The Concorde’s ability to fly supersonically is inseparable from many of its groundbreaking designs.
Recently, supersonic aircraft have become popular again, and some companies are already looking at the prospect of building a new generation of supersonic aircraft to be used as special jets for heads of government or for commercial transportation.
When it comes to supersonic aircraft, the famous Concorde supersonic airliner must be mentioned, which first took off on March 2, 1969, and fascinated many people around the world with its advanced design and supersonic capabilities. Throughout its flying career, Concorde has set many records that are still unmatched today.
Here we will take just a fragment of Concorde’s super power to tell you what kind of design enabled Concorde to fly supersonically for a sustained period of time.
- The engine generates huge thrust
The engine gives Concorde its extraordinary supersonic capability. The Concorde engines are Rolls-Royce/Snecma-Olympus 593 Mk610 turbojets, which, when the combustion chambers are open, produce 152,000 pounds of thrust from all four engines, nearly double the 75,000 pounds of thrust generated by the Boeing 787 at takeoff.
And Concorde is relatively light, with a maximum takeoff weight (MTOW) of 185 tons, 69 tons lighter than the 254 tons of the Boeing 787-9.
Of course, Concorde’s fuel consumption is also impressive, burning 20.5 tons of fuel per hour. Its full fuel tank is 95.6 tons, which allows it to fly continuously for about 4.5 hours.
- Aerodynamics of the slender delta wing
The Concorde has a number of striking designs, including its elongated delta wing, which resembles a fighter jet delta wing.
A supersonic aircraft equipped with a delta wing has three major characteristics: low drag, high structural strength, and a small backward movement of the wing’s center of gravity at transonic speeds.
In addition, Concorde’s wings are designed to be thinner than other swept-back wings, thereby reducing drag.
In addition, the shock wave generated by the Concorde when flying at supersonic speeds creates high pressure under the wing, which provides considerable additional lift but no added drag. This allows Concorde to fly to higher altitudes than subsonic aircraft.
It can reach an altitude of 18,000 meters at cruise, compared to about 12,000 to 13,000 meters for a typical airliner. One advantage of flying at higher altitudes is that the air is thinner and thus has less drag, allowing the aircraft to fly faster and consume less fuel.
When it comes to the original design of the “slender delta wing,” Concorde designer Sir George Edwards said that the ideal shape for the wing is a slender triangle when the aircraft is flying at Mach 2 (twice the speed of sound) because it produces few shock waves. However, the aspect ratio for this shape is almost zero. Therefore, the aspect ratio must be increased again to obtain subsonic performance. But it could not be added too much, so as not to affect the supersonic capability, so the Concorde wing was designed in this peculiar shape.
He said, “Everyone thinks we designed it that way to make it look better, but really there was no other choice.”
- Special coatings to avoid high fuselage temperatures
The Concorde is coated with a highly reflective white paint that is twice as reflective as other jet aircraft coatings.
The maximum temperature of the nose of the Concorde can reach 127°C in flight, and the rear section of the fuselage can exceed 90°C. The main body of Concorde is made of hard aluminum (except for the elevating ailerons and engine nacelles, which use titanium and stainless steel that can withstand higher temperatures) and can sustain temperatures of 127°C. Therefore, Concorde’s cruise speed is limited to Mach 2.02 to avoid higher-than-threshold fuselage temperatures.
If Concorde were to change its paint job, for example, Concorde had been painted Pepsi blue for advertising purposes, it would only be able to fly supersonically for 20 minutes.
The aircraft takes off and lands with its nose lowered to widen the pilot’s field of view. (Eduard Marmet/Wikipedia)
- Adjustable nose
The long, pointed nose of the Concorde is adjustable, sometimes the nose drops down, sometimes the nose is in a straight line with the fuselage, why is this? The long and pointed nose reduces drag and improves aerodynamic efficiency, but when taking off or landing, the long nose obstructs the pilot’s view, so Concorde engineers designed the nose to be adjustable and with a retractable sun visor.
When the aircraft is cruising normally, the nose is raised and the sunshade can block the main windshield to protect it from the high temperature due to supersonic flight. When the aircraft takes off and lands, the nose drops down and the pilot has a better line of sight.
- Streamlined fuselage for fast flight
The Concorde’s needle-shaped fuselage also helps reduce drag when the aircraft is in the air. At just 2.7 meters wide and 61.7 meters long, it is nearly three times narrower than the Boeing 747’s 6.1-meter width and slightly shorter than its 70.6-meter length.
The final flight of the Concorde. (Shutterstock)
Exiting the stage
Since it began commercial operations, the Concorde supersonic aircraft has set many passenger airline records for speed, altitude and distance flown.
At the time, the average civilian aircraft took more than eight hours to travel from London Heathrow Airport to New York’s JFK International Airport, while the Concorde took just over three hours. Because of the six-hour time difference between London and New York, when passengers departed London on Concorde and arrived in New York, the local time was earlier than the passengers’ departure time. It truly turns back the clock.
By flying Concorde, besides experiencing supersonic flight, passengers can also enjoy fantastic scenery, such as being able to see the curve of the earth; and, if flying from Paris or London to the United States after sunset, when catching the sun on the way, they can see the wonderful sight of the sun rising from the west.
The advent of Concorde raised great expectations for this change in the face of aviation, but the number of routes actually operated by Concorde was much smaller than expected. The crash in 2000 ended 25 years of zero casualties and had a profoundly negative impact on the number of passengers, leading to the retirement of the Concorde three years later and the retirement of an iconic aircraft from the history of aviation.
Some figures of Concorde
The Concorde made its first commercial flight in January 1976 and was retired from service in October 2003, a total of 27 years of commercial flight.
The Concorde is 61.66 meters in length, 25.6 meters in wing width, 12.2 meters in height, 2.62 meters in cabin width, 1.96 meters in height, and 39.32 meters in length. It has a payload of 111.13 tons, a maximum range of 7,250 km and a maximum speed of 2,330 km/h (1,224 km/h at the speed of sound). The flight altitude is about 18,000 meters, and the passenger capacity is 92-120 people.
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