Speeches, etc.

Margaret Thatcher

Interview for ITN (Concorde inaugural flight)

Document type: Speeches, interviews, etc.
Venue: The Sky Restaurant, Heathrow Airport, West London
Source: ITN Archive: First Report 1230-1321 21 January 1976
Journalist: Peter Sissons, ITN
Editorial comments: MT was interviewed - among other celebrities - in a specially extended edition of First Report marking the first commercial supersonic flight. Untraced.
Importance ranking: Minor
Word count: 171
Themes: Executive, Science & technology, Transport

Peter Sissons, ITN

Mrs Thatcher, good morning. What do you think now the day has finally arrived?

MT

Well, I'm absolutely delighted. I suppose this project has been the subject of more Cabinet discussions than almost any other. But why I'm so pleased is that if our research and technology is foremost in the world and it's wonderful to have something to show that it's so good, and to show other people that we've got a future as well as a past.

Peter Sissons, ITN

Do you think we might also have a future in America? When you were in the United States yourself, did you get the impression we might be able to fly Concorde to the States?

MT

I hope so very much indeed. It would be an enormous help to people like me and to industrialists who have to try and get from one place to another as fast as possible, and I believe once it goes over there we shall get a tremendous income from Americans who want to use it.