G-BOAF (216) | heritage-concorde

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Registration Status & Reason - De-registered 04/05/2004 (Permanently withdrawn from use)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

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

TO VISIT THIS CONCORDE IN ITS CURRENT LOCATION TODAY, CLICK ON THIS LINK

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Aircraft history

Concorde 216 was purchased by BA as their 6th Concorde, although sold by British Aerospace for a token sum rumoured to be £1000 + 10,000FF for the airframe and £100 + 1000FF for each engine).

BA then paid the full costs of over a Million pounds for their own Buyer Furnished equipment, such as radios, nav gear, galleys, seat etc… On entry into service it was pretty much the same as the original 5 a/c.

April 12th 1989: While flying from Christchurch to Sydney, G-BOAF was the first Concorde to suffer a rudder separation failure where part of the upper rudder section was lost in flight. Over the next few years similar events occurred on other aircraft leading to all BA and Air France Concorde’s being fitted with brand new upper and lower rudders at a cost of many millions of Pounds.

1997 G-BOAF, was flown and displayed at the 23rd G8 summit in Denver, Colorado. This was significant in that it was the first summit for Prime Minister Tony Blair and the first including Russia with Russian President Boris Yeltsen.

2001: G-BOAF was the first BA Concorde to be fitted out with the present leather seats. She was also the first to have the refurbished interiors in May1993.

2001: Lead aircraft in the post Paris crash, Return to Flight programme. G-BOAF was the first to be fitted with the new upgrades, including being the first to be fitted with the newly developed Kevlar-rubber fuel tank liners. Electrical wiring around the landing gear was also strengthened.

July 17th 2001: First flight to verify the Return to Flight upgrades is successful.

October 22nd 2001: Final operational assessment flight, a return trip to New York, is successful and paves the way for a return to passenger services.

November 7th 2001: British Prime Minister Tony Blair flies Concorde G-BOAF to Washington for a meeting with US President George W Bush. This day was significant as it was the return to service of Concorde following the Paris crash.

December 1st 2001: G-BOAF restarts the weekly service to Barbados.

October 24th 2003: Final passenger flight (BA 9010) is a short supersonic loop over the Atlantic before landing at Heathrow in formation with G-BOAE and G-BOAG. The three Concordes land on Heathrow’s runway 27 Right in quick succession.216 was the middle aircraft.

October 30th 2003: BA confirms that Filton will get Concorde 216. The others are allocated to Manchester, New York, Seattle, Barbados, and East Fortune, with one remaining at Heathrow

November 26th 2003: Final flight from Heathrow to Filton via the Bay of Biscay, crossing low over the Clifton Suspension Bridge on the way. This was the last ever Concorde flight

December 4th 2003: After decommissioning, Concorde 216 is parked up on Filton airfield for the winter months, while its new display area is prepared.

March 20th2004: 216 is towed to its purpose built display area, on the south side of Filtons runway.

August 2nd 2004: With the visitors centre complete, tickets go on sale.

August 18th 2004: Concorde at Filton opens to the public.

This aircraft was also the first in the fleet to be painted into the new British Airways ‘Utopia’ livery and wears the Union Flag scheme, which is officially called Chatham Historic Dockyard. This scheme was initially intended to be used only on Concorde but was eventually was displayed on all BA tailfins. As ‘Alpha-Foxtrot’ was the first aircraft to use this livery, it is this aircraft we see in their majority of BA’s publicity material.

Click above to visit this Concorde

Aircraft Comments

Hours Flown - 18,257 Hrs

Landings - 6,045

Supersonic Flights - 5,639

Current Location - Retired from passenger service to Filton Airfield, Bristol

G-BOAF (216) Condition

She was the last of the Concordes to be built, and the last aircraft to be built at Filton, the oldest aircraft factory in the world. Concorde 216 was really the last aeroplane built by the famous old Bristol Aircraft Company, even the famous Olympus 593 engines, the powerhouse of Concorde were Bristol engines, built and developed by the old company until the take over by Rolls-Royce.

Concorde 216 made the final fight of all the Concordes and closed the chapter on supersonic passenger travel, when she lifted off the Heathrow runway for the final time and flew back to Filton, on November 26th 2003, a day that ended the Concorde dream for all the many fans around the world.

Concorde G-BOAF, which is known as Alpha Foxtrot, or just simply as ‘Foxy’ was relocated to Filton to serve as a lasting testimony to the engineers, designers and everyone who helped develop and build Concorde, it was to rightful place to locate this amazing aircraft. The plan was to place her on public display and have her undercover within three years, sadly this hasn’t happened but all is far from being sad as there are great plans now in place for her.

Former Concorde tours at Filton

British Airways loaned Concorde 216 to Airbus UK, who campaigned hard to bring the aircraft back to Filton. The Bristol Aero Collection, a local aviation preservation charity which looks after much of Filton’s aviation heritage that is used to display at Kemble (near Cirencester), set up and managed the display and company “Concorde at Filton” through its team of enthusiastic and hard working volunteers, led by Andy Treweek, the centre manager.

"ALL were volunteers who travelled many miles to show off this aircraft and were immensely proud to be associated with it. The knowledge that some of the volunteers had was second to none, we had people who worked on the intakes, avionics, and dear old Clyde who worked on the Olympus 593 ( Bristol Sidley NOT Rolls Royce ) as he would always tell visitors.
Speaking for myself I miss Alpha Foxtrot and my fellow CAF friends dreadfully and am itching to show her off once more."

Paul Evans Nov 2014

G-BOAF in her current location at Filton

Former Concorde tours at filton

Andy Treweek, Tour center manager

Former tour team at filton

“Concorde at Filton” was amazing place to visit; every tour was a true technical tour, conducted by a wonderful team, some of which worked on Concorde as designers, engineers and technicians, their stories and knowledge were second to none, but behind the scenes there were problems at Filton.

The worse event was when a visitor to “Concorde at Filton” sadly fell to his death, at that point understandably everything changed at the exhibit, two members of the management were held in a Police cell over night, with the possibility of being charged with man-slaughter, and then following that the attitude of Airbus seemed to change towards the exhibit. Some even went as far as stating that Airbus had become tired of Concorde and would have done anything to see this one removed from their site, but this is only hearsay and their later preservation works carried out to the aircraft seem to show that this Concorde has the backing of Airbus in the UK.

Following the sad accident, both Airbus and BAC were fined, with Airbus taking the biggest hit and blame. At that point again understandably, Airbus Health and Safety started putting more and more pressure on the “Concorde at Filton” team, The volunteers could no longer open hatches on the underside, which they did to allow airflow to circulate, the main landing gear water deflectors to be removed, as someone might hurt their leg if they went too close. Also they stopped certain maintenance tasks from being carried, after hearing some of the things that were banned; it seemed like more of a case of H&S going silly and over the top. The team were also banned from using any steps to reach panels on the under side of the airframe, or walking on the wing, you have to remember that the team needed to carry out these tasks to carry out general maintenance and care of the aircraft, all of these tasks are conducted at other Concorde museums.

There were a few other problems, but only minor ones, as followers…

There were reports in the press that she suffered a problem with rust on one on her wing outer edges. The truth was that she had an in-service repair carried out by British Airways engineers before the end of Concorde services life. After being grounded at Filton, they used a jet wash to clean her, the filler that BA had used came out, it was simply just repaired, and was only about the size of a small UK 10 pence coin. So this had nothing to do with the way she has been looked after at since her arrival at Filton, she arrived there in this condition. But as always the press jumped before it could walk, basically before it has the true facts.

The biggest shock of all came during 2010 when Airbus in the UK announced that it was closing down the tours and that Concorde would be removed from public display. At that point the stories went wild, and the situation became nasty, all sorts of claims were made, in public, in the press and on television.

Steve de Sausmarez (then head of Heritage Concorde) organized a Public meeting at Filton leisure centre, attended by the local MP, even the local council held a discussion regarding the matter. I spoke to the British Airways CEO who assured me that it was being removed from public display as it required a great deal of maintenance (due to it being outside for seven years) and therefore had to be placed inside one of the hangers at Filton over the winter months, but would return to public display once the work was completed, but no date could be given at this time, this being the Airbus line at the time. Of course after all the fighting, “Concorde at Filton” was closed down.

Then Airbus made the statement that Concorde 216 would not return to public display in its present location, something that was always believed would be the case anyway. There were so many conflicts between Airbus and “Concorde at Filton”, that it was seen by many as a way to remove this thorn in their side, we will never know the true reasons for the closure, but you have to remember the museum at Filton was losing money and I guess that was the main reason.

Robert White, tourguide at Filton

From November 2010 through to July 2011, Airbus in the UK carried out extensive and expensive repairs to Concorde G-BOAF, the total cost of these repairs came to a total of £1.8 million. This restoration work saw all areas of corrosion removed from that aircraft, and in some cases new parts of the fuselage were manufacture by Airbus. The head of Heritage Concorde at the time, Steve de Sausmarez, was invited by Airbus and the then Concorde Trust, who have now been replaced by the BAC (The Bristol Aero Collection Trust) to discussions regarding the then situation, and the future plans for the aircraft and its restoration works. Heritage Concorde was given an exclusive tour of the aircraft which included boarding G-BOAF.

Pictures of Concorde G-BOAF being restored by Airbus

Interior while work progresses

Care taken in every area

Following the restoration of the aircraft, Airbus, while at all times in consultation with BA, the aircrafts owners regarding the works, then sealed the fuselage to prevent any further water ingress. This work both showed the commitment of Airbus and the Concorde Trust to the aircrafts future in Bristol.

The Bristol Aero Collection Trust which is now the organisation behind the plans for a new heritage and learning centre at Filton. The Trust was formed in 2012, by the merger of the Bristol Aero Collection and the Concorde Trust. The chairman of the BACT is Iain Gray, CEO of the Technology Strategy Board, and former Managing Director of Airbus UK.

Planned Heritage Center in Filton

After many years of working in partnership with the Bristol Aero Collection, The Concorde Trust transferred it assets and undertakings to the fellow charity in May 2012. All directors of The Concorde Trust became trustees of the merged charity and, later in the year, the name was changed to the Bristol Aero Collection Trust (BAC Trust).

In December 2012 a site on Filton Airfield was formally pledged to BAC Trust by landowners, BAE Systems for the creation of the Aerospace Bristol. The site includes two First World War, Grade II listed hangars which, it is planned, are being refurbished to provide a first class aviation heritage museum, catering and retail facilities, community and learning spaces, archive, workshops and stores. A new building of c.3,200m2 footprint will offer a permanent home for Concorde, related exhibitions, technology centre and corporate facilities.

Aerospace Bristol will conserve and display the region’s rich aviation heritage, telling the stories of the great technological advances, including Concorde, and the role of the community and workforce. It will help people learn about and participate in this heritage, and promote learning amongst the next generation of designers, innovators and engineers.

The center is due to open in 2017