F-BHRU “Poitou” construction number 58, flew for the first time from Toulouse Blagnac airport on November 3, 1960 and was in service with Air France until it was decommissioned on August 28, 1980 when ferried from Charles to Gaulle airport to Paris Orly airport.
After being scrapped between November 1980 and April 1981, the cockpit was stored in a training center for air traffic controllers at Orly for 13 years. There it was originally supposed to be converted into a simulator. The project that was started was never completed for financial reasons. The cockpit almost ended up in the scrap heap in 1993. It was accidentally discovered and rescued by a member of the French association “Jean Bapiste Salis” from la Ferté Alais near Paris.
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Years in service
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A boarding pass from “Lennon” was found at the beginning of the renovation. Initial doubts as to whether it was really John Lennon were quickly dispelled with a photo showing the Beatles boarding the F-BHRU “Poitou”. In June 1964, the Beatles flew this particular aircraft from Manchester to Paris (AF961) for a concert. The boarding card survived almost 50 years between the cockpit wall and galley and has logged more than 20,000 flight hours.
In cooperation with the “Le Caravelle Club” in Stockholm, which owns the last functioning Caravelle, software and hardware developer www.cockpit-concept.de and our knowledge as commercial pilots, a true-to-the-original simulator has been created from the cockpit, which has been in use since October 2015 in Ismaning near Munich. It was moved from Munich to Gotland, Sweden in January 2022.
Watch Video of taxi run at Arlanda
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