With the Concorde at Filton (CAF) exhibition now having been in service for almost a full year, Speedbirds.com looks at how she's doing.

This week, HTV West News presented a feature on Concorde at Filton. They highlighted spiraling construction costs that indicate that to build a heritage site and covered museum would now cost in excess of £30M instead of the planned £11M two years ago. A delegation was sent to the Museum of Flight in East Fortune to see the progress of Concorde BOAA which is the centrepiece there, and showed schoolchildren running about freely admiring their wonderful aircraft.

The trouble is, East Fortune has a completely different setup to CAF. For a start, CAF is currently based in the middle of a secure site. A site where - among other things - munitions company BAE Systems has offices, so to allow anybody free access to BOAF would be madness and their landlords simply would not permit it. The recent death of an adult visitor to the site highlighted the need for fully-supervised and escorted visits, and to this end other such facilities should take note, for the same tragic accident could have happened almost anywhere that there are exhibits with gantry access.

East Fortune have made an incredible job of looking after - and promoting - their Concorde, but so have CAF. They are as different as chalk and cheese, and both have stronger and weaker areas that serve to make the visiting experience an unique and exciting one in their own right.

The ticket office at Filton is currently taking around £250,000 per annum in ticket sales alone. The shop is stocked full of tasteful and relevant souvenirs of the CAF experience, and is contributing to the coffers admirably. But perhaps the best part of CAF is the customer feedback. CAF has never sought feedback (positive or negative) from its customers, but the walls of the office of Manager Andrew Treweek are adorned with cards, letters and photos sent by happy visitors, promising to make anoither visit in the near future and almost unanimously praising CAF's army of volunteers for their knowledegability, dedication and passion for their jobs.

Granted, at £250,000 a year it is going to take an awful long time to raise £30M, but the project was never going to be self-financing. Concorde At Filton needs the help of local business and industry, the full backing and support of the two local councils coupled with an action plan with a targeted completion date for completion, the support of the public, and also funding from sources such as the Lottery Commission.

Whilst BOAF is degrading at a faster rate than BOAA, Serco (the company that cleans her) are doing a sterling job of preserving her for future generations and the inspection teams that regularly check the vital areas of BOAF for water ingress, moisture vapour and corrosion invariably report that she is in great shape, despite the best efforts of mother nature.

BOAF needs to be put under cover- and soon, but don't believe that this should be the driving factor. A suitable location and adequate site facilities for the museum are much more important for the long term survival of 'Foxy' than a corrugated roof is.

Concorde at Filton is open from Wednesday to Sunday, catering for up to 96 visitors a day. Tickets must be purchased in advance. For more details visit www.concordeatfilton.org.uk or telephone 0870 3000 578. Mondays and Tuesdays are also availble for corporate and event bookings.