End of Concorde trans-Atlantic flights will mark end of an era NEW YORK (AP) =97 Playboys and potentates accustomed to arriving in New York= =20 before they left Paris will soon have to settle for ordinary, subsonic=20 travel. Air France is retiring its fleet of Concordes after this week, and= =20 British Airways will follow suit in October, ending for the foreseeable=20 future the era of champagne and caviar at Mach 2. Unless Virgin Atlantic=20 chief Richard Branson succeeds in his bid to take over British Airways'=20 Concordes =97 which few consider likely =97 the 12 existing Concordes will= be=20 dispersed to museums. "We want to let the Concorde retire in grace and=20 dignity," said British Airways spokesman John Lampl. "It's just costing us= =20 more to run, and from a business point of view the decision was made to end= =20 Concorde now." The idea of a supersonic passenger plane gained momentum in the 1950s,=20 after Chuck Yeager's 1947 blast through the sound barrier. Manufacturers in= =20 Britain, France, the Soviet Union and the United States all worked on=20 designs. In 1968, the Concorde's first prototype rolled out at Toulouse,=20 France. It lifted off 13 months later, three months after the Soviet=20 version made its first flight. The Concorde began regular service in 1976.= =20 With a cruising speed of 1,350 mph, it crosses the Atlantic in about three= =20 hours; because of the time change, westbound passengers arrive an hour=20 before they left. The Concorde's imminent demise is cause for mourning on=20 Web sites where passengers post breathless accounts of their flights on the= =20 famed "silver bird." But others will celebrate the last days of the=20 needle-nosed jet, which is louder and less fuel efficient than any other=20 plane currently flying. An unrestricted one-way ticket on the Concorde costs $6,000, but special=20 deals including half-Concorde round trips can make supersonic travel more=20 affordable. Growing up, Eric Seiden thought the Concorde "was just=20 something cool" but assumed it was out of his reach. Then in 1994, Seiden,= =20 who lives in Miami and works for a distributor of screws, nuts and bolts,=20 was unexpectedly upgraded from business class to Concorde on Air France.=20 "It's as close as you can get to outer space," said Seiden, who has his own= =20 Concorde Web site. "You can actually see the huge curvature of the Earth." Seiden's fellow passengers included newlyweds Michael Jackson and Lisa=20 Marie Presley canoodling in the back of the plane. The marriage did not=20 appear to be a publicity stunt, Seiden noted. "They were really in love." Although the Concorde's regular passengers include many celebrities, the=20 majority are time-is-money businessmen. And most are men: According to=20 British Airways, 80% of its Concorde passengers are male, and the average=20 age is 43. At 19, Fraser Davidson drew stares when he flew the Concorde=20 last September. Davidson, a student at the University of Southampton in=20 England, received a Concorde ticket as a high school graduation gift from=20 his father. "You're at 60,000 feet," he said. "You're kind of unique and=20 you feel part of a special club." Ross Frisbie, a recent graduate of the=20 University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School of Business, flew the Concorde= =20 last summer and described it as "part amusement park ride, part broom=20 closet and part five-star restaurant." "The actual physical space is quite= =20 cramped," he said. "There's barely enough room for a tall person to stand."= =20 Frisbie said he noticed Sarah Ferguson, the Duchess of York, on his=20 outbound flight; no one bothered her. Both Air France and British Airways suspended service on the Concorde after= =20 a July 25, 2000 Air France crash that killed 113. The planes were revamped= =20 to address safety concerns, and service resumed in November 2001. But with= =20 the economy faltering, the luxury jet has been taking off less than half=20 full. The Concorde has always had detractors as well as fans. It is not=20 bound by regulations requiring modern jets to muffle their engines, so even= =20 though the sonic boom occurs over water, the Concorde is louder than=20 anything else that flies. "It's a noisy, gas-guzzling piece of equipment,"= =20 said Peter Wakeham, director of the Noise Abatement Society in Brighton,=20 England. "We are happy to see it go." U.S. Rep. Anthony Weiner, a Democrat= =20 whose district includes neighborhoods near Kennedy Airport, said his=20 constituents would celebrate the Concorde's last flight. "It is literally=20 loud enough that last summer we had an incident when it made car alarms go= =20 off," Weiner said. Some Concorde facts Last scheduled date of regular passenger service: On Air France, May 31.= =20 On British Airways, Oct. 24. Acceleration: 0 to 225 mph in 30 seconds. Cruising speed: 1,350 mph, twice the speed of sound. Cruising altitude: 60,000 feet, or 11 miles high. Number of passenger seats: 100. Fuel consumption: 6,900 gallons per hour. Starting bid on eBay for six British Airways Concorde Royal Doulton=20 crystal liqueur glasses: $24. *************************************************** The owner of Roger's Trinbago Site/TnTisland.com Roj (Roger James) escape email mailto:ejames@xxxxxxxxx Trinbago site: www.tntisland.com Carib Brass Ctn site www.tntisland.com/caribbeanbrassconnection/ Steel Expressions www.mts.net/~ejames/se/ Mas Site: www.tntisland.com/tntrecords/mas2003/ Site of the Week: http://www.caribbeanfloral.com TnT Webdirectory: http://search.co.tt *********************************************************