Return of the Concorde (sort of)

GLENVILLE — Some readers will remember the August 1987 air show when a supersonic Concorde passenger jet landed at the Schenectady County Airport. As part of an air show, it took 62 people for a two-hour ride down the East Coast before returning.

A different Concorde — a replica of one, actually — is coming back, and this time will stay more than a a few hours.

The Empire State Aerosciences Museum has acquired a half-size — 100 feet long — replica of an SST Concorde, the supersonic passenger jet that once embodied the glamour of international travel but which is now an artifact of an earlier age of travel. All the museum has to do is get the pieces here from Long Island and assemble them.

The first shipment — the wing tips and tail — arrived this week by flatbed truck, and museum officials hope to have the rest of the plane, five shipments in all, by July.

“We’re committed to it,” museum trustee John Panowski said

The plan is to assemble the replica and mount it at a flight angle in front of the museum, on the Route 50 side, to serve as advertising in a spot passed by thousands of vehicles every day.

“It’s like putting together a giant model airplane, is what it is,” said Panoski, who is overseeing the project.

The replica was commissioned in the 1990s by British Overseas Airways, which along with Air France flew the Concorde between Europe and the United States from 1976 to 2003. The replica weighed 12 tons and was mounted on a building in Times Square to promote the flights.

After Concorde service ended in 2003, the replica was donated to the Cradle of Aviation Museum of Long Island, which was unable to find a place for it. Last year, that museum offered to donate it to the Empire State Aeroscience Museum, if the Glenville museum would transport it.

Panoski said the transportation will cost about $10,000, and assembling and mounting the piece will cost another $20,000.

A fundraiser is planned for July 29 to mark the 90th anniversary of Charles Lindbergh’s landing at the airport, or people may also donate directly to the museum, at ESAM, 250 Rudy Chase Dr., Glenville, N,Y. 12302. There is also a GoFundMe page. The page has raised $2,830 so far.

The Concorde first flew in 1969 and entered commercial service in 1976. It had cachet as the first transcontinental supersonic passenger jet. But a 2000 crash in Paris that killed 109 people, the rise of planes that carried far more people and the general decline in flying after the 9/11 terrorist attacks all contributed to the jets’ demise.

The Empire State Aerosciences Museum is open Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays, and during the summer vacation season, it is open Tuesdays through Sundays. It draws 8,000 to 10,000 visitors annually, Panoski said.

Reach Gazette reporter Stephen Williams at 395-3086, [email protected] or @gazettesteve on Twitter.

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