2023-08-09 19:42:27
In New York, a decommissioned Concorde, which is normally open to the public, has embarked on a spectacular journey: by crane and ship it went to a shipyard in Brooklyn for urgently needed renovation work.
The Concorde once flew between Europe and the USA at supersonic speed – now one of the decommissioned machines is a popular exhibit in New York. But the museum aircraft needs to be renovated.
For this purpose, the British Airways machine was brought from the west side of Manhattan to a dockyard in Brooklyn. It took hours to lift the supersonic jet from the pier onto a barge and then tow it to its destination.
Work until spring
According to the operators, the renovation work is urgently needed. “We know how popular Concorde is with our visitors, and that’s why it’s hard to see her go, even for a short time,” said museum director Susan Marenoff-Zausner. The machine should be on display once more next spring.
The elegant snow-white supersonic jet with delta wings and pointed nose was once the ultimate between Paris, London and New York. For a quarter of a century, the aircraft enabled jetsetters and top managers to fly from Europe to New York in three and a half hours – following sunset in Europe, before sunset in the USA.
Disaster struck in 2000
In July 2000, the catastrophe struck: Shortly following taking off from Paris airport, a Concorde crashed, all 109 occupants and four people on the ground died. The cause of the accident was a metal strip lying on the runway – the beginning of the end of the “queen of the air”. Added to this was the aviation crisis following the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 and rapidly increasing maintenance costs.
In view of the high losses, 2003 was the end: On October 24, the last commercially used supersonic jet operated by British Airways and Air France landed in London.
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