Concorde G-BOAD in 2004
THIS SECTION IS STILL BEING BUILT AT THIS TIME
Concorde Airframes Today –What is their condition?
How are the museum’s looking after our Concorde heritage?
Click on the links below to find out the latest!
British Airways Service Fleet
There have been some unreliable reports concerning the three British Airways Concordes that were placed overseas. As these reports have not been confirmed by somebody who was there and witnessed it, I would therefore suggest that these are some of the urban legends that seemed to have grown up following the end-of-service in 2003, and therefore unreliable.
It states that as a condition of the donation of the aircraft to their final resting places. The aircrafts forward fuel tanks must be filled with concrete to provide ballast; some feel that this has been duly carried out and mainly with G-BOAD in New York. While I wouldn’t put this past BA at the time, I doubt it is true for a number of reasons as follows…
The museums would have strongly objected, on the basis that pouring wet concrete into the fuel tanks is likely to start corrosion at short notice, a layer of concrete at the bottom of a tank would make it impossible to check for corrosion over the longer term, and precisely in those locations where it would be most likely to occur, because of humidity accumulating in the bottom of the fuselage. It would also be a complicated and very messy procedure.
For a completely empty Concorde, the centre of gravity is located only just in front of the main landing gear, and very little weight rests on the nose gear.
Hence, with very strong side winds, the nose gear can start slipping sideways as the aircraft ‘weathervanes’ into the wind, or the aircraft could even be blown backwards and sit on its tail. With enough visitors in the rear cabin and none up front, the aircraft will also tilt backwards and become a ‘tail-sitter’ (this did happen a few times during Concorde’s in-service history).
The solution is to put enough ballast at the front of the plane, either in the number 9 and number 10 forward fuel tanks or in the forward baggage hold. This could be sandbags, or concrete blocks (both far easier to handle, and weigh, than wet concrete) and this is what is likely to have been done. For example G-BOAF at Filton has lead as ballast forward baggage hold.
Notes
* Removing the engines will remove about 12 tons of weight, but because their individual centre of gravity is only just aft of the main landing gear, ballasting is still required.
* G-BOAB which is still at Heathrow was ballasted, not with sandbags or concrete blocks, but with several tons of ancient British Airways in-flight magazines… not a good idea because in the long run they turn into a soggy mess.
Click on the links below to find out the latest concerning each airframe!
Alpha Alpha G-BOAA
Location - Museum of Flight in East Lothian, Scotland
Alpha Bravo G-BOAB
Location – Heathrow Airport, London, UK
Alpha Charlie G-BOAC
Location – Manchester Airport, UK
Alpha Delta G-BOAD
Location – New York, USA
Alpha Echo G-BOAE
Location – Grantley Adams International Airport, Christ Church, Barbados
Alpha Foxtrot G-BOAF
Location – Airbus UK, Filton, Bristol, UK
Alpha Golf G-BOAG
Location - Seattle, USA
Air France Service Fleet
Fox Alpha F- BVFA
Location -
Fox Bravo F-BVFB
Location -
Fox Charlie F-BVFC
Location -
Sierra Delta F-BTSD
Location - Le Bourget, Paris France.
Fox Fox F-BVFF
Location - Paris CDG airport, Paris, France