G-BOAA “Alpha Alpha”

G-BOAA was Concorde production number 100-006, registered in 1974. It first flew from Filton on 5 November 1975. On 14 January 1976 it became the first Concorde delivered to British Airways, flying in from RAF Fairford in 42 minutes. A week later, on 21 January 1976, it flew the airline's opening supersonic service, to Bahrain, under Captain Norman Todd.

Around 1979 and 1980 it carried the US registration N94AA for the joint British Airways and Braniff service. It then reverted to G-BOAA. In April 1988 it became the first Concorde to pass the 12,000-hour maintenance check. It flew in formation with a Spitfire over Dover in 1990 and with the Red Arrows over Heathrow in June 1996.

Its last flight was BA002 from New York JFK to Heathrow on 12 August 2000. It never received the safety modifications required after the Paris crash, so British Airways used it as a spares source instead. By then it had logged 22,768 hours and 8,064 landings, including 6,842 supersonic flights.

The registration was cancelled in May 2004 and the aircraft given to the National Museum of Flight. Dismantling at Heathrow took nine weeks; the wings and tail were cut off. It went by road to the Thames, then by barge down the river and up the North Sea coast to Torness. The last leg crossed fields to East Fortune on a temporary army-laid track, arriving on 19 April 2004. Reassembled, it opened to visitors in the Concorde Experience on 16 March 2005.

Indoors in Hangar 4, the Concorde Experience, beside Red Arrows Hawk XX308. You can walk through the cabin, and Olympus 593 engines and seats are shown alongside.