A retired
British Airways Concorde supersonic jetliner was
lifted into place Monday on a pier next to the
Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum after a 10-mile
barge trip from New Jersey.
Its return nearly completes a $120 million
restoration of the museum on the Hudson after a
year of work on the World War II aircraft carrier
and Hudson River Pier 86.
"There she goes -- the Concorde is airborne!"
cried Intrepid president Bill White as a huge
barge crane lifted the sleek 71-ton jetliner,
cradled in a special harness, 50 feet into the air
and deposited it deftly onto the pier. The crane,
the largest of its kind in the northeast, can lift
250 tons.
The BA jetliner set a New York-London speed record
of 2:59:59 in 1999, a mark that still stands.
Loaned to the Intrepid after the British and
French Concorde SST fleets were retired in 2003,
it spent the last year in storage while the
carrier underwent renovation.
