Serial Numbers
The Concorde project called for 2 prototypes, 2 pre-production aircraft and then the production run.
The production aircraft it was planned in the 1960s would be sequentially numbered, eg 1,2,3,4..... the prototypes being 2 models away for the production aircraft would have 2 leaving zeros, eg 001 and 002, while the pre-production aircraft being only one standard away from the production aircraft would have only one leaving zero, eg 01 and 02.
So we had...
Aircraft Type |
Serial Number |
Registration |
French Prototype |
001 |
F-WTSS |
British Prototype |
002 |
G-BSST |
British Pre-Production |
01 |
G-AXDN |
French Pre-Production |
02 |
F-WTSA |
French Production |
1 |
F-WTSB |
British Production |
2 |
G-BBDG |
French Production |
3 |
F-WTSC (F-BTSC) |
British Production |
4 |
G-BOAC |
That was the plan until.....
...they decided to bring a computer system into the production control process, to track parts are they were manufactured and designated for the specific aircraft. The problem was the aircraft needed to have 3 digit numbers, and this was problematic with the numbers 01 and 02. The solution was to rename these as 101 and 102. The prototypes, 001 and 002, were fine as they were already 3 digit numbers. It was further decided that the production aircraft would start as 201 202, etc.. If they got to 299 they would wrap to 300, or if a new model came out this could begin in the 300's or even 400's
So we now had...
Aircraft Type
|
Serial Number
|
Registration
|
French Prototype
|
001
|
F-WTSS
|
British Prototype
|
002
|
G-BSST
|
British Pre-Production
|
101
|
G-AXDN
|
French Pre-Production
|
102
|
F-WTSA
|
French Production
|
201
|
F-WTSB
|
British Production
|
202
|
G-BBDG
|
French Production
|
203
|
F-WTSC (F-BTSC)
|
British Production
|
204
|
G-BOAC
|
Quite often the pre-production aircraft were still known to many as 01 and 02 (Oh-One and Oh-Two), and to this day many people and books quote them as such. Officially they were classified as 101 and 102. Sometimes on this website I will use 01 or 101, they are the same thing, I do try to put both numbers together.
Variant (Model) Numbers.
The model numbers were specific for the airlines and followed a similar pattern of how Boeing would attach a 2 digit or 2 letter code to the aircraft eg a 747-100 for BA would be known as a 747-136, 36 being the BA code.
The initial Concordes were all variants of the model 100 (with 200 serial numbers...confusing eh!). Air France Concordes were model 101s and BA aircraft model 102s. Other customers such as Pan-Am would be 103. This number was specific for the configuration that the respective airlines would order Concorde, with their internal layout and specific cockpit options (eg radios and navigation aids)
The 3 original production Concordes were model 100s, subsequently 203 (F-BTSC) was upgraded to the Model 101 spec when officially passed to Air France in 1980.
Aircraft Type
|
Variant Number |
Serial Number
|
Registration
|
French Production
|
100 |
201
|
F-WTSB
|
British Production
|
100 |
202
|
G-BBDG
|
French Production |
100 (later 101) |
203
|
F-WTSC (F-BTSC)
|
British Airways Production
|
102 |
204
|
G-BOAC
|
Air France Production
|
101 |
205
|
F-BVFA
|
British Airways Production
|
102 |
206
|
G-BOAA
|
Air France Production
|
101 |
207
|
F-BVFB
|
British Airways Production
|
102 |
208
|
G-BOAB
|
|