A YORK museum's bid to bring Concorde to the region will fail unless it can prove it has £600,000-worth of backing - in only two days.

That was the stark prospect facing Yorkshire Air Museum chiefs today, after they were told by British Airways they must produce evidence they can underwrite the cost of housing the aircraft at a crunch meeting on Friday.

Director Ian Reed revealed the museum had to ensure they had guarantees available to build the huge hangar that would house Concorde if it came to Elvington. Plans for Concorde's hangar include full floodlit public viewing facilities. The museum has been negotiating a lottery bid for the last seven months.

But that bid will not be decided until October, and Mr Reed said BA is not prepared to wait.

He said he had been negotiating with a local business to help underwrite the basic cost of the structure, but conceded the whole Concorde bid was under serious threat.

"BA will not let us have it if we do not have the guarantees available by Friday. We are talking to our supporters and working with a local business to see if anyone can help put the guarantees forward," he said. This is putting our whole bid in jeopardy. We must be able to makes these guarantees by Friday. I am very confident that our lottery bid will come through.

"Underwriting the basic cost of the structure would ensure that BA has confidence in our ability to meet all its criteria."

Gillian Cruddas, chief executive of York Tourism Bureau, said: "This bid is not just for the benefit of the museum. I cannot stress enough what a tremendous boost it would be for the region as a whole, and we hope businesses and Government agencies will come forward to help us achieve a positive result."

Updated: 14:41 Wednesday, July 09, 2003