Alpha Golf, first flew in 1978 but did not enter service with British Airways until 1980 as it remained otherwise unsold by British Aerospace. There are a few pictures of the airframe as a “whitetail” online, looking rather sad without any livery.
Upon entering service in April 1980 water contamination in the hydraulic system resulted in an air intake failure which in turn caused multiple engine unstarts at Mach 2 ! no doubt spilling a little champagne and ending up with a £1 million repair bill.
After this problematic start Alpha Golf went onto operate just over 5000 flights until retirement in 2003 flying the very last passenger service from New York on October 24th that year and along with Alpha Echo and Alpha Foxtrot landing together at Heathrow to mark the end of Concorde Service.
A very emotional occasion, I know as I was there !
A month later Alpha Golf flew to New York and then on the 5th November with special permission flew from New York to it’s final destination of Seattle in a record time of 3 hours 55 minutes flying Supersonic for a hour over northern Canada and setting a East to West Transcontinental record which stands today.
For the next 13 years the airframe was stored outside the Museum of Flight alongside it’s other large aircraft exhibits including the prototype Boeing 747 and a Boeing VC-137 “Air Force One”. Last year a roof structure was completed bringing Alpha Golf under cover and not a moment too soon as the aircraft has clear signs of damage caused by the Pacific Northwest weather.
And so on to the last Concorde to visit… Concorde 01 G-AXDN at Duxford..