Concorde Supersonic Speedbird - the full story
A wonder of innovation and a 20th century icon - Concorde pushed the boundaries of speed, technology and luxury. It made its first flight 50 years ago, in 1969.
The magnificent white bird, travelling at twice the speed of sound between London, Paris and New York, represented the pinnacle of commercial air travel.
When it first took to the skies its systems were the most refined and complex ever seen, its pointed nose, slender fuselage and delta wing gave it the appearance of an arrow aimed at the horizon and it went faster than a rifle bullet.
Concorde’s passengers were heads of state, royalty, pop stars, millionaires and those so caught up in the dream of supersonic flight that they were willing to part with the enormous cost of a ticket for the greatest airliner ever made.
Concorde: Supersonic Speedbird - The Full Story gives a complete account of this incredible aircraft.
A fantastic read.
Concorde : A Supersonic Story [BBC] 2017
When it was built, Concorde changed the face of aviation forever. No longer would passengers have to travel slowly - you could be in New York in around three hours, traveling faster than the speed of sound, and in perfect comfort (Apprx 58000ft at MACH2 1534mph).
On November 29, 1952, it all became possible when an agreement was signed between UK and France to build and share the costs of this supersonic plane.
Only 20 Concordes were ever built, six of which were prototypes and development aircraft, meaning that only 14 were actually used commercially.
British Airways owned 7 Concordes and Air France had 5. Of the other two production aircraft which were owned by Air France, one was withdrawn from service and used for spare parts from 1982 onward, and the other crashed in 2000.
On November 26, 2003, almost 41 years after the agreement was signed to build them, G-BOAF completed Concorde's last ever flight. Concorde Alpha Foxtrot G-BOAF flew into Filton in November 2003. She was the last Concorde ever to fly. Concorde Alpha Foxtrot made her final journey across Filton Airfield to her brand new purpose-built hangar, ready to go on display at Aerospace Bristol.
G-BOAF (216) British Production
- Current Registration Date - 11/08/1980
- Registration Status & Reason - De-registered 04/05/2004 (Permanently withdrawn from use)
- Manufacturer’s Serial Number – 100-016
- Production Type – Concorde Type 1 Variant 100-102
- Manufacturing Number - 216
- Manufacturer - BRITISH AIRCRAFT CORPORATION
- Assembled at - BAC Filton Bristol, UK
- Year Built - 1978
- Aircraft Class - Fixed-Wing Landplane
- Engines - 4 x Rolls-Royce Olympus 593 MK 610-14-28
- Max Take-off Weight - 185070kg
- Registered Owners - BRITISH AIRWAYS PLC, WATERSIDE (HBA3), PO BOX 365, HARMONDSWORTH, WEST DRAYTON, UB7 0GB
- Resides and can be seen at Aerospace Bristol Aviation Museum, Filton UK
Registration History
- First Registered as G-BFKX on 27th January 1978 to British Aerospace
- 14th December 1979 aircraft re-registered as G-N94AF/ G-BOAF by British Aerospace.
- 12th June 1980 aircraft re-registered as G-BOAF by British Airways
- De-Registered - 4th May 2004
G-BOAC (204) British Production
- Current Registration Date - 11/08/1980
- Registration Status & Reason - De-registered 04/05/2004 (Permanently withdrawn from use)
- Known as – Alpha Charlie or 204
- Manufacturer’s Serial Number – 100-004
- Production Type – Concorde Type 1 Variant 100-102
- Manufacturing Number - 5102-01
- Manufacturer - BRITISH AIRCRAFT CORPORATION
- Assembled at - BAC Filton Bristol, UK
- Year Built - 1975
- Aircraft Class - Fixed-Wing Landplane
- Engines - 4 x Rolls-Royce Olympus 593 MK 610-14-28
- Max Take-off Weight - 185070kg
- Registered Owners - BRITISH AIRWAYS PLC, WATERSIDE (HBA3), PO BOX 365, HARMONDSWORTH, WEST DRAYTON, UB7 0GB
- Resides and can be seen at Manchester Airport EGCC Visitors Park
- First Registered as G-BOAC on 3rd April 1974 to the British Aircraft Corporation Ltd
- 5th January 1979 aircraft re-registered as G-N81AC / N81AC by British Airways / Braniff Airways
- 11th August 1980 aircraft re-registered as G-BOAC by British Airway
- De-Registered – 4th May 2004 CofA / Permit – (Transport/Passenger) Suspended 16/05/2005
Concorde G-BOAC last flight was her retirement flight from Heathrow to Manchester Airport on 31st October 2003, the flight number for this flight was BA9020C. Flight number BA9020C, left Heathrow for Manchester on her final journey. On the flight-deck that day were Captain Paul Douglas, Captain Mike Bannister, Engineering Flight Officer Robert Woodcock and Engineering Flight Officer Trevor Norcutt. After 27 years in service, Alpha Charlie had flown for 22,260 hours and made 7,730 landings.
Above you can see G-BOAC landing at Manchester Airport, notice the runway numbers 06L-24R, these have changed now to 05L-26R. The renumbering was because of changes in the position of the magnetic North Pole. The two runways have a number at each end, based on a magnetic compass bearing used by approaching pilots. Until the 14th Jan 2013 pilots heading to the airport from the direction of Stockport have followed a compass bearing of 240 degrees. From this direction the two runways are therefore called 24 Left and 24 Right. Those flying in from Knutsford follow a bearing of 60 degrees and from this direction the runways are named 06 Left and 06 Right. But the magnetic pole is constantly moving. It has shifted so much that compass bearings have changed by a full ten degrees. From 14th Jan 2013, the numbers will be changed to 23L and 23R and to 05L and 05R.
She is known as Alpha Charlie, and British Airways considers her to be the Flagship of BA and their Concorde Fleet as it carries the letters ‘BOAC’ which were also the initials of the British Overseas Airways Corporation, the forerunner, along with British European Airlines, to British Airways. G-BOAC can be seen at Manchester Airport Visitors Centre.
Different Liveries
Additional information can be found here
The British Airways Negus Livery (Three versions)
Airframes – G-BOAA, G -BOAB, G-BOAC, G-BOAD, G-BOAE, G-BOAF, G-BOAG
Development Concorde G-BBDG was also painted in this livery, & one side only of Pre-production airframe F- WTSA
The British Airways temporaryNegus livery 1979/1980
Airframe – 214 G-BFKW (Later G-BOAG)
The joint British Airways Negus & the Singapore Airlines livery 1979 – 1980
Airframe G-BOAD /G-N94AD
The British Airways Landor Livery
Airframes – G-BOAA, G -BOAB, G-BOAC, G-BOAD, G-BOAE, G-BOAF, G-BOAG
The British Airways Union Flag Livery
Airframes – G-BOAA, G -BOAB, G-BOAC, G-BOAD, G-BOAE, G-BOAF, G-BOAG
The Air France Retro livery
Airframes – F-BTSC, F-BVFA, F-BVFB, F-BVFC, F-BVFD, F-BTSD, F-BVFF
The Air France Euro-white livery
Airframes – F-BTSC, F-BVFA, F-BVFB, F-BVFC, F-BVFD, F-BTSD, F-BVFF
The Air France Pepsi livery Concorde 1996
Airframe – F-BTSD
Development Fleet Livery
The British and French Prototype livery
Airframes 001 – F-WTSS & 002 – G-BSST
The British and French Pre-production livery
The British pre-production livery – Airframe 01 -G-AXDN
The French pre-production livery – Airframe 02 F-WTSA
A would have been livery
An image of the livery that could have been.
When BOAC was the UK's national airline and when it was
assumed Concorde would be flying in these colours however due to company mergers it was not to be. Concorde didn't go in to commercial service until 1976 this was after British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC) was amalgamated with British European Airways (BEA) and two smaller, regional airlines to form British Airways (BA) in 1974. The supersonic aircraft therefore never flew in the BOAC livery
Braniff International Livery
While the flights did not last long, they did invite some interesting curiosities. First, all flights operated by Braniff were manned by company crews, both on the flight deck and in the cabin. Concorde would land in DC, for example, and the French crew would depart the airplane while the American crews boarded. After the return flight from Texas the airplane would be handed back over to the French crew. The flights never went supersonic as they were over land, but all Braniff Concorde pilots were checked out to operate the airplane to its full speed of Mach 2.
Second, in order to operate a domestic US segment the airplane had to be temporarily registered in the US. Upon landing from Europe the G or F was covered over with tape, and an “N” followed by either “-81” or “—94” replaced the first two letters of the European registration. The last two registration letters were left in place. As a result, G-BOAC would become N-81AC, while F-BVFD would become N-94FD. A total of nine Concordes eventually wound up in the interchange program running for Braniff. None of them was ever repainted in Braniff paint, however.
Sales on the flight were never very impressive, and the airline lost lots of month on the route. The service, largely a publicity gimmick, was discontinued in mid 1980 as Braniff’s fortunes, not just on the route but company-wide, began to crumble.
First in the Air
The Tupolev Tu-144 (Dubbed Concordski) is a retired jet airliner and commercial
supersonic transport aircraft. It was the world's first commercial SST,
the second being the Anglo-French Concorde.
The design was a product of the Tupolev design bureau, headed by Alexei Tupolev, of the Soviet Union and manufactured by the Voronezh Aircraft Production Association in Voronezh, Russia.
It conducted 102 commercial flights, of which only 55 carried passengers,
at an average service altitude of 16,000 metres (52,000 ft) and cruised
at a speed of around 2,000 kilometres per hour (1,200 mph) (Mach 1.6).
The prototype's first flight was made on December 31, 1968, near Moscow from Zhukovsky Airport, two months before the first flight of Concorde. The Tu-144 first in history went supersonic on June 5 1969 (Concorde first went supersonic on October 1 1969), and on May 26 1970 became the world's first commercial transport to exceed Mach 2. A Tu-144 crashed in 1973 at the Paris Air Show, delaying its further development. The aircraft was introduced into commercial service on December 26, 1975. In May 1978, another Tu-144 (an improved version, the Tu-144D) crashed on a test flight while being delivered. The aircraft remained in use as a cargo aircraft until 1983, when the Tu-144 commercial fleet was grounded. The Tu-144 was later used by the Soviet space program to train pilots of the Buran spacecraft, and by NASA for supersonic research until 1999, when the Tu-144 made its last flight (June 26, 1999).
