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Concorde's primary legacy is the experience gained in its design and manufacture later became the basis of the [[Airbus]] consortium, and many of these features are now standard equipment in Airbus airliners. [[Snecma Moteurs]], for example, got its first entry into civil engines here. Experience with Concorde opened the way for it to establish the CFM International with [[GE]] producing the successful [[CFM International CFM56]] series engines.
Concorde's primary legacy is the experience gained in its design and manufacture later became the basis of the [[Airbus]] consortium, and many of these features are now standard equipment in Airbus airliners. [[Snecma Moteurs]], for example, got its first entry into civil engines here. Experience with Concorde opened the way for it to establish the CFM International with [[GE]] producing the successful [[CFM International CFM56]] series engines.


Although Concorde was a technological marvel when introduced into service in the early 1970s, thirty years later its cockpit cluttered with analogue dials and switches looks very dated. With no competition in either type or airline service, there was no commercial pressure to upgrade Concorde with new avionics or passenger comforts, as occurred with other airliners of the same vintage eg Boeing 747 etc.
Although Concorde was a technological marvel when introduced into service in the early 1970s, thirty years later its cockpit cluttered with analogue dials and switches looked very dated. With no competition in either type or airline service, there was no commercial pressure to upgrade Concorde with new avionics or passenger comforts, as occurred with other airliners of the same vintage eg Boeing 747 etc.


The primary partners, BAC (later to become [[BAE Systems]]) and Aerospatiale (later to become [[EADS]]), are the joint owners of Concorde's [[type certificate]]. Responsibility for the Type Certificate transferred to Airbus with formation of [[Airbus]] SAS.
The primary partners, BAC (later to become [[BAE Systems]]) and Aerospatiale (later to become [[EADS]]), are the joint owners of Concorde's [[type certificate]]. Responsibility for the Type Certificate transferred to Airbus with formation of [[Airbus]] SAS.

Revision as of 01:01, 19 January 2006

For other uses, see a plane.

The Aérospatiale-BAC Concorde supersonic transport (SST) was one of only two models of supersonic passenger airliners to have seen commercial service. Concorde had a cruise speed of Mach 2.02 and a maximum cruise altitude of 60,000 feet (18,288 metres) with a delta wing configuration and an evolution of the reheat-equipped engines originally developed for the Avro Vulcan strategic bomber. It was the first civil airliner to be equipped with an analogue fly-by-wire flight control system. Commercial flights, operated by British Airways and Air France, began on January 21 1976 and ended on October 24 2003, with the last "retirement" flight on November 26 that year.

File:Ba.concorde.g-boac.719pix.jpg
British Airways Concorde (G-BOAC).

Origins

File:Concorde.highup.arp.2.750pix.jpg
Concorde's final flight, from Heathrow to Bristol, on November 26, 2003.

In the late 1950s the British, French, Americans and Soviets were all interested in developing supersonic transport.

Britain's Bristol Aeroplane Company and France's Sud Aviation were both working on designs, called the Type 233 and Super-Caravelle respectively. Both were largely funded by their respective governments as a way of gaining some foothold in the aircraft market that was until then dominated by the United States.

The designs were both ready to start into prototype construction in the early 1960s, but the cost was so great that the companies (and governments) decided to join forces. The development project was negotiated as an international treaty between Britain and France rather than a commercial agreement between companies. This included a clause, originally asked for by Britain, on penalties for cancellation (it turned out that Britain was the country that tried to get out). A draft treaty was signed on November 28 1962. By this time both companies had been merged into new ones, and the Concorde project was thus a part of the British Aircraft Corporation and Aerospatiale. The consortium secured orders for over 100 new airliners from the leading airlines of the time. Pan Am, BOAC and Air France were the launch customers with six Concordes each. Some of the airlines in the order book included: Japan Airlines, Lufthansa, American Airlines, United Airlines, Air Canada, Braniff, Iran Air, Qantas, CAAC, Middle East Airlines and TWA .

The aircraft was initially referred to in Britain as "Concord". In 1967 the British Government Minister for Technology, Tony Benn announced that it would change the spelling to "Concorde" to match the French spelling, much to the chagrin of PM Harold Wilson. This created an nationalistic uproar but it died down Benn stated that the suffixed "e" represented "Excellence, England, Europe and Entente (Cordiale)". In his memoirs, he recounts a tale of a letter from an irate Scotsman asking how the 'E' represents Scotland, given Scotland's contribution of providing the nosecone for the aircraft. "E stands also for Ecosse" was Benn's reply.

Construction of the first two prototypes began in February, 1965. Concorde 001 being built by Aerospatiale at Toulouse and Concorde 002 by BAC at Filton, Bristol. Concorde 001 took off for the first test flight from Toulouse on March 2 1969 and the first supersonic flight followed on October 1. As the flight programme of the first development aircraft progressed, 001 started off on a sales and demonstration tour beginning on September 4 1971. Concorde 002 followed suit in June 2 1972 with a sales tour of the Middle and Far East. Concorde 002 made the first visit to the United States in 1973, landing at the new Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport to commemorate its opening. These trips led to an influx of orders for over 70 aircraft. However, a combination of factors caused a sudden cascade of order cancellations, including the 1970s oil crisis, acute financial difficulties of the partner airlines, a spectacular crash of the competing Soviet Tupolev Tu-144, and environmental issues such as sonic boom noise and pollution. Air France and British Airways ended up as the only buyers. The aircraft and parts were later sold to them for the nominal price of one British pound apiece; however, the governments continued to take a cut of any profits made.

The United States had cancelled its supersonic (SST) program in 1971. Two designs had originally been submitted; the Lockheed L-2000, looking like a scaled-up Concorde, lost out to the Boeing 2707, which had originally been intended to be faster, carry 300 passengers, and feature a swing-wing design. It was suggested in France and the United Kingdom that part of the American opposition to Concorde on grounds of noise pollution was in fact orchestrated or at least encouraged by the United States Government out of spite at not being able to propose a viable competitor. However, other countries, such as Malaysia, also ruled out Concorde supersonic overflights due to noise issues.

Both European airlines operated demonstration and test flights to various destinations from 1974 onwards. The testing of Concorde set records which are still not surpassed; it undertook 5,335 flight hours in the prototype, preproduction, and first production aircrafts alone. A total of 2,000 test hours were supersonic. This equates to approximately four times as many as for similarly sized subsonic commercial aircraft.

Technological features

An unusual angle on the final Concorde landing

Many features common in early 21st century airliners were first used in the Concorde.

For speed optimization:

  • Double-delta (ogive) shaped wings
  • Afterburning Rolls-Royce/Snecma Olympus turbojets with supercruise capability
  • Thrust-by-wire engines, ancestor of today's FADEC controlled engines
  • Droop-nose section for good landing visibility

For weight-saving and enhanced performance:

  • Mach 2.04 'sweet spot' for optimum fuel consumption (supersonic drag minimum, whilst jet engines are more efficient at high speed)
  • Mostly aluminium construction for low weight and relatively conventional build
  • Full-regime autopilot and autothrottle allowing "hands off" control of the aircraft from climb out to landing
  • Fully electrically-controlled analogue fly-by-wire flight controls systems
  • Multifunction flight control surfaces
  • High-pressure hydraulic system of 28 MPa (4,000 lbf/in²) for lighter hydraulic systems components
  • Fully electrically controlled analog brake-by-wire system
  • Pitch trim by shifting fuel around the fuselage for centre-of-gravity control
  • Parts milled from single alloy billet reducing the part number count

Concorde's primary legacy is the experience gained in its design and manufacture later became the basis of the Airbus consortium, and many of these features are now standard equipment in Airbus airliners. Snecma Moteurs, for example, got its first entry into civil engines here. Experience with Concorde opened the way for it to establish the CFM International with GE producing the successful CFM International CFM56 series engines.

Although Concorde was a technological marvel when introduced into service in the early 1970s, thirty years later its cockpit cluttered with analogue dials and switches looked very dated. With no competition in either type or airline service, there was no commercial pressure to upgrade Concorde with new avionics or passenger comforts, as occurred with other airliners of the same vintage eg Boeing 747 etc.

The primary partners, BAC (later to become BAE Systems) and Aerospatiale (later to become EADS), are the joint owners of Concorde's type certificate. Responsibility for the Type Certificate transferred to Airbus with formation of Airbus SAS.

Scheduled flights

The last Concorde flight (ever) lands at Filton Airfield, near Bristol, on November 26, 2003

Scheduled flights started on January 21, 1976 on the London-Bahrain and Paris-Rio routes. The U.S. Congress had just banned Concorde landings in the US, mainly due to citizen protest over sonic booms, preventing launch on the coveted transatlantic routes.

In recent years, some have suggested that the concerns over sonic booms and the 'damage' allegedly caused by them (although never proven scientifically or otherwise) was tolerated and in some way perhaps caused by America's lack of success in building their own equivalent airliner.

When the US ban was lifted in February for over-water supersonic flight, New York quickly followed by banning Concorde locally. Left with little choice on the destination, AF and BA started transatlantic services to Washington, D.C. on May 24. Finally, in late 1977, the noise concerns of New York residents gave way to the advantages of Concorde traffic, and scheduled service from Paris and London to New York's John F. Kennedy airport started on November 22 1977. Flights operated by BA were coded 'BA001' through 'BA004'.

The average flight time on the transatlantic routes was just under 3.5 hours. Up to 2003, both Air France and British Airways continued to operate the New York services daily. Additionally, Concorde flew to Barbados's Grantley Adams International Airport during the winter holiday season and, occasionally, to charter destinations such as Rovaniemi, Finland. On November 1, 1986, a chartered Concorde circumnavigated the world in 31 hours and 51 minutes.

For a brief period in 1977, and again from 1979 to 1980, British Airways and Singapore Airlines used a shared Concorde for flights between Bahrain and Singapore Changi Airport. The aircraft, G-BOAD, was painted in Singapore Airways livery on the port side and British Airways livery on the starboard side. The service was discontinued after three months because of noise complaints from the Malaysian government; it could only be reinstated when a new route, bypassing Malaysian airspace, was designed. However, an ongoing dispute with India prevented the Concorde from reaching supersonic speeds in Indian airspace, so the route was eventually declared not viable. From September 1978 to November 1982 during the Mexican oil boom, Air France flew the Concorde twice weekly to Mexico City's Benito Juárez International Airport via Washington D.C.. The economic crisis caused the cancellation of the route to Mexico City and the last flights were almost empty. From time to time the Concorde came back on chartered flights with stops in Mexico City and Acapulco.

British Airways also, between 1984 and 1991, offered a thrice weekly Concorde service to London from Miami. This was accomplished subsonically by extending the Dulles flight to Miami and returning the same way.

From 1979 to 1980, Braniff International leased two Concordes, one from both British Airways and Air France. These were used on subsonic flights from Dallas-Fort Worth to JFK, feeding the routes of BA and AF to London and Paris. The aircraft were registered in both the United States and their home countries, for legal reasons: a sticker would cover up each aircraft's European registration while it was being operated by Braniff. On DFW-JFK flights, the Concordes had Braniff flight crews, although they maintained their native airline livery. However, the flights were not profitable for Braniff and were usually less than 25% booked, which forced Braniff to end its term as the only U.S. Concorde operator.

Passenger experience

Compared to other commercial airliners, Concorde provided an unusual passenger experience. Both British Airways and Air France configured the passenger cabin as a single class with around 100 seats — four seats across with a central aisle. Despite being a luxury class, most passengers were surprised to find how cramped the cabin was. Headroom in the central aisle was barely six feet (1.8 m), and the leather seats were unusually narrow with legroom comparable to coach class on other planes.

In the 1990s many features which were common in the first class and business class cabins of a long haul Boeing 747 flight such as video entertainment, rotating or reclining seats and perambulatory areas, were completely absent from Concorde. The only video entertainment was a plasma display at the front of the cabin showing either the altitude, the air temperature or current speed in mach number. With almost no room for overhead storage, even carry on luggage was severely restricted. The ratio of cabin crew and lavatories per passenger was also considerably lower than typical for a first class cabin. These privations were offset by the much shorter flight time (typically three and a half hours to New York from London), making the Concorde attractive to business executives.

To make up for these missing features, service on the Concorde was to be "first class" in every sense of the word. Orders for drinks or other needs were met instantly and served with a flourish. Meals were served using specially designed compact Wedgwood crockery with short silver cutlery.

The unique experience of passing through the sound barrier was less dramatic than would be expected. The moment would be announced by one of the pilots, and could be seen on the cabin display, otherwise the slight surge in acceleration could easily be missed.

At twice the normal cruising altitude, turbulence was rare and the view from the windows clearly showed the curvature of the Earth. During the supersonic cruise, although the outside air temperature was typically -60 °C, air friction would heat the external skin at the front of the plane to around +120 °C making the windows warm to the touch and producing a noticeable temperature gradient along the length of the cabin. This caused the plane to vary in length by as much as 6 inches.

Most remarkably Concorde was the only passenger airliner able to overtake the terminator. On certain early evening transatlantic flights departing from Heathrow or Paris, it was possible to take off at night and catch up with the sun — from the cockpit you could see the sun rise in the west.



Paris crash

File:Concorde crash.jpg
Air France Flight 4590 in flames, prior to the tragedy

The Concorde was the safest working passenger airliner in the world according to passenger deaths per distance travelled until the 25 July 2000 crash of Air France Flight 4590 in Gonesse, France, although it should be noted that the Boeing 737 fleet acquires more passenger miles and service hours in one week than the Concorde fleet acquired in the course of its entire service career. In any case, all of the people on board the flight perished, as well as four people on the ground. As the plane was on its take-off run, a metal piece punctured the tyres which then burst, puncturing the fuel tanks and leading to the loss of the aircraft. The report of the investigation was published on 14 December 2004, attributing the crash to foreign object damage from a titanium strip that fell from another aircraft, a Continental Airlines DC-10 which had taken off four minutes before. According to the French, the piece had not been approved by the US Federal Aviation Administration. However, Continental maintains that FAA regulations do allow the use of the titanium strip and added that this metal is more wear-resistant than the original part.

However, there was skepticism about this report which solely blamed the strip for the accident. The French government have been extremely reluctant to share information during the investigation, leading to some suspecting a cover up. The British and former French Concorde pilots looked at several other possibilities that the report ignored, including an unbalanced weight distribution in the fuel tanks and loose landing gear, which hinted at the Concorde veering off course on the runway, reducing take-off speed below the crucial minimum. Some suspect that the alleged cover up was an attempt to save the reputation of the Concorde and to hide the fact that the Concorde had veered very close to a Boeing 747 known to be carrying French President Jacques Chirac. Nonetheless, the crash of the Concorde was the beginning of the end of its career, regardless of the reason for the accident.

The accident would make way for modifications to be made to Concorde, including more secure electrical controls, Kevlar lining to the fuel tanks, and specially developed, burst-resistant tyres.

The new-style tyres would be yet another contribution from the Concorde programme to future aircraft development.

As of October 2005, Jacques Herubel, a former Aerospatiale engineer, is under investigation for negligence leading to the crash. A report stated that the company had more than 70 incidents involving Concorde tyres between 1979 and 2000, but had failed to take appropriate steps based upon these incidents.

Withdrawal from service

File:Concorde Flight Deck.jpg
Chief Pilot Mike Bannister (left) and other pilots on flight deck of BA002 30th August 2002

The first test-flight of the newly-improved Concorde flew from England to the mid-Atlantic and back in preparation for a return to full scheduled service that week. The flight took place on September 11, 2001, and was in the air when the attacks on the World Trade Center were taking place.

On April 10, 2003 British Airways and Air France simultaneously announced that they would retire the Concorde later that year. They cited low passenger numbers following the July 25, 2000 crash, the slump in air travel following 9/11, and rising maintenance costs.

That same day Sir Richard Branson offered to buy British Airways' Concordes at their original price of £1 for service with his Virgin Atlantic Airways. Branson claimed this to be the same token price that British Airways had paid the British Government, but BA denied this- and refused the offer. Indeed, after posting large losses on their Concorde flights in the 1980s, British Airways had paid a flat sum to the UK government to buy their Concordes outright. After doing a market survey and discovering that their target customers thought that Concorde was more expensive than it actually was; BA then raised prices to match. It may be that BA then ran Concorde at net profit, unlike their French counterparts, although BA refused to open the accounts.

Branson later wrote to The Economist (23 October 2003) that his final offer was "over £5 million" and that he had intended to operate the fleet "for many years to come". Any hope of Concorde remaining in service was further thwarted by Airbus' unwillingness to provide maintenance support for the aging airframes.

Air France

Air France made its final Concorde landing in the United States in New York City from Paris on May 30 2003. Firetrucks sprayed the traditional arcs of water above the aircraft on the tarmac of John F. Kennedy airport. It made its final commercial flight back to Paris the following day. The end of Air France's Concorde services was also marked by a charter around the Bay of Biscay.

An auction of Concorde parts and memorabilia for Air France was held at Christie's in Paris, on November 15 2003. One thousand three hundred people attended, and several lots exceeded their predicted values by a factor of ten or more.

British Airways

A special fly-past of Concorde and the Red Arrows for the Queen's Golden Jubilee celebrations.

BA's last Concorde departure from the Grantley Adams International Airport in Barbados was on August 30 2003. G-BOAG visited Toronto Pearson International Airport on October 1 2003.

A final week of farewell flights saw Concorde visiting Birmingham on October 20, Belfast on October 21, Manchester on October 22, Cardiff on October 23, and Edinburgh on October 24. Each day the aircraft made a return flight out and back into Heathrow to the cities concerned, often overflying those cities at low altitude. Over 650 competition winners and 350 special guests were carried.

On the evening of October 23, 2003, the Queen consented to the illumination of Windsor Castle, as Concorde's last ever west-bound commercial flight departed London, and flew overhead. This is an honour normally restricted to major state events and visiting dignitaries.

British Airways retired its aircraft the next day, October 24. One Concorde left New York to a fanfare similar to its Air France predecessor's, while two more made round-trips, one over the Bay of Biscay, carrying VIP guests including many former Concorde pilots, and one to Edinburgh. The three aircraft then circled over London, having received special permission to fly at low altitude, before landing in sequence at Heathrow. The two round-trip Concordes landed at 4:01 and 4:03 PM BST, followed at 4:05 by the one from New York. All three aircraft then spent 45 minutes taxiing around the airport before finally disembarking the last supersonic fare-paying passengers. The pilot of the New York to London flight was Mike Bannister.

Passengers on the final transatlantic flight included:

Bonhams held an auction of British Airways' Concorde artefacts on December 1, 2003 at Olympia Exhibition Centre, in Kensington, London. Items sold included a machmeter, a nose cone, Concorde pilot and passenger seats and even the cutlery, ashtrays and blankets used onboard. About £¾ million was taken, with the first half-million going to "Get Kids Going!", a charity which gives disabled children and young people the opportunity to participate in sport.

Aircraft histories

Only 20 Concordes were built, six for development and 14 for commercial service.

These were:

  • Two prototypes
  • Two pre-production aircraft
  • 16 production aircraft
    • The first two of these did not enter commercial service
    • Of the 14 which flew commercially, 12 were still in service in April 2003

All but two of these aircraft - a remarkably high percentage for any commercial fleet - are preserved. The two which are not are F-BVFD (cn 211), which was withdrawn from service in the 1980s and scrapped in 1994; and F-BTSC (cn 203), which crashed in Paris.

Further information: [[:Concorde aircraft histories]]

Cultural and political impact

The aeroplane remains a powerful symbol of ultra-modern technology although 34 years old, and many people appreciate its sculptural shape. It is a symbol of national pride to many in Britain and France - in France it was thought of as a French aircraft, in Britain as British.

The reaction of people to the prospect of severe overflying noise also represented a socially important change. Prior to Concorde's flight trials the developments made by the civil aviation industry were largely accepted by developed democratic governments and their electors. The popular backlash (particularly on the eastern seaboard of the USA) against the noise of Concorde represented a political turning point and thereafter scientists and technologists in many industries began to take environmental and societal impacts more seriously, accepting that engineers, powerful investors and governments could not always dictate the parameters of debate and allow their narrow economic or career interests to prevail. One of the key protesters to the "SST" (Super Sonic Transport - the US term given to the Concorde aircraft), Carol Vendi, ultimately gained political ground over the whole issue and was elected to the US Congress. Concorde lead directly to a general reduction of noise of aircraft flying out of JFK- it was found that Concorde was actually quieter than the other aircraft (due to the pilots temporarily throttling back their engines to reduce noise during overflight of residential areas). This caused the other airliner pilots to have to follow suit.

One great irony in the quashing of the Concorde's mass production was the myth of ozone threat. An anti-SST scientist suggested that the jet would produce exhaust which would cause the destruction of the earth's ozone layer, causing "a massive outbreak of skin cancer" and other effects, and this quickly became an accepted view, contributing greatly to the movement against the SST. But, when actual science was applied to the question, it was found that Concorde exhaust emissions, containing NOx, would actually increase the ozone layer, to the infinitesimal degree that something so insignificant as a plane would have any effect, either way.

From this perspective, Concorde's great technical leap forward can be viewed as triggering a cultural leap forward and a boost to the public's (and the media's) understanding of conflicts between technology and natural ecosystems that continues to reverberate around the world. Thus, the fact that many larger jet airliners now produce fewer harmful emissions and smaller noise footprints than Concorde is, perhaps, part of the Concorde's legacy. In France the use of acoustic fencing alongside TGV tracks may be another outcome that might not have been achieved without the 1970s furore over aircraft noise. In Britain the CPRE have issued tranquility maps since 1990 and public agencies are starting to do likewise.

A regular ticket on Concorde was a privilege of the rich, but special circular (non-landing) or one-way (with return by coach or ship) charter flights were arranged to bring a trip within the means of moderately well-off enthusiasts. An over-flying example was usually referred to by the British as simply "Concorde" and the French as "the Concorde" (rather than "a Concorde"), as if there was only one.

A plane from the BA fleet made occasional flypasts at selected Royal events, major airshows and other special occasions, sometimes in formation with the Red Arrows. On the final day of commercial service, grandstands were erected at London Heathrow for the public to watch the final arrivals, and there was extensive media coverage.

Dimensions and specifications

Of a typical production-type aircraft. There are some variations.

Trivia

  • Due to the heat generated by the compression of the air as Concorde traveled supersonically, the fuselage would extend by as much as thirty centimetres, the most obvious manifestation of this being a gap that would open up on the flight deck between the flight engineer's console and the bulkhead. On all the Concordes that had a supersonic flight before retirement, the flight engineers would place their hat in the gap before it cooled, where they remain to this day. However in the case of the Seattle museum's Concorde, the protruding cap was cut off by a thief in an apparent attempt to steal it, leaving a part behind. An amnesty led to the severed cap being returned, the museum has been examining options to reattach it in some way.
  • During the multi-venue Live Aid famine relief concerts held on July 13, 1985, pop star Phil Collins flew the Concorde from London so that he could perform at both venues (London and Philadelphia) on the same day.
  • The vehicle used reheat to quickly get past the high-drag transonic regime (i.e. 'go supersonic'). Although the engines were quite capable of pushing the airframe supersonic without reheat (supercruise capability), it was discovered operationally that they burnt more fuel that way, since the vehicle took much longer to accelerate, even though reheat is quite inefficient.

Possible replacement

In November 2003, European aviation company EADS (the company behind Airbus) announced that it was considering working with Japanese companies to develop a larger, faster replacement for Concorde [1]. However, recent news reports suggest only $1m is being invested every year into research, much less than the $1bn needed for the development of a viable airliner.

In October 2005, JAXA, the Japan Aerospace eXploration Agency, undertook aerodynamic testing of a scale model of a plane designed to carry 300 passengers at Mach 2. If pursued to commercial deployment, it would be expected to be in service around 2020 - 2025. [2]

Films and Television

The Concorde was featured in:

  • The American film called Airport '79. The Concorde used for the live-action aerial filming was the same Air France Concorde that crashed 21 years later on 25 July, 2000.
  • The Transformers, as the Aerialbot leader Silverbolt.
  • National Treasure: In the scene on the USS Intrepid, the Concorde can be seen sitting on a barge in the Hudson River.
  • Moonraker: Upon James Bond's arrival in Rio de Janeiro, a Concorde landing is shown, indicating that 007 flew to Brazil on an Air France Concorde.
  • Dr Who: Featured in the 1983 story 'Timeflight'
  • Snatch: The character Cousin Avy flew from New York City to London to see Doug the Head and flew back in the closing scene of the film.
  • The Parent Trap: Hallie gets to London in "half the time" by taking the Concorde (no actual appearance).

See also

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Concorde.

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