Bid for Concorde's runway return

A GROUP of former Concorde maintenance workers are trying to get the plane to roll on a runway for the Paris Air Show in 2011.

The Olympus 593 association, named after the engine, has been allowed to start maintenance work on the Sierra Delta, the last Concorde ever to fly, stored in the Museum of Air and Space near Paris.

President Frédéric Pinlet said the group “is nostalgic of the Concorde era and wants to get it rolling with the engines running again.”

He added: “We have 40 partners ready to bring everything we need in terms of equipment. We also have some funds which have been donated.”

Their British counterpart, the Save Concorde Group, is somewhat more ambitious. They dream of making the plane fly for the 2012 London Olympics but this would cost e20m.