One has flight shame, the other doesn’t, but LEGO introduces a whole new variant of flight shame: it comes with a gigantic Concorde that is no less than 43 centimeters in wingspan and over a meter long (105 centimeters to be precise). The colossus costs about as much as a return ticket to Iceland or a train ticket to London, if you prefer a more sustainable approach.
LEGO Concorde
It is a LEGO Icons set and these are often more luxurious sets. 10318 Concorde will not appeal to everyone: it is a rather thin, white device, but it represents a lot of technological development and scientific progress. It is a supersonic airliner and the LEGO set is based on the very first: the one of Aérospatiale and BAe that first flew in 1976. It has been twenty years since the last Concorde (which also means ‘concord’) took off.
That was an iconic moment: in the end only 20 aircraft would be built. It was a Franco-British project and a lot of money was invested, especially by both governments, to make this special way of flying possible. Very noble, but it turned out to be a project that caused more problems between the two than it really stood for unity. Anyway, it has ultimately been a showpiece in terms of technological development: Supersonic flying means that flying is faster than sound: you fly through the sound barrier. But again not a perfect showpiece: you know what a fighter jet sounds like when that happens: the Concorde was also a noisemaker.
Ups and downs
Concorde could fly up to 18 kilometers high and go as fast as 2.04 mach (twice the speed of sound). That meant you flew from London to New York in less than 3 hours. In itself a very good idea, were it not for the fact that the devices were very environmentally unfriendly and a tragedy happened in 2000: a Concorde crashed, killing 113 people. People didn’t trust the Concorde very well then, and when 9/11 came on top of that, the whole aviation was under the spell of many people for a while. Concorde did not survive that, in addition to the fact that the aircraft had high maintenance costs.
It has literally and figuratively had its ups and downs, but it is still regarded as one of the most special aviation projects of all time. The best thing about the LEGO set of this legendary aircraft is that a nice mechanism has been thought about in the set. It may certainly not be a LEGO set to play with: it is one that has an extra, namely a landing gear that can be folded in and out. In addition, the striking nose of this technical tour de force should not be missing.
Fly supersonic
By the way, don’t think that supersonic flying has been completely forgotten with the last flight of the Concorde: we are actually more concerned with it than ever. For example, NASA is developing a very quiet copy, and new ways of transporting passengers in the supersonic way are also being worked on.
Moreover, the Concorde was not sacred: it was not exactly environmentally friendly, made a lot of noise and very expensive. So yes, this is actually a bargain from LEGO: it is quiet, lasts much longer and is therefore more durable than the real flying one.
The number of stones is 2083 pieces and the whole costs 199.99 euros. It is unknown who the designer is. You don’t have to expect mini-figures with this set, but that is not common with the Icons either. The device will be released September 4 for VIP members and September 7 for everyone.
