Concorde Items Up For Auction

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A former Concorde captain is auctioning off his store of aviation memorabilia this week, in hopes of helping his daughter to pay off her loans for flight training. The items include cockpit instruments, a damaged engine blade, and a pitot tube from the nose of a Concorde jet. “When I retired from British Airways in 2004 I was very grateful to be given a number of items of Concorde equipment as a thank you,” Mike Bannister, 65, told the Daily Mail. “I have also acquired other items from various sales over the years. … It is a natural circle of life that the money raised will go back into flying in the form of helping my daughter to be a commercial pilot.” The auction will be held Friday in the U.K., but buyers also can register to bid online.

Not everything in Bannister’s collection is Concorde-related. The 151 items include letters signed by Amelia Earhart and Charles Lindbergh, photographs signed by U.S. and Russian astronauts, books, and other collectibles. Bannister first flew the Concorde in 1977 as a first officer, and was made captain in 1995. He crewed for the last-ever Concorde flight, in 2003, when the fleet was retired. He hopes to raise about $170,000 from the sale to help daughter Amy, age 20.

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