Concorde: the final flights
G-BOAC’s retirement landing at Manchester on 31 October 2003, plus the last supersonic arrivals at Heathrow on 24 October.
Aviation photography, 2002 to 2004
Aircraft photographed around Manchester and the North West: the end of Concorde, two Red Arrows displays, three police air support units, and the helicopters and military visitors that turned up unannounced.
- 54Aviation photographs
- 8Aviation sections
- 3Police air support units
- 2003The year everything happened
Browse by subject
Every aviation page in the archive. Thumbnails open into a larger view.
The Red Arrows at Morecambe
The Swan arrival, the Vixen Loop, Rollbacks, the Gypo Pass and the Heart, on a grey Lancashire afternoon.
The Red Arrows at Southport
Five frames from the Southport display: a dull, overcast day that the team turned into a show.
Police aircraft
The fixed wing and rotary aircraft of three police air support units, with their equipment described in detail.
Military aircraft
A VC10 C1K, Saudi Hercules, a Royal Navy Merlin at Barton, and HMS Invincible in the Mersey.
Helicopters
Agusta 109s, Eurocopter AS355s, an Enstrom, a Bell 222 and more, with a full list of the types photographed.
Barton Aerodrome
The oldest municipal airport in the country, its 1927 buildings and the Lancashire Aero Club.
Around Barton Aerodrome
The airfield in its setting beside the Ship Canal, with the swing bridges that stop traffic when a ship passes.
Why 2003 matters in this archive
Most of the aviation material here dates from a single autumn. On 24 October 2003 Concorde made its last supersonic passenger flights into Heathrow; seven days later, on 31 October, G-BOAC arrived at Manchester to become a museum piece at the Aviation Viewing Park. In between, on 22 October, Concorde had departed Manchester for the 204th and final time.
Alongside the aircraft that everyone came to see, the same period produced the everyday material that makes up the rest of the collection: police air support aircraft working out of Manchester, Woodvale and Carr Green; a Merlin calling in at a grass airfield; and a helicopter gallery built up one visitor at a time.
How the aircraft pages are arranged
Pages are grouped by role rather than by manufacturer, because that is how the aircraft were encountered. The police aircraft pages set out the equipment fitted to each aircraft, which is often more interesting than the airframe itself. The helicopter gallery is a straightforward record of types and registrations.
A note on missing images. A number of photographs referenced by the original 2003 site, particularly on the military aircraft page, were never captured by the Internet Archive. Those pages say so rather than showing placeholders. Everything else in the archive is complete.
Aviation questions
Where were these aircraft photographs taken?
Mostly at Manchester International Airport (Ringway), Barton Aerodrome near Eccles, RAF Woodvale, Morecambe, Southport and Heathrow. The photography notes describe the vantage points used.
Can I identify an aircraft from a registration shown here?
Yes. Registrations are given in the captions and tables, and searching for one such as G-BOAC or G-YPOL will find the relevant page.