Concorde Retractable Anti-Collision Beacon

These retractable lights designed to be deployed at lower speeds during lower-altitude sub-sonic flight phases were only fitted to the first two prototypes 001 and 002 and later replaced with flashing xenon tube
units. This item came from BAC/BAE Stock at the closure of the test program so it believed to have been intially used on 002 so dates to around 1968.

Manufactured by Grimes in the US (as were most of Concorde’s lights) this item has some light damage to the flange (which would have sat flush with the aircraft skin). See the lower left of first image for the damage.

The lowering mechanism is electrical and the connector for this is fitted. We haven’t made any attempts to ‘lower’ the retractable light that is hidden inside in it’s retracted state. This could be an exciting project for somebody with the right engineering skills to repair the flange damage and get the beacon lowered. We asume it could even be made operable again and able to lower and retract.

Here is a link with more information and history on this item:

Mach 2 Magazine

A unique bit of Concorde history. It appears to have a hand-written date of ’72 on it which we suspect would be when it was removed from 002.