Concorde sell-off goes supersonic
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On the nose: Concorde's trademark proboscis sold for 34 times its estimated value at $500,000.
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PARIS, France -- Prices for relics of the now retired Concorde airliner -- including its trademark nose -- went supersonic at an auction in Paris.
The event raised almost $4 million for children's charities as fans feverishly claimed pieces of Concorde from the dustbin of aviation history, bidding energetically for the conical nose, doors and even instrument panels from Air France's fleet of five retired jets.
The event was such a draw that Christie's auction house had to install video links and extra telephone lines to accommodate the crowds.
Even so, some potential bidders -- who included aviation buffs, Concorde fans and professional museum buyers -- simply failed to get in.
"Concorde still arouses the same passion," said Air France President Jean-Cyril Spinetta.
Air France and British Airways, the only carriers to fly the Concorde, announced the retirement of the jets in April, citing ballooning costs and dwindling ticket sales. Air France grounded its supersonic fleet a month later.
After frantic bidding, the distinctive needle nose went to an anonymous French bidder for nearly $500,000 -- well above the maximum estimated value of $14,730.
There were gasps from the crowd and applause as auctioneer Francois Curiel, chairman of Christie's Europe, brought down the hammer.
Jean-Francois Berger, a Moroccan businessman who called the grounding of the Concorde "the end of an era," said he couldn't resist shelling out $5,300 for two antennas from the 30-year-old aircraft, initially valued at about $82.
"I want to give them to my son, who is two years old," he said. "I'll put them somewhere safe and he can appreciate them later on."
Proceeds from the sale, totaling $3.8 million from 218 lots, went to the Air France Foundation, a charitable organization for children.
A warning panel sold for $1,180, while a bidder paid $153,000 for one fo the Olympus 593 engines.
Also sold to the highest bidders: A door, for $33,000, and a speed indicator, at $94,000.
Tha auction at Christie's in Paris raised $4m for children's charities.
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Edouard Chemel, a former Concorde pilot who is writing a book on the aircraft, told Britain 's Sunday Times: "The parts still whisper to me."
Auctioneer Curiel could not contain his emotion either, reported the paper.
Concorde, he said, represented "a breakthrough in aviation history. The aircraft's elegant silhouette became immediately recognisable on the tarmac, bringing us one step closer to our dream of flying like a bird."
Though some people went home disappointed.
"The prices are too high, it's crazy," said Jean Le Camus, a retiree from the Riviera town of Cannes who attended the auction with his wife.
"We've flown on Concorde and we loved it. It would have been a nice symbol to take home a souvenir from the plane," he said.
• The last but one Concorde flight will leave London's Heathrow airport bound for Barbados Monday with 70 invited British Airways staff on board.
The supersonic plane, which regularly flew on the London-Barbados route, is being flown to the Caribbean island so it can permanently reside at Grantley Adams airport.
The very final flight Concorde will make will be on November 26 when Concorde chief pilot Mike Bannister takes the supersonic plane from Heathrow, via the Bay of Biscay, to Filton in Bristol, where the aircraft was made and where this particular plane will be housed.
Copyright 2003 CNN. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Associated Press contributed to this report.
