Concorde's spare parts auctioned

The sale includes many facets of the plane's design

An auction of components from the defunct supersonic airliner Concorde is being held in south-western France.

Parts on sale include cockpit instruments, oxygen masks, baggage compartments doors, landing gear - and even a toilet seat.

The four-day auction in Toulouse is to raise funds for an aeronautical park to be built in the French city.

Concorde - an Anglo-French project - operated commercially from 1976, but was retired in 2003 amid rising costs.

Among the items on sale are air speed indicators, plate-and-silverware sets, a 1.2-ton landing gear, a Mach-monitoring speedometer and a windshield.

CONCORDE FACTS Developed and built in Britain and France Maiden flight 2 March 1969 Commercial debut in 1976 Cruising speed 1,350mph (2170km/h) Retired in 2003 Concorde auction pictures

Conspicuously absent will be the Concorde's trademark needle nose.

Three of them were auctioned in London and Paris in 2003 and 2004 - the first of which went for more than half a million dollars.

Concorde was commercialised by Air France and British Airways.

It flew trans-Atlantic routes for 17 years before it was retired owing to poor profitability.

A crash that killed 113 people in Paris in 2000 contributed to sagging ticket sales.

The auction is being organised by Aerotheque, a non-profit association that inherited the Concorde stock from aircraft manufacturer Airbus.