The Concorde supersonic jet , that has been standing along Manhattan’s west side since retiring from commercial flights took a slow boat (barge) to Brooklyn on Wednesday for a makeover , that will take several months.
Looking back in the history, When Concorde service ended in 2003, 75 air museums around the world put in bids for the 13 planes then in use.
That time, New York’s Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum could acquire the British Airways Concorde that still holds the record for the fastest transatlantic crossing by a passenger aircraft — 2 hours, 52 minutes and 59 seconds from Heathrow to JFK.
After being on a static display for around two decades, the needle-nosed jet will once again be out of commission until the spring of 2024, the Intrepid announced in a news release.
The only supersonic commercial jet that ever flew, the Concorde cruised at twice the speed of sound. A one-way ticket cost $6,000 in 2003.
A crane lifted the Intrepid’s Concorde onto a barge Wednesday for a very subsonic mode of travel to the Brooklyn Navy Yard, where it will be stripped down, sanded and repainted.
“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,” said Susan Marenoff-Zausner, president of the Intrepid Museum.
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,” she said.
Tours of the supersonic jet are temporarily suspended and will resume when Concorde returns. Along with the Concorde restoration, the museum also plans to renovate a section of Pier 86 adjacent to where the jet sits, which will create an additional 4,000 square feet of parkland for public use.
