Concorde is making a return to passenger service today, with both British Airways and Air France operating flights to New York.
New York Mayor Mr Rudolph Guiliani will greet the arrival of the aircraft, grounded by a crash in summer last year.
British Prime Minister Mr Tony Blair will fly in Concorde later today from London to Washington DC for talks and dinner with US President George W Bush.
The return of the plane is a boost for BA which has announced that pre-tax profits have dipped from £200 million in July-September 2000 to just £5 million in July-September 2001.
BA and Air France have made significant modifications to their planes to ensure the events which led to last year's crash cannot be repeated.
A tyre burst caused by a sharp object left on the Tarmac at Paris's Charles de Gaulle airport caused a rupture of a fuel tank and a catastrophic fire which downed the plane.
The Air France Concorde crash claimed 113 lives.
Air France, which is operating a fare-paying flight from Paris today, is landing first at New York's Kennedy airport - at around 8.25 a.m. local time.
The BA Concorde flight is due to take off from Heathrow airport at 10.30 a.m. - arriving in New York at 9.25 a.m. local time.
PA