The grand old lady of the skies is set to visit Leeds/Bradford Airport just one more time - and a few lucky enough to have travelled on board her will be sad to see her fly off into the sunset for the last time.

Concorde - which made her maiden voyage in Britain in 1969 - is destined for more commercially-viable trips although airport bosses will fight to keep her supersonic flights in the county.

But British Airways has decided to withdraw the supersonic superstar to concentrate on more lucrative flights out of London.

But those lucky enough to take a trip on the giant British Airways jet when it made its Yorkshire debut in 1986 will never forget the experience.

Geoffrey Dilworth, 79, of Hough Side Lane, Pudsey, thought he was going to be among the 70,000 crowd which greeted the plane when it touched down on August 4.

But his daughter Josie Simpson from Otley had other ideas.

Mr Dilworth said: "My daughter asked me 'how would I like to fly on Concorde? And I said I'd love to. Then she told me I was going on it - I didn't know what to say.

"We flew to Paris. Over the North Sea the pilot said we were going through the sound barrier. But you couldn't tell, it was so smooth.

"It was a wonderful experience which will remain with me for the rest of my life."

Arthur and Gill Midgley, from Otley, paid £1,000 for two tickets for the historic first flight from Leeds/Bradford which was in an Air France Concorde.

Mr Midgley, 61, said: "There is nothing to compare the experience with. You cannot describe what it feels like, you'd have to experience it for yourself.

"When you go Mach2, which is about 1,300mph, you don't realise you're even moving. It's a memory I will always treasure."

From its debut, a ride on Concorde became a dream ticket for hundreds of Bradfordians.

Last April, grandma Kathryne Holdsworth, from Low Moor, flew on Concorde to London's Heathrow Airport only eight days before she died from cancer.

Her daughter Fiona Golding said: "Mum loved flying and had always wanted to go on Concorde. My dad Walter flew with her and she was so thrilled when she got back."

But Leeds Bradford Internation-al Airport's head of marketing and business development Philip Firth said the airport would try to keep Concorde flights in Yorkshire.

He said: "Concorde is the sexiest thing in the air. It has been a tremendous crowdpuller for us over the years with literally thousands of people gathering to watch it land and take off. It will be sorely missed by us all."

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