The untold story of the forgotten Air France Concorde that's one of only two Concordes not preserved

Air France Concorde F-BVFD was one of the few Concordes built, an aircraft that was one of just two supersonic airliners ever made, alongside the Soviet Tupolev Tu-144.

Due to the cost of the project, just 20 Concordes were completed, flying with Air France and British Airways; however, 18 of them are preserved around the world. Only two didn’t make it to a museum.

One of those was Air France’s F-BTSC, which was tragically destroyed in the 2000 crash in Gonesse, France.

The other was F-BVFD, which had a very short service life before being quietly scrapped in 1994, leaving its story untold for decades. This is the story of Air France’s forgotten Concorde.

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Concorde F-BVFD only flew for a handful of years.

Concorde F-BVFD first flew in February 1977, with delivery to Air France taking place a month later.

The carrier used the aircraft on its Paris-Dakar-Rio route. One of the few Concorde routes that didn’t take them from Paris or London to New York.

In November 1977, however, the aircraft suffered a heavy landing in Dakar, necessitating repairs to the airframe.

Following the repairs, F-BVFD flew on for another five years before Air France decided to close the Paris-Dakar-Rio route.

This left them with an extra supersonic airliner that would see very little use.

Given how important a spares donor would be to the fleet, the airline chose to retire the aircraft in 1982 and utilize it for that purpose.

The Air France Concorde spent the rest of its time parked at an airport

The airline parked the craft at Paris’s Le Bourget airport, and over time, its components were slowly stripped away.

The Air France Concorde spent 12 years sitting outside and was visible to those coming and going from Le Bourget.

As time went on, however, corrosion started to eat into the airliner.

This was because it was only stored outside rather than in a hangar.

In 1994, with the airframe in terrible condition, Air France decided to scrap the aircraft and reuse what they could as extra spare parts.

This brought the sad tale of F-BVFD to an end, having flown for only five years.

It became the first of just two of its type not to survive into preservation.

What happened to the remains of F-BVFD?

The nose cone of the jet was sold for around $40,000 to a private collector in America in 1995.

No images exist of the cone, and we can only assume it is still in the hands of this collector.

Some parts of the aircraft were transported to the Farnborough Air Sciences Museum in the UK.

Those components are still on display today.

Some parts of the fuselage, however, are still at Le Bourget, tucked away in the bushes.

Ironically, these parts sit near preserved Concordes F-WTSS and F-BTSD, which are both on display at the airport.

You can, however, buy small parts of the aircraft online, as part of the popular ‘Airliner Tags’ range.

Air France Concorde F-BVFD has remained largely forgotten ever since its scrapping, thanks to its short service life and the quiet manner in which its story came to an end.

Barring F-BTSC, the rest of the British and French aircraft carried on flying until retirement in October 2003.

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