Flight crew celebrates upon arrival at Boeing Field, Seattle.
Nov. 5th,2003. G-BOAG arrives Boeing Field, Seattle.
It's official. British Airways Concorde G-BOAG arrived late this afternoon to her new home at the Museum of Flight. The governor of Washington was on hand along with thousands of spectators to witness a page turning in aviation history. The passengers, all British Airways employees, reportedly partied the entire flight. Unfortunately, I had to work, so I stole a pic from a news source via the net. The Concorde arrived from New York's JFK after being allowed a special super-sonic clearance to fly over remote areas Canada. The following is a news report of the actual flight:
Another record bites the dust - 11/5/03
After its fastest ever acceleration to Mach 1 a few weeks back, Concorde G-BOAG set yet another record as it arrived at its final home, Seattle.
Special Air traffic clearances was granted for the aircraft to fly supersonically over the uninhabited areas of northern Canada, thus enabling the aircraft for Fly from New York on the East coast, to Seattle on the west coast in a record breaking time of 3hrs and 57 minutes.
Alpha Golf started the first part of her final ever trip on Monday November 3rd. She departed from runway 27R at Heathrow for the final time at 15:30 for the standard trip to New York After "resting for a day" she was ready to depart for her final resting place.
Captains Mike banister and Les Brodie departed from New York at exactly 13:35:18, after calling the tower at the moment they became airborne, to allow the Tower controllers to verify independently the take of time.
Thousands of people turned out at Boeing Field to welcome the aircraft to Seattle. It will go on display at the Museum of Flight alongside the very first Boeing 747, 727 and a BOAC Comet 4B that is being restored.
“ The Concorde is what we consider an icon of this first century of flight. And to have it added to our collection is just marvelous,” said Ralph Bufano, Museum of Flight.
Bufano is a very happy man. Since 1985, the museum has tried to get its own Concorde to display alongside slower but more commercially successful jets.
“ There were between 70 and 80 museums vying for these aircraft, and only two British aircraft came to the United States,” he added.
Fall has arrived! Actually, with the temps dipping into the 30's currently and even colder in outlying areas, it feels like we skipped a season and went straight to Winter-like conditions. Snow fell in Olympia last night and Mt. Rainier received a nice blanket as well. The overcast cleared above the city before midday and gave way to spectacular crystal-clear views that Seattle is known for. I jogged down to the Elliott Bay recreation trail as well as Pier 91 and Smith Cove/Seattle Yacht Club (SYC) to take advantage of a rare "winters" day.
I apologize to those of you on dinosaur-dial-up. I reduced the pics to what I felt was a reasonable size, without losing impact. And although I have PhotoShop, NONE OF THE FOLLOWING PICS WERE ENHANCED IN ANY WAY>>>ENJOY>>>
Elliott Bay recreation trail:downtown, grain terminal and fishing pier. (Box cars arrive from The Palouse with wheat, then processed and loaded at this pier facility directly onto freighters bound for foreign countries.
Every wonder where that fish you ate came from? Trawlers lined-up at Pier 91.
The "Artic Storm" moored for the season. My Queen Anne neighborhood in background.
A tree stands naked along the shoreline of the SYC after the high winds of last week
Concorde retired this October after nearly 35 years of flight and more that 25 years of passenger service, bringing to an end the era of supersonic passenger transportation.
Concorde made a tidy operating profit for the airlines, but with the aircraft approaching 30 years of age a large investment programme would be required to update many of the systems on board the aircraft. With the premium first class market as it is post September 11th 2001, there is no hope of the airlines being able to fund this investment and keep the aircraft in profit.
Therefore, the airlines decided to write off the current levels of investment in the aircraft, of around £100M, rather than risk having to write off sums that could top £200M in the coming years, if the premium travel market did not improve.
British Airways have stated that they intended to "Celebrate Concorde" in its final months, and attempt to give people through the UK a chance to fly on-board the aircraft, before they were retired to museums.
It is a sad time, but the inevitable really only came forward a few years. We should celebrate what Concorde was and still is - the only profit making Supersonic Passenger Jet to ever to go into regular revenue service. The AMERICANS or RUSSIANS COULD NOT EVEN DO IT - that's how far ahead of its time it was ... and still is!