LONDON -- Queen Mother Elizabeth, born three years before the flight of the Wright brothers and celebrating her 85th birthday this week, flew over her realm Tuesday in a supersonic Concorde at nearly twice the speed of sound.
'It was so thrilling,' she exclaimed after making a two-hour, 1,000-mile flight around Britain accompanied by two grandchildren.
Elizabeth, the mother of Queen Elizabeth II, had asked 10 years ago to fly in a British Airways Concorde but civil aviation officials at the time said it was too dangerous because the plane was still being tested.
Now, the plane makes regularly scheduled flights, and other members of the royal family have flown it, including Queen Elizabeth, who first flew on the jet in 1977.
To mark the queen mother's 85th birthday Sunday, British Airways Chairman Lord John King offered her a special flight as a gift. She eagerly accepted.
Accompanied by members of her staff and Viscount Linley and Lady Sarah Armstrong-Jones, both 21, her grandchildren by her daughter Princess Margaret, a beaming Queen Mother took off on the flight from London's Heathrow Airport.
A spokeswoman for British Airways said the Queen Mother flew to Scotland, enjoying a lunch at regular speeds, and then streaked over the North Sea at speeds approaching 1,450 mph -- Mach 2, or twice the speed of sound.
Her pilot, Captain Brian Walpole, said the Queen Mother sat in the cockpit for the landing and was interested on details of how to fly the world's fastest passenger jetliner.
'She was fascinated and delighted by the whole process,' he said.
The queen mother, who was born three years before Orville and Wilbur Wright flew their first primitive airplane in the United States, called the development of the Concorde 'a great achievement.'
After her flight, she was presented with a bouquet of flowers by the daughter of a steward on her flight, who just celebrated her 6th birthday. Smiling broadly, the queen mother raised it high in the air.
The spokeswoman for the state-owned airline said a charter Concorde flight around Britain normally costs about 20,000 pounds ($28,000), but the Queen Mother's flight cost substantially less because it did not contain all the features of a regular charter.
