Collecting Concorde Memorabilia

It is now 45 years since Concorde’s first flight, in 1969, and almost 11 years since the aircraft was finally retired on 26^th November, 2003. In all, a total of 20 aircraft were built in France and the UK, with six of these being prototypes and development aircraft.

Of the remaining aircraft, seven each were delivered to Air France and British Airways. The name itself, meaning harmony, unity and friendship, was intended to reflect the agreement between both countries in developing the aircraft.

Concorde is still regarded as an icon in the aviation world, the engineering sensation of its era, not equalled since.

Although I never had the privilege of travelling on Concorde myself, my sister worked for British Airways at the time and I have one or two items of memorabilia, including stationery produced by Smythson, which would fetch around £25 were I to sell it.

Due to its demise, Concorde souvenirs are eminently collectable, and as one might expect, there are several websites dedicated to them.

The items themselves can roughly be divided up into ‘On Board’ items, which were tokens given to passengers as mementos of their journey. These were not for sale and might include flight certificates, photographs and other items presented as gifts.

Collectables referred to as ‘Galley or Cabin’ items, are those things that might be used while the passenger was on board and include cutlery, china and glassware, in addition to in-flight equipment used by the cabin crew. Several different stylised designs were used over the years that Concorde was in operation; the final design was from Conran, and all pieces of china were made by either Royal Doulton or Wedgwood. These can now be had for as little as £5 a piece.

Also available are ‘Engineering’ collectables, basically bits of the plane itself. Although in technology terms much of what was used back then is now considered very old hat, at the time it was thought to be the latest thing. Concorde was powered by four Rolls Royce engines and travelled at 1370mph, a speed still not matched by any aircraft since. There is still no other aircraft that can travel at this speed without re-fuelling either. One can readily find for sale engine blades and electrical parts, leading me to believe that workers must have completely stripped the redundant aircraft.

A number of those items for sale, particularly those produced for Concorde’s iconic ‘final flight’, have been signed by Concorde’s then Chief Pilot, Captain Mike Bannister.

He had acquired a significant amount of memorabilia, including cockpit instruments, and the Pitot Probe, which sat on the front of the nose cone, and he put them up for auction in July this year to raise the money to fund his daughter’s flying school training.