Over the period of two days in Paris I visited four preserved Concordes displayed in rather contrasting ways. Foxtrot Foxtrot the last Concorde delivered to Air France in 1980, and is now displayed very prominently at Charles de Gaulle Airport.
At the time of the accident to Concorde 203 in 2000 Foxtrot Foxtrot was in the middle of D Check maintenance and as a result was never returned to service and today is actually only partially complete. As a result this was one of the least used production Concorde’s only completing 12,420 flying hours.
Although not really in a location accommodating to visitors, Foxtrot Foxtrot is just a few hundred metres for the Charles de Gaulle Terminal 1 RER station close to the Charles de Gaulle Hilton Hotel.
Step out onto the tarmac area outside of the Aeroscopia Museum building through a rather nondescript door and there literally tens of metres away from Concorde 201 is Concorde 209 F-BVFC Foxtrot Charlie.
F-BVFC first flew in July 1976 from Toulouse, entering service with Air France the following month.
Foxtrot Charlie was marooned in New York for three months following the crash of Concorde 203 F-BTSC in July 2000.
The final flight for this aircraft occurred in June 2003 when it was ferried down from Paris Charles De Gaulle and handed over to it’s makers Aerospatiale now Airbus for preservation. Over 30,000 people from the city of Toulouse turned out to see the aircraft arrive, and cheered test pilot André Turcat who was a passenger on the final flight.
In common with most of the Air France Fleet Foxtrot Charlie took part in a number of charters including two “round the world” fights, one of which in October 1993 was completed in 35 hours 20 minutes, including 17 hours 5 minutes at supersonic speed.
Concorde 201 F-WTSB, was the first production test airframe and as such is the sister aircraft of Brooklands Concorde 202 Delta Golf.
As displayed in the Aeroscopia Museum in Toulouse it is possible to board the aircraft and view the flight observers’ station and test equipment in the forward cabin and the aft cabin complete with splendid 1970’s era leather VIP seats.
In common with Delta Golf, Sierra Bravo did not enter commercial service and had a similar varied and colourful career, indeed although often known as the “White Concorde”, Sierra Bravo was given a very colouful livery to celebrate the 20th Anniversary of the first flight in 1989.
Now safely displayed inside the Museum building, next to an Airbus A300B representing the prototype of its successor in terms of European civil aviation, Sierra Bravo is still an impressive sight !
So goes the great British maxim usually applied to buses, in this case however my Concorde quest and a visit to the new Aeroscopia Museum in Toulouse which I visited before speaking at the 2016 Toulouse Space Show. The new Museum contains a really well presented collection of interesting aircraft including this lovely Airbus owned Messerschmitt Bf109G.
I have a album of photos here of the collection as well as the nearby Association Ailes Anciennes Toulouse site which feels like a small gallic version of Tuscon’s boneyard.
Of course the main reason for my visit was the unique opportunity to visit two preserved Concorde aircraft within 100m of each other as Aeroscopia in the home to Concorde 201 F-WTSB and Concorde 209 F-BVFC.
Alpha Foxtrot was the last Concorde to be built completed in 1979 and was the last Concorde to fly arriving at it’s current resting place back at the Filton Factory where it was originally constructed on 26th November 2003. The Concorde version of the Circle of Life then…
The Filton airfield is like Concorde itself no longer operational except for some emergency helicopter traffic and as a result of this Alpha Foxtrot is currently one of the least accessible airframes.
For a few years following its arrival in 2003 there was a pre-booked tour of aircraft necessary because the aircraft is parked with the Airbus Factory site at Filton, however this was stopped in 2010 and the opportunity to get close to this particular aircraft awaits the completion of the new Aerospace Bristol Museum next year.
As a result about the only view of Alpha Fox now possible if from the opposite of the airfield near the Nissan Garage on Hayes Way.
Poor Alpha Foxtrot was not really wanted by British Airways, it was hoped that aircraft 216 could be sold to British Caledonian or Singapore Airlines by British Aerospace, but with no other buyers coming forward the legend is that British Airways paid the nominal price of £1000 for the Airframe, and £100 each for the four Olympus 593 engines
So one of the more disappointing of my Concorde visits, but I’m pleased with my progress so far.. five visited with thirteen to do and 332 day left to visit them !
Update – February 2017
Great news, Alpha Foxtrot is under cover in it’s new hangar and Aerospace Bristol is on schedule to open in the summer !
G-BOAC was always going to be a bit special for me..
Not only was Concorde 204 the flagship of the British Airways fleet, is was the Concorde I flew back from New York to London in May 2003. Alpha Charlie is displayed at the Manchester Runway Visitor Park in a small purpose built Hangar. Alpha Charlie is not the most accessible of the retired Concordes as it is operated as a Conference and Wedding Venue – Yes Really ! As a Result you need to book one of the tours which includes a visit to the aircraft to get inside the hangar and take a look around.
The Tours are recommended however, I did the “Technical Tour” which was interesting; but is still aimed at “normal people” rather than real AvGeeks such as myself (modest I know!) This tour includes a walk from nose to tail of the aircraft where various aspects of the design are explained, a chance to sit in the front cabin still in it’s final BA blue Connolly leather interior and a cockpit tour.
The short cockpit tour is well worth the admission, as you get to sit in the Captains seat and admire close up the very best of 1960’s engineering.A aircraft retired for nearly 13 years does not have the same sense of excitement or anticipation as a living machine, so even though I sat in 6D once again, it did not really bring back the emotions of that amazing trip 2003.
G-BOAC Then and Now
I enjoyed talking to some of the team looking after Alpha Charlie which arrived in Manchester October 2003, like all of the British Airways operated Concordes it is still owned by the Airline and maintenance is their responsibility – so a broken windscreen in front of the First Officers seat remains broken until someone from Heathrow can come to fix it.. I would guess the last BA licensed Concorde engineer has retired !
A National Science Foundation meeting at George Mason University this week, provided the opportunity to visit my favourite aviation Museum, the quite brilliant Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center of the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum and Concorde F-BVFA.
I’m have often thought it surprising that Foxtrot Alpha ended up in Washington, as it was in many ways the Air France flagship airframe operating the initial services to Rio de Janeiro, Washington, and New York. Foxtrot Alpha also flew more than any other Air France Concorde achieving 17,824 hours by it’s final flight to Washington in June 2003.
This flight itself is interesting in that it was captured on video from a boat below the flightpath across the atlantic which features the distinctive double boom produced by Concorde flying supersonically.
My local Concorde I suppose, although the Concorde at Heathrow G-BOAB is actually closer (more of the scandal of Alpha Bravo later!).
Delta Golf is perhaps the most accessible Concorde for people living in London and I think the one of the best presented. For £5 on top of the Brooklands Museum admission you can take the ‘Concorde Experience” which includes a guided tour of the Aircraft and a great AV presentation onboard in the front cabin… It’s as close as anyone is going to get to flying in Concorde today anyway.
My son joins me at Brooklands, don’t worry he never smiles !
Delta Golf had a brief, if interesting life, the British development airframe which achieved the type certification and unlike modern development aircraft never entered airline service. Flying for the first time in 1974 and retiring from flight in 1981 after only 1282 hours, it then became a source of spares for the British Airways fleet stored at Filton. In 2004 Delta Golf was acquired by Brooklands and finally put on display in 2006.
Of course it would be amiss not to mention the urban myth that Delta Golf was used by the Ministry of Defence to test UK Air Defences, simulating Russian Backfire and Blackjack bombers, and demonstrating the vulnerability of the RAF in the process…
Update April 2019
Following on from the example set at Duxford, the volunteers at Brooklands have reinstated the nose drop mechanism, demonstrated here on the 50th Anniversary event in April 2019.
The start of a personal quest for me, this year I aim to visit each one of the eighteen preserved Concorde aircraft, to be fair I have visited many of them already – but this time I have a plan and a time limit to achieve my goal. Eighteen aircraft distributed across five countries seems to be feasible, especially at most remain in the UK and France.
So to start, visited on 5th May 2016 the sixth production airframe Concorde G-BOAA housed in the quite impressive dedicated facility at the National Museum of Flight, East Fortune, Scotland. Well worth a visit – this is fitting display of the aircraft with many other Concorde artifacts and an interactive displays.
G-BOAA last few in August 2000 and did not receive the final refit following the Paris crash, and was transported from London to Scotland by barge in 2004.
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