Concorde (Aeroplane Classic Airliner).pdf

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CLASSIC
AIRLINER
■
One of the 20th
Century's greatest
achievements
■
27 years of service
■
Luxury travel at 60,000ft
■
The fleet in detail
Concorde
Supersonic
passenger
flight
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CLASSIC
AIRLINER
CONCORDE
T
SUPERSONIC ENTENTE CORDIAL
Six years later, the result of an incredible working
partnership between the British and the French saw
the first prototype take off from Toulouse on March
2, 1969 with André Turcat at the controls, while the
second, British-built Concorde took off from Filton
on April 9 in the hands of BAC chief test pilot, Brian
Trubshaw.
With over 70 aircraft already on order,
Concorde was set to be a commercial success but as
the price of oil began to rise and with the sudden
realisation that the running costs of a Mach 2
airliner were considerably higher than anticipated,
all except BOAC and Air France fell by the wayside.
Like so many projects before it, this should have
brought the entire concept to a shuddering halt but
both the British and French governments had
invested heavily and there was too much to lose by
scrapping the aircraft. In the end, just 20 aircraft
were built, six of them were the prototypes,
development and pre-production aircraft and just
seven aircraft apiece were destined to be operated
by the new British Airways and Air France.
Even in service, Concorde struggled to be
accepted in many countries, especially the USA,
where the noise of the Olympus engines was always
the main sticking point, although even at Heathrow
many protests failed to stop British Airways
HE DESIRE FOR AIRLINERS that could fly
faster and higher than all that had gone
before them was ingrained into the
commercial aviation world from the end
of the Second World War. While economic operation
was an important factor, especially for the smaller
operators, it was not at the forefront of the
designer’s minds when they began to pen the lines
of one of the world’s most amazing aircraft back in
the late 1950s. As early as 1954, with the Comet
programme already floundering, talks began in
Britain regarding the feasibility of a SST (Supersonic
Transport) which resulted, in October 1956 in the
formation of STAC (Supersonic Transport Advisory
Committee) which would be in charge of
development and, be responsible for the
many manufacturers that
would be needed to
build the aircraft,
named
Concorde, in
1963.
basing its main fleet there. Bearing in mind the
complexity of the aircraft, it was one of the world’s
safest considering the distances it travelled and the
eye-watering speed at which it flew. This made the
loss of the Air France Concorde in 2000 a particularly
unfitting ‘beginning of the end’ for the airliner which
courted controversy right to the finalé. It was a
combination of factors that saw the airliner enter
retirement three years later but the bottom line is,
that Concorde was getting old and, despite being
built like the proverbial ‘brick out-house’, constant
supersonic cycles take their toll and that kind of
punishment would not be expected of a military
aircraft, let alone a civilian one.
There was never any hope of recovering the
£1.3 billion that had been invested in the
development programme and only British Airways
managed to turn a profit during the 1980s and early
1990s. However, setting aside the economics, the
Concorde was an incredible achievement from the
outset, built by two different nations who overcame
every technical problem that arose (which were
innumerable) to produce, by far, the most iconic
airliner ever built which to top it all, was not built in
the USA!
Martyn Chorlton
May 2014
Although G-BOAC was
destined to become the
British Airways flagship, it
was G-BOAA which was
delivered to the airline first
on January 14, 1976 after a
42 minute flight from
Fairford to Heathrow. After
22,768hrs 56mins in the air,
G-BOAA was retired on
August 12, 2000 and today
is preserved in her own
hangar at the Museum of
Flight, East Fortune.
Via
Aeroplane
Acknowledgments
Airbus Group (Photography), Claire Chorlton (Proofing), Bill Guston (Contributor), Andy Hay (Artwork), Julia Johnson (Advertising Sales Manager), Manuel Negrerie (Photography),
Mark Piacentini (Photography), Fran ois Prins (Contributor), Jean-Vincent Reymondon (Airbus), Bertrand Rouillard (Contributor), Rob Terry (Design) and Karen Wayman (Production Manager)
For more than a century of aviation history and for further titles in this series, visit
Published by Kelsey Media. Printed at William Gibbons & Sons Ltd on behalf of Kelsey Publishing Ltd, Cudham Tithe Barn, Berry's Hill, Cudham, Kent TN16 3AG.
Tel: 01959 541444. Fax: 01959 541400. Email: kelseybooks@kelsey.co.uk. Website: www.kelsey.co.uk. ©2014 ISBN: 978-1-909786-44-8
CLASSIC
AIRLINER
6
The SST (Supersonic
Transport) story
16
Built for Mach 2
- Making a bullet, shell, rocket or jet
fighter travel at supersonic speed
seemed like a walk in the park compared
to the concept of a passenger carrying
airliner.
- The concept of a pioneering Mach
2 transport aircraft brought with it new
challenges in the fields of form, structure
and, not least, propulsion and engine
installation – all of which were translated
into practical, production reality by the
late Bill Guston.
Concorde
21
Concorde, Olympus Power
- The Bristol Aircraft Engine
Division produced an
engine that was in advance of its time
and one variant was selected to power
Concorde. François Prins relates the story
of one of Britain’s most successful jet
engines.
pre-production and two development
aircraft.
42
Building the world’s
fastest airliner
The Prototypes,
32
production & pre-
development
- It was no mean feat to construct the
world’s first supersonic airliner and the
fact that it was carried out by two major
manufacturers in two different countries,
makes it all the more amazing.
- One of the most expensive civilian
aviation development programmes ever
conceived was made up of six Concordes
including the two prototypes, two
G-BOAC
47
Andy Haythree-view by
Concorde cutaway
49
Frank Munger by
4
Contents
Concorde
53
liveries
60
Air France
70
‘Speedbird Concorde’
80
Brian Trubshaw
– ‘France is in the air’ - The French
national flag carrier was operating
the Boeing 707, 727, 747 and the home
grown Caravelle and Airbus A300 when its
capability was dramatically extended with
the arrival of Concorde in 1976. Bertrand
Rouillard gives an overview of the Air
France Concorde years.
- British Airways embraced the
whole Concorde experience
from the outset; recognising the aircraft as
something very special for the crews,
engineers, passengers and for the image of
this new airline.
86
The passenger-carrying
fleet
- François Prins tells the story of
Brian Trubshaw’s involvement
with the Concorde.
– With almost 240,000 flying hours
between them, a
large proportion of them flown at
supersonic speeds, the 14 production
Concordes certainly made up for their lack
of numbers by offering the ultimate
commercial passenger flight for almost
three decades.
Concorde 001, F-WTSS with Aerospatiale test pilot
André Turcat with Jacques Guignard as co-pilot,
Michel Retief as the flight engineer and three flight
test observers on board, was flown manually with
the undercarriage and nose down during the 42
minute maiden flight which ended with a perfect
landing back at Toulouse at 1608hrs.
Airbus Group
CLASSIC AIRLINERS
|
COMET
CLASSIC AIRLINERS
|
Concorde
5

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