Defunct Concorde sold off online

One of Britain's best-loved aircraft - the recently decommissioned Concorde - is going under the hammer online today, albeit in pieces.  

British Airways is flogging off 150,000 items from the now defunct plane at an auction in Stoneleigh Park, Warwickshire. Memorabilia-hungry flight fans who can't get to the site can listen to a webcast of the auction and bid by phone.

Cutlery, crockery and computers are all up for grabs - as are three Concorde nosecones. Cockpit instrument panels are also available, along with cabin trolleys, seats, ashtrays, stationery, windows, engine parts and - every home should have one - even a turbo jet engine.

The auction will last for four days and prospective bidders can examine the merchandise at the auctioneer's - DoveBid - website.

For those that missed out on the BA bidding, bits and pieces from other examples of the supersonic plane are also now being sold on eBay, with everything from a tartan blanket and a tyre to another of the highly distinctive Concorde nosecones being auctioned.

More than 60 items from Concorde are now available via the online auctioneer, Concorde Collectables. Plane enthusiasts have five days left to get their bids in - anyone who fancies getting their hands on the nosecone should be prepared to get their gold card out or start cosying up to their bank manager.

Bids have already topped the £11,000 mark and the sale of a similar item made more than £300,000 when it was sold at the Christies auction house last year. And the lucky winner of the eBay nosecone will have fork out no small sum to get the cone home - paying all postage and packing costs. Given the nosecone is more than three metres long, that's a lot of brown paper to wrap.

For those with a more modest budget, getting a piece of aircraft history doesn't have to break the bank. Some items are starting at a 99p bid - such as the Concorde Aircraft Regavolt Regulating Transformer - but have yet to set the auction site alight and have not attracted a single bid to date.

Anyone hoping to build their own Concorde, patchwork-fashion, in the back garden from the lots on offer may be disappointed. Concorde Collectables warns: "This item is an aircraft part but is not fit for use as a working aircraft part and is sold as an item of historical memorabilia only."

Concorde Collectables' lots can be viewed here.