A joint lecture given by David Macdonald (former BA Flight Engineering Superintendent, Concorde) and Captain David Rowland (former Concorde Pilot and Flight Manager) followed by a Q&A and panel discussion.
68,000ft.. about the height of the u-2 spy plane. Mach 2.23. which at 68,000 ft is 1570 mph. Fully fuelled, with a tailwind such as the 250 mph tailwind which allows Concorde to break the transatlantic speed record in a civilian plane, that would have allowed a New York to London transatlantic crossing in around 2 hours and 35 minutes. Quite remarkable. Obviously that wouldn't have been possible. That super high altitude was achieved due to a light payload, and those speeds were only achievable for a maximum of 20 minutes before the airframe would have become too hot. But had it been built out of composites, to compensate for the weight and temperature, it would have been possible for Concorde to regularly fly the Atlantic in a little over two-and-a-half hours at 70,000 ft. At the top of the troposphere. At that altitude the sky would have been pitch black and the curve of the Earth even more obvious than it was for passengers on the standard eventual regular trips at 60,000 feet. To see what that would have looked like at 70,000ft, search for film of James May on the u-2 spy plane. It would have looked incredible. And in case anyone's interested, they would have been flying in 1975 on those exploration flights in the prototypes, at above 99.96% of the atmosphere. Meaning that, at that altitude, the only useful lift that they would have been getting, would have been generated by just 0.04% of the atmosphere. Compared to a commercial airliner travelling today which receives it's lift from 18 -23%. In order to stay airborne, the plane had to be flying at Mach 2.23, at that altitude. Otherwise it would have stalled. It's just all completely amazing and I thought it was worth mentioning.
Interesting about noise.. I lived in Fairford during Concorde developement from 002 to pre production ... and compared to Fairford now, when B2 and B52 use this, now u.s.a. base, the American aircraft are MORE noise producing than any Concorde production aircraft..please do not go on about military use exemption, IT IS NOISE. As Trubshaw said, it is not a miracle. Long live the Concorde and well done to all, interesting video, thank you.
thank you for this brilliant lecture. I love the Concorde, travelling 5 times supersonic between LHR und JFK
what a gem of a lecture and qa session. this ought to be a more popular video. thank you for uploading.
Fantastic
Absolutely Brilliant, thank you..
68,000ft.. about the height of the u-2 spy plane. Mach 2.23. which at 68,000 ft is 1570 mph.
Fully fuelled, with a tailwind such as the 250 mph tailwind which allows Concorde to break the transatlantic speed record in a civilian plane, that would have allowed a New York to London transatlantic crossing in around 2 hours and 35 minutes.
Quite remarkable. Obviously that wouldn't have been possible. That super high altitude was achieved due to a light payload, and those speeds were only achievable for a maximum of 20 minutes before the airframe would have become too hot.
But had it been built out of composites, to compensate for the weight and temperature, it would have been possible for Concorde to regularly fly the Atlantic in a little over two-and-a-half hours at 70,000 ft. At the top of the troposphere. At that altitude the sky would have been pitch black and the curve of the Earth even more obvious than it was for passengers on the standard eventual regular trips at 60,000 feet.
To see what that would have looked like at 70,000ft, search for film of James May on the u-2 spy plane. It would have looked incredible.
And in case anyone's interested, they would have been flying in 1975 on those exploration flights in the prototypes, at above 99.96% of the atmosphere. Meaning that, at that altitude, the only useful lift that they would have been getting, would have been generated by just 0.04% of the atmosphere. Compared to a commercial airliner travelling today which receives it's lift from 18 -23%.
In order to stay airborne, the plane had to be flying at Mach 2.23, at that altitude. Otherwise it would have stalled.
It's just all completely amazing and I thought it was worth mentioning.
Interesting about noise.. I lived in Fairford during Concorde developement from 002 to pre production ... and compared to Fairford now, when B2 and B52 use this, now u.s.a. base, the American aircraft are MORE noise producing than any Concorde production aircraft..please do not go on about military use exemption, IT IS NOISE. As Trubshaw said, it is not a miracle. Long live the Concorde and well done to all, interesting video, thank you.
Comic-Sans overload...