KEY POINTS:
TOULOUSE, France - Hundreds of components of the Concorde supersonic jetliner, from headsets to toilet seats, are attracting strong bidding in a French auction which relives the era of luxury travel at twice the speed of sound.
Most of the 60 pieces sold on the auction's first day
attracted around five times the asking price.
The Anglo-French aircraft was withdrawn from service in 2003 after ferrying the rich and famous across the Atlantic for 17 years at speeds up to 2625kmh.
The auction runs until Monday in the French aviation capital of Toulouse where the sleek, droop-nosed aircraft was assembled in cooperation with Britain.
Items being sold to raise money for a museum include a pair of toilet seats weighing 5.8kg and available for auction prices starting at 400 euros ($NZ768) each.
For the same asking price, collectors can bid for a Concorde pilot's headset.
A laminated cockpit window panel went for 3100 euros, 10 times the asking price, at the start of the auction on Friday.
If space is not a problem, the auction includes a couple of one-tonne Concorde landing gears on which the bidding starts at 2,000-3,000 euros -- wheels not supplied.
Among the most symbolic items for the plane's many fans, however, will be a "Machmeter" weighing just over a kilo and offered at a suggested price of 1500-2000 euros.
The instrument's dial recorded Concorde's speed as it slipped through the sound barrier, known as Mach 1, and is due to be auctioned on Saturday evening.
"This sale has really got people carried away and we really welcome that because it is the last sale of Concorde accessories that will ever be organised," said auctioneer Marc Labarbe.
Designed in the 1960s, Concorde's cockpit instruments may look old-fashioned compared to the digital read-outs in modern passenger jets, but the plane's performance remains unmatched.
The plane carried 100 passengers and 9 crew at speeds up to Mach 2.2, almost three times the cruising speed of a Boeing 747.
The Mach number is the ratio of an aircraft's speed to the speed of sound.
Of the 20 Concordes built most are in museums or on display at London and Paris airports.
Concorde was suspended from service following its only crash outside Paris on an Air France flight in July 2000. It made only a temporary comeback before being withdrawn in 2003 as the two operating airlines cited heavy operating costs.
- REUTERS
