Petition calls for Concorde return

Last updated at 15:11 22 October 2004


A petition signed by 20,000 people from around the world urging the Government to help get Concorde flying again was handed in to Downing Street today.

Almost exactly a year after the supersonic aircraft's last commercial flight, 30 members of the Save Concorde Group protested with banners and placards outside Number 10.

Chairman Ross Mallett, who handed over the petition with his eight-year-old daughter Jade, said: "We just want to see her fly again. We are not talking about passenger flights at this moment in time, (just) six or eight times a year at air shows."

The July 2000 Paris crash, the subsequent 15 months non-flying for the planes, the downturn in the US economy, the 9/11 tragedy and the Iraq war all conspired to make Concorde an uneconomical proposition.

Despite a last-minute surge in demand for seats when the plane's retirement was announced, it made its final commercial journey on October 23, 2003, 28 years after it first took to the skies.

Mr Mallett, 37, from Burton upon Trent, Staffordshire, set up the group in November last year out of frustration that he never had the opportunity to experience supersonic travel.

He said: "I feel cheated. I thought I'd do it next year or the year after. I thought she'd always be there.

"It's my dream and it's hundreds of thousands of people's dreams to see her fly again. The world want her back. She is a symbol of what mankind can achieve."

Fellow protester Peter Mitchell, a 39-year-old builder from High Wycombe, Bucks, said: "She's the swan of the skies, a fantastic shape, the fastest thing we can ever go on in our lifetime.

Watching her was something special. They have retired her ahead of her time."

The 20,000 signatures were collected from people at UK air shows and over the internet from supporters as far away as the US, Australia and Peru.

The Save Concorde Group has also received a letter from designer and restaurateur Sir Terence Conran saying he "applauded" their efforts.

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