Concorde

Im surprised that Concord(e) hit a headwind. I was always taught that at the height it flew the winds were almost nil, thats why the timings were the same both ways.

canberra wrote:

Im surprised that Concord(e) hit a headwind. I was always taught that at the height it flew the winds were almost nil, thats why the timings were the same both ways.

Agree it is a bit puzzling. Concorde cruised at 50000 + feet and as I understand it there are no significant winds at that height. At lower altitudes winds over the North Atlantic are normally blowing west to east affecting subsonic flights.

Something Im surprised no one has mentioned is that Concord(e) may be the only airliner with four sets of landing gear.

A Concorde flight Dispatcher/Redcap departure card circa 1987 for Terminal 4 at Heathrow. LST column refers to last start time for a particular activity in order to ensure an on time departure. Interesting what lurks in an old box file!

50 years next Tuesday since 002 made its first flight from Filton to Fairford.

I watched the Channel 5 documentary last night about Concorde. Apparently it was standard to only have the fuel tanks at about 82% full on start up. They also mentioned the costs that BA would have incurred if they had kept flying the aircraft after Air France finished flying them, £ 2 million per week purely on maintenance , or if you prefer over £100 million per year. And thats before any aircraft starts an engine. Of course there was no way that could have been sustained.

canberra wrote:

I watched the Channel 5 documentary last night about Concorde. Apparently it was standard to only have the fuel tanks at about 82% full on start up. They also mentioned the costs that BA would have incurred if they had kept flying the aircraft after Air France finished flying them, £ 2 million per week purely on maintenance , or if you prefer over £100 million per year. And thats before any aircraft starts an engine. Of course there was no way that could have been sustained.

I wonder if the 82% full fuel load was to do with the Delta Tank 11 fuel, which could only be used for in flight trimming?

In 1980 I was watching a Concorde taking off from Singapore for Bahrain and London. All was going well until it suffered an engine failure just after getting airborne, resulting in a loud bang and a ball of fire from the engine. Fuel was dumped over the sea and it returned to Singapore (Paya Lebar). Several hours then followed sorting out the various VIP's on the flight and rebooking them. A engineering work party came out from London with the spare engine on one of the scheduled 747's a day later.

As for the fuel on the documentary it was mentioned about the crash and Paris. This aircraft took off with all the tanks full, which was allowed but was rare.