Concorde aircraft histories

Concorde
British Airways Concorde in 1986
Role Supersonic airliner
Manufacturer BAC (now BAE Systems)
Sud Aviation (later Aérospatiale, now EADS)
First flight 2 March 1969
Introduction 21 January 1976
Retired 26 November 2003
Status Retired from service
Primary users British Airways
Air France
See Operators below for others
Number built 20 (including 6 non-airline aircraft)[1][2]
Program cost £ 1.3 billion[3]
Unit cost
£ 23 million in 1977 (£ 129 million in 2016 pounds[4])

Twenty Concorde aircraft were built, six for development and 14 for commercial service.

These were

All but two of these aircraft—a remarkably high percentage for any commercial fleet—are preserved.

Prototypes

G-BSST on display at the Fleet Air Arm Museum.

The two prototype aircraft were used to expand the flight envelope of the aircraft as quickly as possible and prove that the design calculations for supersonic flight were correct.

Pre-production aircraft

Both pre-production aircraft were used to further develop the design of the aircraft. Changes to design include different wing plan form, more fuel, different engine standard, different air intake systems etc.

Development aircraft

The production aircraft were different in many ways to the original aircraft necessitating re-examining certain areas to obtain certification. In all there were six "development" aircraft. The two prototypes (001/002), the two pre-production (101/102) and two production aircraft (201/202)

British production aircraft

British Airways had seven production aircraft in commercial service:

Concorde G-BOAB in storage at London (Heathrow) Airport, following the end of all Concorde flights
Concorde G-BOAD on 15 May 2003.
Concorde G-BOAG at the Museum of Flight.

As part of tenth-anniversary celebrations on 24 December 1985, British Airways photographed G-BOAA, G-BOAC, G-BOAF and G-BOAG formation flying for their publicity material.[13]

French production aircraft

Air France also had seven production aircraft in commercial service:

Concorde F-BVFA on display at Smithsonian Institution National Air and Space Museum's Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly, Virginia, USA.

All Concorde

Aircraft
Number Registration First flew Last flew Flying hours Location
001 F-WTSS 2 March 1969 19 October 1973 812 The Museum of Air and Space, Le Bourget, France
002 G-BSST 9 April 1969 4 March 1976 836 Fleet Air Arm Museum, Yeovilton, England, UK
101 G-AXDN 17 December 1971 20 August 1977 632 Imperial War Museum, Duxford, England, UK
102 F-WTSA 10 January 1973 20 May 1976 656 Musée Delta, Orly Airport, Paris, France
201 F-WTSB 6 December 1973 19 April 1985 909 Airbus Factory, Toulouse, France
202 G-BBDG 13 December 1974 24 December 1981 1282 Brooklands Museum, Weybridge, Surrey, England, UK
203 F-BTSC[14] 31 January 1975 25 July 2000 11989 Destroyed in air crash outside Paris, France
204 G-BOAC[15] 27 February 1975 31 October 2003 22260 Manchester Airport Viewing Park, England, UK. This aircraft was British Airways' flagship Concorde, due to its BOAC registration as it was the first Concorde delivered to BA.
205 F-BVFA[16] 27 October 1975 12 June 2003 17824 Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center of the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, Chantilly, Virginia USA (near Washington, DC)
206 G-BOAA[17] 5 November 1975 12 August 2000 22768 National Museum of Flight, East Lothian, Scotland, UK
207 F-BVFB[18] 6 March 1976 24 June 2003 14771 Sinsheim Auto & Technik Museum, Germany
208 G-BOAB[19] 18 May 1976 15 August 2000 22296 Heathrow Airport, London, England, UK
209 F-BVFC[20] 9 July 1976 27 June 2003 14332 Airbus Factory, Toulouse, France
210 G-BOAD[21] 25 August 1976 10 November 2003 23397 Intrepid Sea-Air-Space Museum, New York, USA; the aircraft was temporarily moved to Floyd Bennett Field in Brooklyn from late 2006 to late 2008 whilst the Intrepid aircraft carrier and the pier at which she was berthed underwent restoration.
211 F-BVFD[22] 10 February 1977 27 May 1982 5814 Spare-parts source after 1982 and scrapped in 1994. A small section of the fuselage remains at Le Bourget, France and nose cone sold to American collector.
212 G-BOAE[23] 17 March 1977 17 November 2003 23376 Grantley Adams International Airport, Barbados
213 F-BTSD[24][25] 26 June 1978 14 June 2003 12974 The Museum of Air and Space, Le Bourget, France
214 G-BOAG[26] 21 April 1978 5 November 2003 16239 Museum of Flight, Seattle, USA
215 F-BVFF[27] 26 December 1978 11 June 2000 12421 Paris-Charles de Gaulle Airport, Paris, France
216 G-BOAF[28][29] 20 April 1979 26 November 2003 18257 Bristol Filton Airport, Bristol, England, UK

Notes

  1. Towey 2007, p. 359.
  2. "Ageing luxury jet". BBC News, 25 July 2000. 25 July 2000.
  3. Marston, Paul (16 August 2000). "Is this the end of the Concorde dream?". London: The Daily Telegraph, 16 August 2000.
  4. UK CPI inflation numbers based on data available from Gregory Clark (2016), "The Annual RPI and Average Earnings for Britain, 1209 to Present (New Series)" MeasuringWorth.
  5. Brooklands
  6. Aircraft 210: G-BOAD
  7. Intrepid Museum Exhibits
  8. 1 2 McGeehan, Patrick (7 July 2008). "A Concorde Is Disfigured While Parked in Brooklyn". The New York Times.
  9. Concorde Sst : Latest News
  10. Monahan, Rachel (14 July 2008). "Retired Concorde suffers damage at Floyd Bennett Field". New York: Daily News (Brooklyn).
  11. Clout, Laura (9 July 2008). "US leaves Concorde gift from UK to rot in airfield". The Telegraph.
  12. Barbados Concorde Experience
  13. "10th Anniversary Formation Flight 24th December 1985". Concorde SST. Retrieved 31 August 2013.
  14. Test flown as F-WTSC
  15. Used G-N81AC and N81AC during Braniff lease period
  16. Used N94FA during Braniff lease period
  17. Used G-N94AA and N94AA during Braniff lease period
  18. Used N94FB during Braniff lease period
  19. Used G-N94AB and N94AB during Braniff lease period
  20. Used N94FC during Braniff lease period
  21. Used G-N94AD and N94AD during Braniff lease period
  22. Used N94FD during Braniff lease period
  23. Used G-N94AE and N94AE during Braniff lease period
  24. Test flown as F-WJAM
  25. Used N94SD during Braniff lease period
  26. Originally registered G-BFKW
  27. Test flown as F-WJAN
  28. Originally registered G-BFKX
  29. Used G-N94AF and N94AF during Braniff lease period

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