A TADLEY pilot has landed himself a place in history as he is to fly the last ever Concorde flight from London to New York later this month.

Captain Adrian Thompson, of Church Road, will take off from Heathrow airport on Thursday, October 23, for the last outward bound Concorde flight to New York.

Mr Thompson, 54, said: "I feel very privileged to be part of this. It's a great privilege to fly the aeroplane at all, let alone to do the last flight.

"As always, I will have a great feeling of elation to fly such a magnificent machine - we call it riding the rocket - but I will be very heavy-hearted, and feel a sense of history."

Mr Thompson has worked for British Airways for nearly 35 years, and eight years ago he realised his childhood dream and joined the elite Concorde crew.

"It's always been my ambition to fly, and to fly Concorde, ever since I first read about it in newspapers and magazines. It was my schoolboy ambition and not many people can say they've achieved that.

"People tend not to believe me when I say I fly Concorde. They look me up and down and say 'dream on'. Every day I go to work with a grin on my face. Everybody associated with Concorde is an enthusiast. It's a joy to go to work."

The luxury service is to be axed later this month because of increased maintenance costs and falling ticket sales, which occurred in part following the crash near Paris in 2000 which killed 114 people.

Mr Thompson said: "I feel a mixture of anger, sadness and regret to be honest. There's plenty of life left in Concorde.

"They are expensive to maintain but nonetheless, I think it's a viable service if it's marketed properly. At the moment it looks like a complete luxury playboy thing, when really it's just incredibly fast and provides an express service.

"Concordes are kept absolutely fault free. It's ridiculous that the next time the plane flies, it will be into a museum."

Mr Thompson, who has lived in Tadley his whole life, said he regularly flew over the town on his supersonic flights to New York.

He said: "Especially on my return journey, Tadley is right under the flight path, so I always open up the throttles to make a louder noise as a salute to Tadley and to let my wife know to put the kettle on."

Mr Thompson will return to flying conventional jumbo jets once the Concorde is grounded but he doesn't expect to get the same thrill.

"Apart from a few of the destinations, the aeroplane itself is quite boring. The Concorde is a very complex aeroplane.

Modern aeroplanes are highly automated, but with Concorde you control everything and that's what it's all about."