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Concorde by Dimitris Papadogiannis.
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| BAC/Aerospatiale Concorde |
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| After the World War II, Great Britain realized the necessity for faster civil planes and created the De Havilland D.H. 106 Comet, the first commercial plane with jet engines. During the 50's, the aircraft faced many problems and failed. At that time discussions started between M.B. Morgan, an aircraft auditor, and the British aircraft industry for the construction of an SST (Supersonic Transport) airplane. A committee was established called STAC (Supersonic Transport Aircraft Committee) with M.B. Morgan as president. This committee was involving representatives from airlines, aircraft industries, engine industries and government employees. The decision for the construction of the plane was taken but there were lots of problems that had to be faced.
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| At first there were 3 possible innovative designs that could be followed. The first was a plane with a very strange wing, -M shaped, with max speed 1.2 Mach. The second design was the one that was similar with the final Concorde, with similar wing but with max speed 1.8 Mach. The third one was chosen from the Americans and was for a huge plane with max speed 3 Mach. |
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| These designs should be able to deal with the decrease of the performance of the aircraft at speeds more that 0.9 mach, which means that the thrust should be higher so as to face that decrease. So, the engines should be using afterburners, which are necessary for the plane to obtain supersonic speed.Of course, the afterburners affect the fuel consumption of the engines. |
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Bristol Aircraft (which later merged with BAC) designed the Type 198, a plane with 130 seats and 6 engines Bristol Siddeley Olympus (later Rolls-Royce). The plane was very similar to the Concorde, but the government demanded a plane with no more than 100 seats. In addition, they should find partners from other countries. |
In France, Sud-Aviation (later Aerospatiale) was designing an SST aircraft with capacity 70/80 passengers, plane that would replace the Caravelle. Both designs were very similar, despite some differences in range and weight.In November 29 th 1962 an agreement was signed between the two nations and two planes were to be developed, a long range in Britain and a short-range in France. Later, French accepted the idea for a plane capable of trans-atlantic routes and a common plane was developed.
The final plane had about 100 seats and increased weight 148,004 kg. The Olympus engine was re-designed and the Olympus Mk 593B was created. The wing of the Concorde was very thin and was equipped with six elevons and there wasn't horizontal tail. These elevons had the disadvantage that couldn't be used to increase the drag and the lift force. The aircraft was carrying 119,265 liters of fuel in tanks located at the wing. The bigger part of the fuselage is constructed from aluminum. In addition, the aircraft uses very complicated systems that were not used before. The assembly line was in Britain and France but France was constructing the 60% of the fuselage and wings, because Britain provided the engines. The Concorde made its maiden flight in March 2 nd 1969 and the British prototype flied one month later. |
| The prototypes started their test flights and the first orders came. British Airways ordered 5 planes from BAC and Air France 4 from Aerospatiale. Pan Am was also interested in buying some Concordes but finally didn't order them. The tests were completed successfully and Concorde started scheduled flights with British Airways and Air France. |
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By 1975 almost every big city was being visited for Concorde, proving its great reliability. Later, problems came up. The price of fuel went up and Concorde was now very expensive to use. So, its flights were dramatically decreased.
By 1986, British Airways was using 12 Concordes and Air France 5. Many co-operations were cancelled, like the one between British Airways and Singapore Airlines and the one between British Airways and Braniff. At that time, the two airlines started using the Concorde in different ways. They were giving the plane for charter flights during the holiday season. Furthermore, one of the Concordes was painted in the Pepsi colours, as the company wanted to advertise its new logo.
The first major hit to the aircraft's reliability was a crash. In July 25 th 2000, a Concorde of Air France crashed just before the take-off killing all its passengers. The plane was to make a charter flight. This accident was the result of many fatal coincidences and not because of a problem concerning the plane itself. That's why Concorde restarted flights some months later with both airlines and gained the trust of its passengers.
The end of Concorde is taking place at these days that this article is being written. Its last commercial flight was done in October 24 th 2003. This plane is considered the most beautiful commercial aircraft ever created. Although it was created to bring the world closer, it became a mean of transport only for rich people. Its cost was very big but the advance in aeronautics that it brought was enormous. It is a plane that attracts the attention of everybody and we are all going to miss it! |
Specifications:
Type |
BAC/Aerospatiale Concorde |
Overall Length |
62.10 m |
Wing Span |
25.55 m |
Power plants |
4 Rolls-Royce/Snecma Olympus 593 Mk910 with afterburners |
| Max Speed |
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Max range |
6,582 km |
Ceiling |
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