No Kidding -- This Is The Last One...

While the last commercial flights of the Concorde drew lots of attention from the aviation world as well as the general media, the truly last scheduled flight of the airplane came about last week with only a fraction of the fuss.

The glorious and occasionally tumultuous era of the supersonic Concorde came to a close a few days ago with the final landing of the world's last flying SST. A British Airways Concorde 216 made its historic touchdown at the Filton UK site where the airliner was originally built. In 1979, Concorde 216 (call sign 'Alpha-Foxtrot') was the last of the Anglo-French supersonic airliners to come off the twin production lines of Filton and Toulouse.

After leaving Heathrow, with 100 British Airways staff on board, the aircraft landed at Filton in front of a crowd made up of the public and aerospace workers. This was the last ever flight of a Concorde, billed as a "a design triumph which pushed the boundaries of aerospace engineering."

At Filton, the aircraft was received by HRH The Duke of York on behalf of the community. This final flight was made by British Airways Captain Les Brodie, accompanied by Captains Mike Bannister and Paul Douglas, and Senior Flight Engineers Warren Hazleby and Trevor Norcott.

Mike Bannister, Chief Concorde Pilot said: “British Airways is delighted that we are returning the last Concorde ever built, ‘Alpha Foxtrot’ to her birthplace at Filton. Concorde was born from dreams, built with vision and operated with pride. She is a fabulous aircraft that will become a legend thanks to the people who built her, flew her and looked after her.”

Concorde 216 was the last of seven Concordes delivered to British Airways and made its maiden flight more than twenty-four years ago from Filton, on 20th April 1979. Since then it has clocked up more than 5,500 supersonic flights with British Airways and transported over 300,000 passengers.

Concorde has been in service with Air France and British Airways for just over 27 years - services began in January 1976 - and, while various destinations were served at various times, the aircraft served predominantly on just two routes - London-New York and Paris-New York. Rolls-Royce designed Concorde’s Olympus 593 engines in collaboration with Snecma of France.

A total of 20 Concordes were built - six of them were used in flight trials, and Air France and British Airways took delivery of seven aircraft each. Designed in the 1960s, Concorde first flew in 1969.

FMI: www.britishairways.com/concorde/index.html