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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Wednesday, November 26, 2003

Concorde arrives in New York harbor

Six years after setting a speed record for a commercial jet crossing the Atlantic, a British Airways Concorde took a slow boat Tuesday up New York harbor to its new home at a waterside museum.


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Concorde arrives in New York harbor
Six years after setting a speed record for a commercial jet crossing the Atlantic, a British Airways Concorde took a slow boat Tuesday up New York harbor to its new home at a waterside museum.

Lashed to the deck of a gray barge, the slender white jetliner rode under the Verrazano Bridge and past the Statue of Liberty, made a brief pirouette for the television cameras off lower Manhattan and moved majestically up the Hudson to the Intrepid Sea Air Space Museum.

The aircraft, one of 13 Concordes still in existence, will become a permanent exhibit alongside the World War II aircraft carrier that is one of New York's most popular attractions, close by the city's cruise ship pier.

In 27 years of service, the Concordes carried film stars and other wealthy jetsetters on transoceanic journeys and charmed aviation buffs with their sleek beauty, but never turned a profit as airlines opted instead for wide-bodied jets able to carry large passenger loads at far less cost.

The crash in 2000 of an Air France Concorde outside Paris, killing 113, sealed the fate of the world's only supersonic passenger transport. France halted all service last May and the British followed in October.

New York's Concorde made its last flight from London on Nov. 10, and its engines and avionics have since been removed.

Next spring, the Concorde will be transferred to a larger barge. When opened to the public next year, the Concorde barge will be a "park-like setting" with trees and exhibits on the history of trans-Atlantic travel.

Source: Agencies


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