A YORK museum's dream of bringing Concorde to the city has ended in failure, air chiefs have announced.

British Airways has decided not to house one of its supersonic flyers at the Yorkshire Air Museum, in Elvington.

Instead, the airline giant's seven jets will go to New York, Seattle, Filton (near Bristol), Manchester Airport, The Scottish Museum Of Flight in East Lothian, Heathrow Airport and Barbados.

Elvington director Ian Reed said he was disappointed with the decision, but had taken heart after British Airways told him it had been very close.

The museum, the largest independent in the county, had hoped Concorde

could double the number of visitors and boost the local economy.

Chiefs believed they had put forward a very strong bid, including plans to house Concorde in a specialist hangar, to convince British Airways that York was the ideal destination for the aeroplane's retirement.

An upbeat Mr Reed said that the museum still had plenty to look forward to, revealing that Elvington had just been confirmed as an "approved" museum by the Pentagon for U.S. aircraft.

He said the museum still planned to expand, to attract more aircraft, despite British Airways decision.

Mr Reed said: "As a small museum we took on the world's top attractions,

and it seems that we were able to give them a run for their money.

"We were told that we were in it right to the end, British Airways told me it was a close-run thing.

"We have taken on the best and it wasn't quite enough. Obviously, we are disappointed but this has put the Yorkshire Air Museum on the world stage.

"We have plans for a multi-million development and we can press ahead on those major expansion plans."

The first Concorde to be given a new home following its retirement last week was today flying to its final resting place.

The seven supersonic jets in the British Airways fleet made their last commercial flights last week, causing emotional scenes across the UK among its many thousands of fans.

Yesterday, BA ended speculation as to where the planes would then spend their retirement with the announcement that three Concordes would be given permanent homes overseas with the remaining four being kept in the UK.

Today, the first of the retired planes was to fly into Manchester Airport.

Airport managing director John Spooner hailed the decision to hand one of the Concordes to Manchester as the "catch of the century".

The plane was "one of Britain's most brilliant technological achievements" of the past century and it would be a "great honour" to give the world's most famous aircraft a final home.

Today, as flag-waving staff prepared to welcome Concorde to the airport, officials were due to unveil how it plans to use the jet in the future.

Updated: 12:01 Friday, October 31, 2003