Concorde

Concorde

The Aérospatiale-BAC Concorde aircraft is a turbojet-powered supersonic passenger airliner, a supersonic transport (SST), which flew from 1969 to 2003. It was a product of an Anglo-French government treaty, combining the manufacturing efforts of Aérospatiale and the British Aircraft Corporation. (The French word concorde translates to the English concord as agreement, harmony, or union.) Concorde entered service with Air France and British Airways in 1976.

Concorde flew regular transatlantic flights from London Heathrow (British Airways) and Paris-Charles de Gaulle Airport (Air France) to New York JFK and Washington Dulles, flying these routes at record speeds, in less than half the time of other airliners.

With only 20 aircraft built, the development phase represented a substantial economic loss. Additionally, Air France and British Airways were subsidised by their governments to buy the aircraft. As a result of the type’s only crash, (on 25 July 2000), economic effects arising from the September 11 attacks, and other factors, operations ceased on 24 October 2003. The last "retirement" flight occurred on 26 November 2003.^[3]

Concorde remains an aviation icon, and has acquired an unusual nomenclature for an aircraft. In common usage in the United Kingdom, the type is known as "Concorde" rather than "the Concorde" or "a Concorde".

Development

In the late 1950s, the United Kingdom, France, United States and Soviet Union were considering developing supersonic transport. The British Bristol Aeroplane Company and the French Sud Aviation were both working on designs, called the Type 223 and Super-Caravelle, respectively. Both were largely funded by their respective governments.^[6] The British design was for a thin-winged delta shape^[7] (which owed much to work by Dietrich Küchemann) for a transatlantic-ranged aircraft for about 100 people, while the French were intending to build a medium-range aircraft.

The designs were both ready to start prototype construction in the early 1960s, but the cost was so great that the British government made it a requirement that BAC look for international co-operation.^[6] Approaches were made to a number of countries, but only France showed real interest. The development project was negotiated as an international treaty between the two countries rather than a commercial agreement between companies and included a clause, originally asked for by the UK, imposing heavy penalties for cancellation. A draft treaty was signed on 28 November 1962. By this time, both companies had been merged into new ones; thus, the Concorde project was between the British Aircraft Corp. and Aerospatiale.

At first the new consortium intended to produce one long range and one short range version. However, prospective customers showed no interest in the short-range version and it was dropped. The consortium secured orders (i.e., non-binding options) for over 100 of the long-range version from the major airlines of the day: Pan Am, BOAC and Air France were the launch customers, with six Concordes each. Other airlines in the order book included Panair do Brasil, Continental Airlines, Japan Airlines, Lufthansa, American Airlines, United Airlines, Air Canada, Braniff, Singapore Airlines, Iran Air, Olympic Airways, Qantas, CAAC, Middle East Airlines and TWA.^{[citation needed]}

The aircraft was initially referred to in the UK as "Concorde", with the French spelling, but was officially changed to "Concord" by Harold Macmillan in response to a perceived slight by Charles de Gaulle. In 1967, at the French roll-out in Toulouse the British Government Minister for Technology, Tony Benn announced that he would change the spelling back to "Concorde".^[8] This created a nationalist uproar that died down when 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 claiming: "[Y]ou talk about 'E' for England, but part of it is made in Scotland." Given Scotland’s contribution of providing the nose cone for the aircraft, Benn replied, "[I]t was also 'E' for 'Écosse' (the French name for Scotland) — and I might have added 'e' for extravagance and 'e' for escalation as well!"^[9]

Construction of two prototypes began in February 1965: 001, built by Aerospatiale at Toulouse, and 002, by BAC at Filton, Bristol. Concorde 001 made its first test flight from Toulouse on 2 March 1969, piloted by Andre Turcat, and first went supersonic on 1 October. The first UK-built Concorde flew from Filton to RAF Fairford on 9 April 1969, piloted by Brian Trubshaw.^[10] As the flight programme progressed, 001 embarked on a sales and demonstration tour on 4 September 1971. Concorde 002 followed suit on 2 June 1972 with a 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 Regional Airport to mark that airport’s opening.

These trips led to orders for over 70 aircraft, but a combination of factors led to order cancellations: the 1973 oil crisis, financial difficulties of airlines, a spectacular Paris Le Bourget air show crash of the competing Soviet Tupolev Tu-144, and environmental concerns such as the sonic boom, takeoff-noise and pollution. By 1976 four nations remained as prospective buyers: Britain, France, China, and Iran.^[11] In the end only Air France and British Airways (the successor to BOAC) took up their orders, with the two governments taking a cut of any profits made. In the case of BA, 80% of the profit was kept by the government until 1984, while the cost of buying the aircraft was covered by a state loan.^[12]

The United States cancelled its supersonic transport (SST) programme in 1971. Two designs had been submitted; the Lockheed L-2000, looking like a scaled-up Concorde, lost out to the Boeing 2707, which was intended to be faster, to carry 300 passengers and feature a swing-wing design. Industry observers in France and the United Kingdom suggested that part of the American opposition to Concorde on grounds of noise pollution was orchestrated by, or at least encouraged by, the United States Government, out of spite at not being able to propose a viable competitor,^{[citation needed]} despite President John F. Kennedy's impassioned 1963 statement of commitment.^[13] Other countries, such as India and Malaysia, ruled out Concorde supersonic overflights due to noise concerns.^[14][15]

Demonstration and test flights were flown from 1974 onwards. The testing of Concorde set records that have not been surpassed; the prototype, pre-production and first production aircraft undertook 5,335 flight hours. A total of 2,000 test hours were at supersonic speeds. Unit costs were £23 million (US$46 million) in 1977. Development cost was six times the projected amount.

Design

General features

Concorde was an ogival (also "ogee") delta-winged aircraft with four Olympus engines based on those originally developed for the Avro Vulcan strategic bomber. The engines were jointly built by Rolls-Royce and SNECMA. Concorde was the first civil airliner to have an (in this case analogue) fly-by-wire flight control system. It also employed a distinctive droop snoot lowering nose section for visibility on approach.

The principal designer who worked on the project was Pierre Satre, with Sir Archibald Russell as his deputy.^[17]

Concorde had an average cruise speed of Mach 2.02 (about 2,140 km/h or 1,330 mph) with a maximum cruise altitude of 18,300 metres (60,000 feet), more than twice the speed of conventional aircraft. The average landing speed was 298 km/h (185 mph, 160 knots).

Concorde pioneered the following technologies:

For high speed and optimisation of flight:

• Double-delta (ogee/ogival) shaped wings
• Variable inlet ramps controlled by digital computers^[18]
• Supercruise capability
• Thrust-by-wire engines, predecessor of today’s FADEC-controlled engines^[18]
• Droop-nose section for improved visibility in landing

For weight-saving and enhanced performance:

• Mach 2.04^[19] (~2,200 kilometres per hour (1,400 mph) cruising speed for optimum fuel consumption (supersonic drag minimum, although turbojet engines are more efficient at high speed))
• Mainly aluminium construction for low weight and conventional manufacture (higher speeds would have ruled out aluminium)
• Full-regime autopilot and autothrottle^[20] allowing "hands off" control of the aircraft from climbout to landing
• Fully electrically controlled analogue fly-by-wire flight controls systems^[21]
• Multifunction flight control surfaces
• High-pressure hydraulic system of 28 MPa (4,000 lbf/in²) for lighter hydraulic systems components^[22]
• Fully electrically controlled analogue brake-by-wire system^[23]
• Pitch trim by shifting fuel around the fuselage for centre-of-gravity control
• Parts made using "sculpture milling" from single alloy billet reducing the part-number count, while saving weight and adding strength
• Lack of Auxiliary power unit relying on the fact that Concorde will be used for services to big airports, where a ground air start cart would be available

The Concorde programme’s primary legacy is in the experience gained in design and manufacture which later became the basis of the Airbus consortium.^[18] Snecma Moteurs' involvement with the Concorde programme prepared the company's entrance into civil engine design and manufacturing, opening the way for Snecma to establish CFM International with General Electric and produce the successful CFM International CFM56 series engines.

Although Concorde was a technological marvel when introduced into service in the 1970s, 30 years later its cockpit, cluttered with analogue dials and switches, looked dated. The avionics of Concorde were unique as it was the first commercial aircraft to employ hybrid circuits, these were a combination of discrete electronic components and silicon microcircuits.^[21] There had been little commercial pressure or reason to upgrade Concorde either in terms of enhanced avionics or passenger comfort due to a lack of competiting aircraft, unlike what happened with other airliners of the same vintage, for example the Boeing 747.^[24] At the time of its retirement, it was the last aircraft in British Airway's fleet that still had a Flight Engineer, all other aircraft, such as the modernised 747-400, had eliminated their role.^[25]

The key partners, BAC (later to become British Aerospace and subsequently BAE Systems) and Aerospatiale (which was later merged into EADS), were the joint owners of Concorde's type certificate. Responsibility for the Type Certificate transferred to Airbus with formation of Airbus SAS.