HRH The Princess Royal meets with Iain Gray CBE, Chairman of the Bristol Aero Collection Trust and Aerospace Bristol volunteers

Aerospace Bristol has celebrated a major milestone in the construction of the new home of Concorde, with a topping out ceremony for the museum’s Concorde hangar attended by HRH The Princess Royal.

The Concorde hangar will be home to Aerospace Bristol’s star attraction: Concorde 216. Designed, built and tested in Bristol, she was the last Concorde to be built and the last to fly. Due to open in summer 2017, Aerospace Bristol will offer more than just Concorde, taking visitors on a fascinating journey through time: from the earliest days of flight, when Boxkite biplanes flew over the Avon Gorge, through to the modern day, revealing the latest technologies of today’s aerospace industry and telling the amazing stories of ordinary people achieving extraordinary things.

HRH The Princess Royal toured the site and met with Aerospace Bristol volunteers, who are hard at work preparing the exhibits for display in the new museum, then unveiled the first piece of a feature wall: a specially engraved aeroplane sculpture to mark the occasion.

As Aerospace Bristol’s Patron, Her Royal Highness was also presented with a framed print of a magazine cover from the museum’s extensive historical archives. The Bristol Review cover, first published in Autumn 1957, shows a photograph of Princess Margaret, Princess Anne and Prince Charles on the steps of a BOAC Britannia as HM the Queen Mother set out from London for Rhodesia.

Iain Gray CBE, Chairman of the Bristol Aero Collection Trust, said “This topping out ceremony marks a major milestone towards opening Aerospace Bristol in Summer 2017. I am most grateful to Her Royal Highness for kindly agreeing to attend the ceremony as our Patron. I understand The Princess Royal has an interest in science, technology and engineering, and education and learning will be at the heart of Aerospace Bristol. The success of Concorde must be the inspiration for today’s youth to join our great industry and develop the new ideas of tomorrow.”

Aerospace Bristol continues to seek funds and support to complete its plans over the coming months.

HRH The Princess Royal attends topping out ceremony for Aerospace Bristol