HC Deb 26 May 1976 vol 912 c199W
Mr. Michael Roberts

asked the Prime Minister why he has advised Her Majesty the Queen not to fly to the USA in Concorde for her forthcoming visit to the USA.

The Prime Minister

Since the planning of Her Majesty the Queen's bicentennial visit was begun, it has always been intended that the Queen should arrive in Britannia at the landing used by William Penn in 1682. The possibility of using Concorde arose at a later date, and all the relevant legal and practical considerations were scrupulously weighed, but it was decided that it would be more appropriate, for this occasion, to keep to the original plan. The use of Britannia is an appropriate, and an imaginative, way of visiting the bicentennial cities, three of which, New York, New Haven, and Boston, Massachusetts, lie on the seaboard.