Concorde takes to the air again for the first time in 20 years for paint job

10 August 2023 , 20:23

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Tourists watched jet being lifted (Image: Guerin Charles/ABACA/REX/Shutterstock)

Cruising at an altitude of, say, 100ft or so, Concorde is up in the air again for the first time in 20 years. And the jet was moving at a fraction of the 1,354mph supersonic speed it is famous for.

A crane hoisted it on to a barge in the Hudson river in New York to take it – slowly – to the Brooklyn Navy Yard, where it will be repainted. It has been at the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum in Manhattan since Concorde was retired in 2003.

This BA jet still holds the record for the fastest transatlantic crossing by a passenger plane – 2hrs, 52mins, 59secs. When the supersonic jet service ended in 2003, 75 air museums around the world put in bids for the 13 planes then in use.

Concorde at the Brooklyn Bridge (Guerin Charles/ABACA/REX/Shutterstock)

The only supersonic commercial jet that ever flew, the Concorde cruised at twice the speed of sound. A one-way ticket cost £4,500 in 2003. Susan Marenoff-Zausner, president of the Intrepid Museum, said: “We are stewards of some of the most important artifacts of the 20th and 21st centuries, and with that comes the responsibility to preserve, protect and perpetuate these icons for generations to come."

She said the restoration "will ultimately allow us to present this awe-inspiring technological marvel and continue to tell the stories behind it for the foreseeable future.”

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