SEATTLE -- The Concorde has landed.
About 1,000 people were on hand Wednesday afternoon to witness the final flight of a mothballed British Airways supersonic jet, which touched down at Boeing Field. Pilots waved British and U.S. flags from the cockpit windows.
The droop-nosed plane is going on display at the Museum of Flight -- the only one of the retired planes to be exhibited in the West.
Only 20 Concordes were built and 18 still exist.
This plane made its last commercial flight, from New York to London, in September.
British Airways retired all of its Concordes last month, and Air France stopped flying the planes in May because they are too costly to fly and maintain.
The Seattle Concorde will be parked at the Museum of Flight's ramp until about Nov. 15.
The museum plans to open the jet for tours by museum members Nov. 22. Tours for the general public will begin Nov. 28.
Supersonic transport development was a big issue in the late 1960s, when the U.S. government supported Boeing Co. efforts to develop a larger competitor to the Concorde.
The city's National Basketball Association team was named the SuperSonics.
Because of environmental and cost concerns, federal funds for the project were terminated in 1971.
The Concorde, conceived and built by the British and French governments, began commercial service in January 1976. It was hailed as a technological marvel but its economics were shaky and it never made back the billions of tax dollars invested in it.
Still, the European government subsidies that made it possible set the stage for Airbus, now Boeing's main competitor.
