With its iconic nose cone, sleek delta wing and gleaming white paintwork, Concorde was undoubtedly Britain’s best-loved aircraft for more than 30 years.
Passengers would pay up to £10,000 each for the privilege of flying across the Atlantic on board the luxurious supersonic jet until it was controversially taken out of service in 2003.
And now fans can get their hands on a rather large piece of aviation history – one of the aircraft’s fully functioning Rolls-Royce Olympus engines.
IT consultant Tim Parker, 54, has put the shining piece of British engineering up for sale on auction site eBay – for £1.25 million. The engine comes complete with a 17-page manual, a certificate of authenticity from British Airways – and a demand that it is never used for flight again.
Mr Parker, of Woking, Surrey, said: ‘It is on offer to anyone with some serious money. It is the ultimate boy’s toy.
‘I don’t know what people would do with the engine – it is up to them – but it is fully working. I think it will end up in a private museum or kept in the foyer of a big corporation to show off such a marvel of engineering. I’m selling it as a static display. You wouldn’t be allowed to use it to fly.
‘I have put it on eBay for a ten-day auction. I have not had any takers so far but 909 people have looked at it and a few people have contacted me to ask questions about it. More than 20 people are watching it to see what happens with the sale.’
Bidding must end at 2pm on Tuesday. Mr Parker’s fascination with Concorde started in the Nineties when he worked for BA at Heathrow. ‘I used to see it take off and land every day and I just loved its elegance.
‘There was no aircraft that had that kind of speed with 100 passengers on board, with their baggage stowed and while they were sipping champagne.’
Like millions of Britons Mr Parker was deeply saddened when the fleet was taken out of service. In 2000, a Concorde operated by Air France crashed near Paris shortly after takeoff, killing 100 passengers, nine crew and four people on the ground.
Three years later, it was announced that the aircraft was being retired because of economic factors. Passenger numbers had slumped after the Paris crash and the September 11 terrorist attacks in the US.
In 2004, Mr Parker attended a BA auction during which items from the plane’s back-up ‘service fleet’ were sold off to the public and collectors, with much of the proceeds going to charity.
He only intended to buy some low-key memorabilia but instead bought the engine – and then had the unenviable task of breaking the news to his wife.
Mr Parker, who refuses to reveal how much he paid for it, said: ‘I went there thinking I would buy a set of cutlery, some silver napkin rings and a pen from Concorde but instead I came away with one of its engines.
‘I remember driving home and thinking, “Oh God, what have I done now?”
‘I am an ordinary working-class guy, struggling to pay the bills but once in a while an opportunity arises to buy something like this, and I took it.
‘I came back down the motorway afterwards thinking, “How am I going to explain this to my wife?” I had to tell her that instead of the new Audi car I was going to buy her, I’d bought Concorde’s Rolls-Royce engine.’
Mr Parker owns a host of other items from the famous fleet, including several seats, a pitot probe – which was attached to the end of the nose cone and measured airspeed – and a compressor.
The engine, which was first used on a transatlantic flight in 1978, has been his pride and joy ever since he bought it, but he now believes it is time for someone else to own a piece of history.
The winning bidder will first have to pay a £35,000 deposit and arrange to pick up the 18ft engine, which weighs three-and-a-half tons, from a lock-up warehouse near Mr Parker’s home.
Only 20 Concordes were ever built as part of a joint British and French initiative in the Sixties. The jet made its maiden flight in 1969 and seven years later it came into full service, making its first-ever passenger flights, which it continued to do in style for the next three decades.
The incredible power generated by the four Rolls-Royce Olympus 593-610 engines – mounted under Concorde’s wings – allowed the aircraft to reach speeds of 1,330mph, easily breaking the sound barrier. Flights to New York took a mere three-and-a-half hours.
Only a handful of the aircraft survive intact, including one on display at Manchester Airport.
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