(FORTUNE Magazine) – Pond-hopping celebrities and moguls will soon have to make do with plain old 747s. On May 30, Air France will mothball its five Concordes; on Oct. 25, British Airways will retire its seven. The Concorde lost money for four decades, but a 2000 crash and the post--Sept. 11 travel dropoff finally grounded the fastest passenger plane on earth.

COST ANALYSIS

$34 billion: Cost (in today's dollars) to British and French taxpayers to fund Concorde development starting in 1962.

$1: Price BA and Air France each paid their governments a decade later for the finished planes after no other airlines bid for them.

$200 million: What it will cost BA and Air France to retire the planes.

PASSENGER MANIFEST

$6,000: Cost of a one-way ticket from New York to London or Paris.

20: Average number of seats out of 100 that were filled on flights during the first few months of 2003.

1A & 1B: Most-prized seats.

0: Seats left on Air France's final flight from New York to Paris on May 30.

VIP HISTORY

When Princess Grace died in '82, the National Enquirer chartered a Concorde to get 30 reporters to France before the competition.

In 1985, Phil Collins took the stage in London and a few hours later in Philadelphia, thanks to the Concorde.

Needing an emergency haircut during a '91 tour, Rod Stewart rushed his stylist to New York via the Concorde from London.

SPECIFICATIONS

1976 FIRST PASSENGER FLIGHT 12 NUMBER OF CONCORDES IN OPERATION 1,350 MILES PER HOUR CONCORDES TRAVEL 60,000 FEET AT WHICH THEY FLY 3:20 AVERAGE FLIGHT TIME FROM NEW YORK TO LONDON 10 NUMBER OF INCHES THE CONCORDE LENGTHENS AS IT HEATS UP IN FLIGHT