You may never have flown above the oceans in the supersonic jet but this time next year you may be able to walk through one sitting on a jetty atop the Thames.
Plans are afoot to rescue a decommissioned Concorde from a British Airways hangar at Heathrow Airport and display it on a double-deck pontoon moored near the London Eye observation wheel, with the Concorde receiving her first visitors in March 2012.
According to Club Concorde, which is behind the scheme, a London corporate investment company is "confident of raising the £20 million investment" needed to cover the cost of the project.
The display platform will be situated between the London Eye and Hungerford Bridge, adjacent to Jubilee Gardens, with construction completed by January 2012. A new jetty would allow access for visitors from The Embankment and riverboats.
Visitors will be able to get a first-hand look at the extraordinary aircraft and also explore is development and history in an interactive display located on the lower deck of the pontoon.
The plane itself, codenamed Alpha Bravo, made its final flight between New York and London on August 15, 2000 – just weeks after the crash of an Air France Concorde outside Paris killed 113 people and led to the grounding of the entire fleet.
David Flynn is the Editor-in-Chief of Executive Traveller and a bit of a travel tragic with a weakness for good coffee, shopping and lychee martinis.
03 Jan 2011
Total posts 665
I love this idea -- not least because I'd've been able to see it from my old office in London -- but I really hope that they bring back the old pre-Landor livery for the plane. I love that first British Airways red tail livery, and am not a fan of the current one at all.
QF Gold
06 Feb 2011
Total posts 5
I've been lucky enough to visit one of the remaining Concorde's on show in Bridgetown, Barbados. It was pretty neat, but can imagine in london it would be a somewhat lack lustre experience given how fast you need to be whisked through the aircraft for others to come through as well. Would make for a nice view though.
Hi Guest, join in the discussion on London's newest attraction: a British Airways Concorde?