Goodbye to Concord

5.06.30pm GMT Mon 20th Oct 2003

With Concord due to fly for the last time on Friday, residents in Twickenham, Teddington and Hampton will no longer be able to set their clocks at 11am by the plan flying overhead. Reactions vary from those who regret the passing of a beautiful and unique plane to those who welcome the end to the interruption of school classes or ordinary conversation by the noise of the supersonic aircraft.

Vincent Cable said: "I have had strong representations from both sides of the argument, Concord was undoubtedly an engineering and aesthetic achievement. But it made no economic sense and absorbed billions of pounds of tax payers money; and the noise and lack of fuel economy were other negatives."

"After the Paris crash I pressed for Concord to be grounded until safety was guaranteed and the subsequent safety analysis showed that the additional costs would make future services no longer worthwhile. The end of Concord will bring out some understandable nostalgia for the age when British engineering was a world beater; but there is no justifications for keeping it going".