How a British Concorde ended up living in a Seattle museum

Long after its final flight, the world remains fascinated by Concorde.

Just 20 of these iconic aircraft were ever produced.

One of the British Airways fleet found a somewhat surprising retirement home in Seattle.

Here’s how it ended up there, involving something called a ‘Flight to Nowhere’.

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How did this Concorde end up in Seattle?

The last-ever Concorde was built in 1979 in Bristol, but the planes remained in service until 2003.

Being a collaboration between France and the United Kingdom, each country operated ten jets in total, including prototypes and pre-production models.

Each airline had seven Concordes in commercial service and the other aircraft were prototypes and development models

After spotting it in one of their videos, someone asked The Museum of Flight in Seattle how they got their hands on the legendary plane.

“The short answer is kind of boring, and it’s that we asked for it,” a museum representative said on TikTok.

The long answer is a bit more interesting.

Back in Concorde’s heyday, British Airways allowed the plane to be chartered for something called a ‘Flight to Nowhere’.

The ‘Flight to Nowhere’

And considering the mammoth cost of just one ticket, we can’t imagine this was a cheap charter.

Most people who flew Concorde were flying for business or exciting holidays, like a day trip to the Caribbean.

This special charter was for people who just wanted to experience flying at supersonic speeds, no meeting in New York or hotel booking was needed.

British Airways would take off from one airport and land back at the same one, hence the name ‘Flight to Nowhere’.

Kind of like a really expensive rollercoaster ride.

The Museum of Flight chartered two of these flights over the years as promotional publicity stunts.

In the process, it built up a relationship with British Airways.

A few years before the plane was set to retire, the museum requested to have one of the Concordes for its display.

And British Airways honored the request, delivering the G-BOAG to Seattle.

@museumofflight Replying to @ehhcoco How did a British Concorde end up living in Seattle? #MuseumOfFlight #AvGeek #History #MuseumTok #Concorde #ConcordePlane #BritishAirways #Airplane #Supersonic #Boom ♬ original sound – The Museum of Flight

This plane was the eighth British-built Concorde and logged more than 5,600 takeoffs and over 16,200 flight hours over its career.

It was also the aircraft to fly the last British Airways commercial flight from New York to London in 2003.

While its systems were disabled as soon as it parked in the museum, visitors can still admire the four powerful Rolls-Royce/SNECMA Olympus 593 Mk. 610 turbojet engines.

It’s also possible to go onboard and check out the incredible cockpit.

Many passengers have reported they were amazingly allowed to visit the pilot in the cockpit during their Concorde trips.

We’re not sure the next generation of supersonic pilots will be able to offer the same hospitality.

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