The last flight of Concorde 216 (G-BOAF)

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).

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

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

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G-BOAF was the first aircraft to be fitted out with the present leather seats and refurbished interiors in May1993. This interior will soon be updated to an even newer design in time for the return to service.

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

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Concorde 216 was chosen by British Airways to be its lead aircraft in their Return to Flight programme after the Paris crash and was the first to be fitted with the newly developed Kevlar-rubber fuel tank liners. Electrial wiring around the landing gear was also strengthened.

Source: concordesst.com