The Concorde story: an innovation born too soon. Here's where the specimens are and how to visit them
All aviation enthusiasts know its history very well, today we want to go through it together, taking a look at all the [...]
British Airways
Air France
All fans of aviation know its history very well, today we want to go through it together, taking a look at all the curiosities and features of the supersonic aircraft that made history: the Concorde.
In this article:
This year they will be 20 the years since his retirement in the 2003, a story that begins with the first tests with the first flights in the late 60s and early 70s when he first reached Mach 2, or 2 times the speed of sound. Its rival was the Russian supersonic airplane. Tupolev Tu-144, the only 2 commercial supersonic aircraft ever made.
He officially entered service in the 1976 and was mainly adopted by 2 airlines, viz. Air France e British Airways, Of the only 2 states that eventually committed to completing the initial project.
A bit of history
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Concorde was designed with technologies astounding For the time, we are talking about 50 years ago, it had four engines Olympus 593 produced by the Rolls Royce With the French Snecma. The nose was very long and pointed, for better aerodynamics, but this created problems for the vision on departure and landing to the pilots, which is why a nose cone was designed tiltable downward, one of the features they all remember.
Initially, 500 units were planned, but given the exorbitant production costs, only 20 Concorde, operating costs were also very high, the estimated maintenance was about 18 to 20 hours per flight hour (normal planes 2 hours), the cost per flight hour exceeded the 150.000€ Of which half is maintenance.
The consumption of fuel was incredible, about 17 liters per passenger per 100km, all of which pressed on the prices Of the tickets that were 3 times those of a First Class whatever, in short Concorde was just a stuff for VIPs or rich businessmen who needed to get from one end of the world to the other in the shortest possible time, not for everyone.
Concorde routes
The first flights began in '76 and the routes were London-Bahrain and Paris-Rio de Janeiro, later other routes were activated such as London-New York, Paris-New York. With a traditional flight at the time, the New York-Paris route would take about 7 hours, the Concorde would travel it in the half Of time.
Other routes around the world followed, an Air France Concorde was also frequently used for flights presidential France. On board the Concorde was actually not a luxurious plane; one might say it resembled a Premium Economy of now, there was no entertainment, no folding seats in bed, narrow hat boxes and height of 6 feet.
All this is to reduce the spaces and weight, increasing efficiency, Concorde could afford these "inconveniences" mainly because the flight times were considerably short. However, there was no shortage of fancy food and expensive drinks.
Trivia about Concorde
Credits: Dublin Visit Picture - Carl Ford - concordesst.com
Le liveries particulars of aircraft have always existed, often and often advertising gimmicks or awareness campaigns. Nothing strange if even Concorde lent itself to one of these marketing campaigns you will say ... and instead sometimes physics gets in the way ruining the plan by 500 million dollars of Pepsi.
We all know that aircraft are whites or otherwise light-colored, for a variety of reasons but mainly to reflect the rays of the sunshine And because white paint costs less than colored paint. In "normal" planes painting some in other colors is normal, occasionally spending some money on advertisement It fits.
On Concorde, however, this was a problem and they soon noticed, as much as Pepsi had a Concorde dyed blue, which, because of the dark color, could not disperse heat uniformly and therefore could not achieve the speed of Mach 2.02, Staying put at 1.70.
Another curiosity concerns the weight of passengers, in eastbound flights, due to the high speed, strength centrifuge and the rotation land, passengers "slimmed down" by the1% Of their weight. When the Concorde was traveling to West passengers "fattened up" of the 0,03% of their weight because the forces were opposite.
Curiosity, on the other hand, about British Airways' slogan "Arrive Before You Leave," the phrase refers to the fact that on transatlantic flights to the West it happened that thehours of the destination was earlier than the departure time due to time zones and travel time, we even did an article about it.
The Concorde Incident
Credits: Toshihiko Sato
Unfortunately, on July 25, 2000, Concorde irreparably stained his career with a serious accident which cost the lives of all 100 passengers, 9 crew members and 4 people on the ground.
The incident occurred at the Airport Charles de Gaulle and was caused by a 43-centimeter strip of titanium lost from the flight that had previously taken off on that runway, the bar ripped through the tire which ended up on the trolley shearing the cables that caused the perforation of the tank and the resulting spillage of fuel That caused an indomitable fire.
By now the drivers had reached the speed criticism of takeoff and were forced to fly up and divert to the nearby airport of Paris-Le Bourget but never got there because the complications by now were critical and the Concorde fell on the Les Relais Bleus hotel in Gonesse near the airport.
Although the incident was not the main cause of Concorde's retirement it certainly contributed to the retirement, along with the subsequent attack on the twin towers the following year that created a crisis in aviation.
Where the Concordes are and how to visit them
After the Concorde aircraft were retired. were not divested as happens to planes that retire, at least not all of them, but they can be found around and some can even be visited, except 1 that was cannibalized for parts but the fuselage can be seen at Le Bourget in France.
That's where the Concorde are:
- Aerospace Museum, Le Bourget, France (2 Concorde)
- Fleet Air Arm Museum, Yeovilton, England
- Imperial War Museum, Duxford, England
- Musée Delta, Orly Airport, Paris
- Airbus Plant, Toulouse, France (2 Concorde)
- Brooklands Museum, Weybridge, Surrey, England
- Manchester Airport Viewing Park, England (The first concordat delivered to British Airways)
- Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center of the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, Chantilly, Virginia, USA (near Washington, DC)
- National Museum of Flight, East Lothian, Scotland
- Sinsheim Auto & Technik Museum, Germany
- Heathrow Airport, London, England
- Intrepid Sea-Air-Space Museum (at the aircraft carrier USS Intrepid), New York, USA
- Grantley Adams International Airport, Barbados
- Museum of Flight, Seattle, USA
- Paris-Charles de Gaulle Airport, Paris
- Filton Airport, Bristol, England
In the Aviation Museum in Hermeskeil, near Trier, Germany, there is a 1:1 scale wooden replica housing the restaurant Of the museum.
Will there ever be a descendant of Concorde?
Well yes, the project is already well underway and we have talked about it several times here on The Flight Club! The company is called Boom Supersonic and wants to bring the concept of Concorde back to the forefront with its Boom Overture But in a more efficient and sustainable way.
Maybe for Concorde it was still soon for the technology of the time but it certainly marked an important page in the history of civil aviation. Who knows if Boom Supersonic will succeed in its endeavor!