Concorde F-BTSC
Current registration - F-BTSC
Manufacturer’s Serial Number - 103
Production Variant Number - 100 (Converted to 101 for Air France Sale)
Maiden Flight - 31st January 1975: Toulouse, France
Air France delivery - 23rd October 1980 aircraft was purchased by Air France
Registration history –
First Registered as F-WTSC to Aerospatiale23rd October 1980 aircraft was purchased by Air France
28th May 1975 aircraft re-registered as F-BTSC by Aerospatiale
6th January 1976 aircraft leased to Air France
8th December 1976 aircraft returned to Aerospatiale.
11th June 1979 aircraft re-leased to Air France
June 1980 Aircraft converted to Type 101
Final Flight - July 25th 2000
Hours Flown - 11,989
Landings - 3978
Supersonic Flights -
Current Location - Crashed with loss of airframe and everyone on board: July 25th 2000. Remains are stored in a hanger at Le Bourget Airport, awaiting judicial inquiry
Aircraft History –
F-BTSC (203), being originally a model 100 (that would have been converted to a model 103 for Pan-Am), was the heaviest Concorde of all the Air France fleet: it was just under one ton heavier and two years older than the lighter and youngest F-BTSD (213).
1975 –
Undertakes a number of route proving and endurance flights including trips to Dakar, Rio de Janeiro, Caracus, Lisbon and Gander.
After taking part in the route proving flights, she was leased to Air France in 1976 for use until their other aircraft were delivered.
1976 – Nov 2
Start of a major sales tour of the Far East. Locations include Bahrain, Singapore and Hong Kong, covering over 30,000 miles
1977
She took part in a mid-east sales tour, where they were interest in a purchase from Iran.
1979
After featuring in the Concorde disaster movie in she was stored until being bought by Air France for 1 Franc in 1980.
1982
She was re-stored, along with F-BVFD, on 1st Nov1982 when the airlines were only operating 7 flights a week to New York. F-BTSC came back into service on 28th April 1986; when other Air France aircraft were due to undergo engineering checks. She was out of service for the D check between June 98 and Nov 99, where the keel beam was replaced due to corrosion, at a cost of £4M
The D check involved visual, radiographical and ultrasonical checks. The work total 60,000 hours of checking, piece by piece. After which three weeks of ground tests took place before two flight tests were performed.
1st Nov 1999
The aircraft then returned to Service on
21st July 2000
A-check.
July 25th 2000
Final flight; the aircraft crashes at Gonesse shortly after take off from Paris Charles de Gaulle, no crew or passengers survive. The crash results in all Concorde’s being grounded for re-engineering work on tyres, landing gear and fuel tanks.