Barbados to get Concorde

British Airways Concorde

Saturday, November 1, 2003

LONDON, England (AFP): One of British Airways' remaining Concordes will be going to Grantley Adams Airport in Bridgetown, Barbados, into which Concorde flew many times. All seven of BA's Concordes are to be placed in museums or put on display elsewhere, the carrier said on Thursday, dashing plane buffs' hopes that one model would be kept airworthy.

Four of the supersonic jets, which went out of service for the final time on Friday, will be kept in Britain, with two going to the United States and the final one to Barbados, BA said in a statement.

The airline said it had set up a study with Airbus, who maintained the plane, to see whether a single Concorde could be kept useable for non-commercial events such as fly-pasts and air shows.

"A detailed study with Airbus has regrettably led us both to conclude that it would not be possible," said chief executive Rod Eddington.

The decision is a bitter disappointment to fans of the plane, who turned out in their thousands last week to watch the final three passenger-carrying Concorde flights touch down at London's Heathrow airport.

One Concorde is to go on display at Heathrow, with another sent to Manchester Airport in northwest England and a third destined for the Museum of Flight, near Edinburgh, BA announced.

Another model will go to the British headquarters of Airbus at Filton, near Bristol, southwest England.

The Museum of Flight in Seattle will receive a plane along with New York's Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum.

BA had received a large number of requests for planes, said Eddington.

"We have chosen the final homes based a number of criteria: their ability to properly exhibit and preserve the aircraft, their geographical location and accessibility to the public.

"We are working closely with each of the new homes to make sure they show off each Concorde at her best."

The plane is thus set for a final series of crew-only flights, the first of which will leave Heathrow for Manchester airport on Friday. The other Concordes would leave for their new homes "shortly", BA said.

Developed in the 1960s by the French company Aerospatiale and the British Aircraft Corporation, Concorde is regarded as one of the greatest technological feats of the 20th century.

However in April this year, BA and Air France - the only other airline to use Concordes - announced the jet was being retired due to falling passenger numbers and spiralling maintenance costs.

Concorde's end had been hastened by the crash of an Air France Concorde in July 2000 after take-off from Paris's Charles de Gaulle airport.

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