Across the Pond Archive Page   

Manchester Gets Its Own Concorde!

It was recently announced in the news over here that following the retirement of Concorde (rest its soul), various cities will get a member of the fleet as a 'living museum' piece--the idea being that the hoi polloi, who couldn't dream of affording an actual flight on the Concorde before, can venture onto a plane and ooh and aah over it--without the actual experience of travelling faster than the Earth's rotation, of course, and presumably without the glass of inflight champagne.

Manchester is to get one of the planes. It already flew into Manchester last week and is currently ensconced in a hangar, where the Airport is creating its own viewing park for its public debut. It should be ready in April sometime. I can't wait--definitely good for some photos.

But the thing is, so many Brits are wondering why the heck Concorde had to retire in the first place. It was such a part of British culture, and still had a lot of life left. Of course British Airways was being diplomatic about the whole thing, saying it was about cost (of course, eh!) but surely there was some way that it didn't have to be retired all together. Richard Branson, British entrepreneur extrordinaire, offered to keep the fleet going, but BA refused. Was it any wonder, then, why grown adults were unashamedly crying, and literally tens of thousands of ordinary-Joes across the country turned out to bid farewell to it? I wish I could've seen Concorde fly into Manchester, but the crowds were incredible and there was no way we could've got a spot at the aviation viewing park beside the airport to witness a little piece of history. But am definitely looking forward to the opportunity to step on board and wonder what it would be like to fly on such a grand plane.

Of course, there is an alternative. You *could* own your own paper airplane version of Concorde to whizz around! (Follow the highlighted link for the easy instructions--sonic boom not included)