The Continuation and End of the "WOODY" Mystery.

Let's get back to the point...

To locate Woody's positions during the show and after 1967 and 1968, here are the two positions on a screenshot from Google Earth 2003.

First, at the end of the Paris Air Show, starting on July 3, 1967, Aéroports de Paris organized tours near exhibition halls A and B1 before the transfer to Orly, likely in March or April 1968.

Below is an excerpt from the ADP project layout plan.

A decision by ADP's general management set the fee for tours at Le Bourget and subsequently at Orly at 3 francs per person.

To complement the article, here are two documents from the Jean Charles DAYOY Collection. https://www.aeroport-paris-orly.com

This interesting announcement of the event organized by ADP for the relocation of the model to its temporary location planned for the continuation of visits after the show.

Translation in the language of Shakespeare

Two « Premieres » at Le Bourget

The Parisian public will be able to visit "Concorde"

Starting July 3rd, the "Guided Tours" service of PARIS AIRPORT will be handling the Concorde model

At 9:30 am, the model, which was exhibited at the 27th Paris Air Show, will be placed on a special parking stand accessible to the public.

This transfer operation will be carried out under the direction of André TURCAT, Director of Flight Testing at SUD AVIATION.

Eight months before the first test flight of the prototype, currently under construction in Toulouse, André TURCAT will be in the cockpit of the mock-up to study, at full scale, the position and visibility of the captain during the ground taxiing of his aircraft.

Every day (except Friday) from 10:00 AM to 6:00 PM on weekdays and from 10:00 AM to 5:00 PM on Saturdays, Sundays, and public holidays, the public can board the model and see its interior equipment.

Admission price: 3 francs per person.

Now, some statistics on visits to the model at Le Bourget:

During the air show:                                  97,000 visitors

At its location in the exhibition center:

From July to December 1967:                 55,410 visitors

From January to May 1968:                   157,218 visitors

We haven't found the documents concerning the details of the model's transfer to Orly, but it must have been very interesting; we're continuing our research…

Arrived at Orly in 1969, here is the first position in parking lot P7 next to the Caravelle prototype F-BHHH; WOODY would will be exhibited there until 1975.

We'll spare you the statistics, but between 1969 and 1975, WOODY received hundreds of visitors. During those years, as Gilbert Bécaud sang, visitors went to « Orly on Sundays »

In 1973, the Bel Epine shopping center even considered acquiring the Concorde or the Caravelle to display them to visitors. However, due to the difficulty of dismantling them, the project was abandoned.

In 1974, Aeroports de Paris  bought WOODY, this time from AEROSPATIALE, for 1.00 fr (One Franc).

In 1976, a free transfer was considered to the Bordeaux-based company TRANSMEDIA INTERNATIONAL for a project to use the model at events throughout France.

However, in a letter dated June 23, 1976, Aerospatiale reiterated Article 4 of the sales contract dated April 22, 1974: "The model being currently in the custody of the Buyer (Paris Airport), the latter shall have definitive ownership from the signing of this contract until and including the complete destruction of said model." The project was abandoned, and WOODY remained in its location in parking lot P7.

Visits continued for several more months but unfortunately an electrical fire partially destroyed the interior of the fuselage and made visits impossible, which spelled the end of its life at Orly.

Here are some images:

In June 1976, the model was officially removed from the inventory.

WOODY will be replaced on guided tours in June 1976 by our F-WTSA.

Now it's time to finally solve the mystery: what happened to WOODY?

Hypothesis 1

Flugaustellung Peter Junior Habersberg 1 at 54411 HERMESKEIL in Germany presents a model of the F-WTSA.

Unfortunately, all our questions have remained unanswered. For a very long time, we simply wanted clarification and an answer to finally know if their F-WTSA, displayed in the museum, is not by any chance WOODY…

To conclude, this short message to the management of the Hermeskeil museum: “Our F-WTSA is delighted to have a twin brother in Germany and would be very happy to welcome the directors of this fine museum aboard and meet them.”

We therefore continued our research and found this other hypothes.

Hypothesis 2

Contrary to what our friends at Heritage Concorde thought in their article

https://www.heritageconcorde.com/concorde-wooden-mockup

Concorde Airframe Wooden Mock-up’s

Below is a picture showing a full-size wooden Concorde mock-up, first displayed at the 27th Paris Air Show. Afterwards it was moved to Orly Airport where it could be visited by the public, until it was set alight and destroyed some years later by vandals.

And to conclude simply, here is the final result:

WOODY was not vandalized, but as stipulated in the SUD AVIATION and ADP Convention in its previously cited: Article 4 of the sales contract of April 22, 1974 was applied;

WOODY was simply dismantled.

All that remains for me is to express my sincere gratitude to the ADP team who allowed me to consult this interesting and voluminous documentation to finally get an explanation for the mystery of WOODY.