Concorde | |
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British Airways Concorde in 1986 | |
Role | Supersonic airliner |
Manufacturer | BAC (now BAE Systems) Sud Aviation (now Airbus) |
First flight | 2 March 1969 |
Introduction | 21 January 1976 |
Retired | 26 November 2003 |
Status | Retired |
Primary users | British Airways Air France See Concorde#Operators for others |
Number built | 20 (including 6 non-airline aircraft) [1] [2] |
Twenty Concorde aircraft were built: two prototypes, two pre-production aircraft, two development aircraft and 14 production aircraft for commercial service. With the exception of two of the production aircraft, all are preserved, mostly in museums. One aircraft was scrapped in 1994, and another was destroyed in the Air France Flight 4590 crash in 2000.
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.
Both pre-production aircraft were used to further develop the design of the aircraft. Changes to design include different wing planform, more fuel, different engine standard and different air intake systems.
The production aircraft were different in many ways from the original aircraft, necessitating re-examining certain areas to obtain certification. In all there were six "development" aircraft: the two prototypes (001/002), two pre-production (101/102) and two production aircraft (201/202).
British Airways had seven production aircraft in commercial service:
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. [29]
Air France also had seven production aircraft in commercial service:
Number | Registration | First flew | Last flew | Flying hours | Disposition/Location |
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001 | F-WTSS | 2 March 1969 | 19 October 1973 | 812 | On display at Musée de l'air et de l'espace, Le Bourget, France |
002 | G-BSST | 9 April 1969 | 4 March 1976 | 836 | On display at Fleet Air Arm Museum, Yeovilton, England, UK |
101 | G-AXDN | 17 December 1971 | 20 August 1977 | 632 | On display at Imperial War Museum, Duxford, England, UK |
102 | F-WTSA | 10 January 1973 | 20 May 1976 | 656 | On display at Musée Delta, Paris, France |
201 | F-WTSB | 6 December 1973 | 19 April 1985 | 909 | On display at Aeroscopia, Toulouse, France |
202 | G-BBDG | 13 February 1974 | 24 December 1981 | 1282 | On display at Brooklands Museum, Weybridge, England, UK |
203 | F-BTSC [lower-alpha 1] | 31 January 1975 | 25 July 2000 | 11989 | Destroyed in an air crash on 25 July 2000. The remains of this aircraft are stored at a hangar at Le Bourget Airport. |
204 | G-BOAC [lower-alpha 2] | 27 February 1975 | 31 October 2003 | 22260 | On display at Manchester Airport, England, UK. |
205 | F-BVFA [lower-alpha 3] | 27 October 1975 | 12 June 2003 | 17824 | On display at Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center of the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, Chantilly, Virginia US |
206 | G-BOAA [lower-alpha 4] | 5 November 1975 | 12 August 2000 | 22768 | On display at National Museum of Flight, East Lothian, Scotland, UK |
207 | F-BVFB [lower-alpha 5] | 6 March 1976 | 24 June 2003 | 14771 | On display at Sinsheim Auto & Technik Museum, Germany |
208 | G-BOAB [lower-alpha 6] | 18 May 1976 | 15 August 2000 | 22296 | Stored at Heathrow Airport, London, England, UK |
209 | F-BVFC [lower-alpha 7] | 9 July 1976 | 27 June 2003 | 14332 | On display at Aeroscopia Museum, Airbus Factory, Toulouse, France |
210 | G-BOAD [lower-alpha 8] | 25 August 1976 | 10 November 2003 | 23397 | On display at Intrepid Museum, New York City, US |
211 | F-BVFD [lower-alpha 9] | 10 February 1977 | 27 May 1982 | 5814 | Scrapped in 1994. A small section of the fuselage remains at Le Bourget, France and the nose cone was sold to an American collector. |
212 | G-BOAE [lower-alpha 10] | 17 March 1977 | 17 November 2003 | 23376 | Stored at Grantley Adams International Airport, Barbados |
213 | F-BTSD [lower-alpha 11] | 26 June 1978 | 14 June 2003 | 12974 | On display at Musée de l'air et de l'espace, Le Bourget, France |
214 | G-BOAG [lower-alpha 12] | 21 April 1978 | 5 November 2003 | 16239 | On display at Museum of Flight, Seattle, Washington, US |
215 | F-BVFF [lower-alpha 13] | 26 December 1978 | 11 June 2000 | 12421 | On display at Charles de Gaulle Airport, Paris, France |
216 | G-BOAF [lower-alpha 14] | 20 April 1979 | 26 November 2003 | 18257 | On display at Aerospace Bristol, England, UK [27] |
Concorde is a retired Anglo-French supersonic airliner jointly developed and manufactured by Sud Aviation and the British Aircraft Corporation (BAC). Studies started in 1954, and France and the UK signed a treaty establishing the development project on 29 November 1962, as the programme cost was estimated at £70 million . Construction of the six prototypes began in February 1965, and the first flight took off from Toulouse on 2 March 1969. The market was predicted for 350 aircraft, and the manufacturers received up to 100 option orders from many major airlines. On 9 October 1975, it received its French Certificate of Airworthiness, and from the UK CAA on 5 December.
The Tupolev Tu-144 is a Soviet supersonic passenger airliner designed by Tupolev in operation from 1968 to 1999.
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