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Aerospatiale / BAC Concorde

1969 COLD WAR

History of Aerospatiale / BAC Concorde

One of the greatest aviation stories in the post-Cold War world, the British-French-built Concorde was the only supersonic passenger plane developed and regularly flown. The system gave premium passengers the ability to travel around the world in a few hours, unlike the night flights carried by standard passenger transport at the time.

Ultimately, however, the changing world and economic constraints forced the Concorde fleet to withdraw, leaving most of them never aboard one of the greatest technological marvels of the 20th century.

Concorde began as two separate projects deployed by the British company British Aerospace (which also now controls British Aircraft) and the French Aerospatiale offices (which now also controls Sud Aviation). While other countries tried to market their own supersonic designs, Britain and France reached a formal agreement to save costs and development resources by making a joint product.

Concorde was successfully developed as early as 1962??, and the first two prototypes - one British and one French - flew in 1969.

British contractors undertook the construction of three sections of the main forward section of the fuselage. In addition, they were responsible for the vertical stabilizer assembly, engine ducts and corresponding nacelles, and the rear of the fuselage. Other work included the installation of four engines, electrical, oxygen and fuel control systems. Instead, French contractors were contracted to build delta wing assemblies, avionics, communications and hydraulic controls.

Engine development was shared between Rolls-Royce and SNECMA. The resulting powerplant is an Olympus 593 Mk 610, each delivering nearly 40,000 pounds of thrust and a whopping 17 percent more afterburner potential. Four of these engines will be mounted under the wings, two on each wing.

The Concorde was designed to provide the lowest drag, and the designers chose a slim fuselage with a delta-wing layout as a low-wing aircraft. A single vertical stabilizer was mounted aft, and elevators were added to the main wing system in place of the stabilizer.

The high speeds of supersonic flight require a pencil-like design that obstructs the crew's view as it glides downwards. Therefore, the nose cone is made into a positioning assembly that allows downward positioning when the aircraft is taxiing or in low speed/low altitude flight.

The originality of the entire design did not take a back seat either. The fuel tank mounted on the large-area delta wing doubles as a radiator for the wing assembly itself during high-speed flight. Titanium - a popular component for high-speed/high-altitude flight - is used throughout the design.

Internally, Concorde is operated by three standard staff and four flight attendants. The standard seating configuration accommodates up to 100 passengers, but a maximum of 128 is allowed (some sources show 144).

From the beginning, the dream of supersonic flight required Concorde to reach speeds around Mach 2. 5. Unfortunately, this is considered impractical in terms of the proposed building materials. So top speed has been sacrificed, still an impressive Mach 2 and an equally impressive range of over 4,000 miles at about 60,000 feet above sea level.

Ultimately, Concorde met expectations but failed to attract enough international attention to justify continued production for export orders. Only 14 Concordes were produced during the production run, 7 of which were assigned to the United Kingdom and 7 to France. The only other operator of the system is Singapore, which leases some examples.

As impressive as the Concorde was, economic and ecological constraints came with it. The plane proved difficult to maintain in a tightening economy, and many countries banned the use of supersonic aircraft, creating sonic booms when flying over populated areas, enabling Concorde to fly over large stretches of open waterespecially over the Atlantic Ocean . An accident in 2000 grounded the fleet for a year until Britain and France jointly decided not to continue Concorde flights.

That was the end of the supersonic era of passenger flight.