of the controversy when they were first used - alot of it came from the towns in NY that surrounded JFK and LaGuardia due to the sonic boom.

[bfez1]

I was going to take the last flight today but decided, no, I'd rather be at work today!

[nystate]

Its too bad, the concorde was a great airplane, but how many people can really afford to spend $9,000+ to fly on it? I think the lowest that the concorde ever got NYC-LHR was $3,000, and that was during a special promotion. Still, It was a beautiful thing to look at.