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CNN Live Event/Special

Revamped Concorde Completes Test Flight

Aired July 17, 2001 - 12:39   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
NATALIE ALLEN, CNN ANCHOR: We bring you this live picture from a royal air force base in Oxfordshire, England. You're looking at a Concorde about to land on what appears a cloudy, rainy day. This is the first flight of a Concorde since the crash last year that killed 100 people, in Paris.

This has been a 3 hour, 40 minute test flight that took place today over the Atlantic. This British Airways Concorde took off on this test flight from London's Heathrow Airport. It's now landing back at the royal air force base in Oxfordshire, England.

There have been some modifications made: a strengthening of the fuel tank lining and puncture-resistant tires added.

And it's a safe landing for the Concorde. If this test was completely successful -- and we should find out news about how the flight went -- commercial flights from New York to London on the Concorde could resume in just a few months.

Again, you've just watched the first landing of a Concorde in one year since the modifications took place, after the deadly crash that killed 113 people, in Paris. And we'll bring you more developments as we learn how this flight went there today.

Just FYI, that Concorde just reached top speeds of 1,300 miles per hour and climbed to 60,000 feet.

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