Growing up in the 1970s, it was apparent that the world was getting smaller: not so much by cumulative erosion by billions of residents shuffling along in their daily lives, but rather as air travel was becoming faster and more efficient. While air travel from the Antipodes to the rest of the world was most likely to be restricted to to 747 Jumbos and their variants, travelling at around 1037km/k (mach 0.84) my library books focussing on The Way Things Will Be In the Future reported that the Concorde has just started to fly across the Atlantic at over twice the speed of sound!

The product of a collaboration between Sud Aviation/Aérospatiale and the British Aircraft Corporation, the first prototypes started test flights in 1969. In 1975, it received its airworthiness certificates, with commercial flights taking off in 1976 . The Concorde fleet flew passengers for British Airways and Air France between London/Paris and the United states – particularly Washington and New York. Typically carrying between 92 and 128 passengers. In July 2000, an Air France flight crashed shortly after takeoff killing all on board.The fleet was grounded for a period while safety modifications were rolled out. The Concorde Fleet was retired in 2003, with the final flight in November.

And so…20 years later, the LEGO Group have announced their latest ICONS set – a 2083 piece model of the Concorde. Over 1m long, this scale model will be available in September (4th September VIPs/7th September Everyone Else). It will be priced at $USD199.99/€199.99/£169.99/299.99 AUD/1699.0 CNY/4474.7 TRY/84990.0 HUF/259.99 CAD.

I really like the look of this set – it is more than a tube with delta wings. We have the interior detail in the cabin, as well as the ability to deploy the landing gear as well as the ability to ‘droop the snoot’ – probably by rotating the tale section of the model. The nose dropped down, so the pilots could have better visibility during landing, takeoff and ground operations. Somehow, the designers managed to fit the lavatory in too.

Examining the images closely suggests that the elements are printed – but I am There does appear to be a new cockpit windscreen element.

As I mentioned, the final model is 105 cm long. This is close to the height of the 21309/92176 Saturn V and the length of the 10294 Titanic. It is 15 cm high and 43 cm wide.

Here are the official words:

The LEGO Group today unveils a set that is sure to reach new heights – the LEGO® Concorde Set. Arguably one of the most iconic and famous aircrafts in history, the Concorde could cruise twice as fast as the speed of sound. An engineering masterpiece, the Concorde now comes in LEGO brick form. Built in the 1960s as part of a joint venture between the United Kingdom and France, the Concorde was the first supersonic passenger carrying commercial aircraft. This 2083-piece set is an accurate scale model of the airplane, that can be showcased in the home using the display stand, allowing the possibility to pose the brick-plane either in flight mode or tilted mode for take-off and landing. The set is also rich in detail, with a removable roof to show off the opulent cabin interior, landing gear, as well as the nose and visor tilts.

We haven’t seen a large scale ‘real’ jetliner since the 10177 787 Dreamliner which was released in 2006. This was before the revolution in SNOT techniques for building, and suffers from being a bit blocky, as was the style at the time.

I am also curious to see if we will get a reduced scale model (at a much more realistic price) as we have seen in recent years with other ICONS/Creator Expert vehicles such as the Vespa, Space Shuttle and Land Rover Discovery

Back in my childhood, Concorde was a sign of the future, albeit one that has not quite come to pass. That said, I think this set is pretty cool. I’d love to know what you think of this model – why not leave your feedback in the comments below.

Concorde is released on September 4 2022 to VIPs – the Anniversary of the first transatlantic flight in 1971 – It will be priced at $USD199.99/€199.99/£169.99/299.99 AUD/1699.0 CNY/4474.7 TRY/84990.0 HUF/259.99 CAD.

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Until Next Time,

Play Well!