Concorde is Back!

[Timberridge]

Didn't Air France fly to Rio and Mexico City?

Although one time they didn't quite make it.

[Adolf Allerbush]

But the inside is tiny.

and at most you could bring 26lbs of baggage with you. If you had more it came on another plane.

[ötzi]

Seems unfair to the skinny people.

[bennymac]

the issue of having customers expecting that the return flight would be on a concorde and nothing else (given the ticket cost) - and that this meant having a spare concorde parked at the destinations (NYC DC etc) - is an interesting one.

[Timberridge]

If you had more it came on another plane.

Father's mistress had to do this when we took family vacations on the G4.

[Ted Striker]

Oh, Oh! I know this one. FL400 = 40K feet above sea level

Over Chicago right now, yes.



But over Seattle you'd be around 40200 above sea level, and where the ND, SD and MN borders meet you'd only be around 39700 .

[Brownski]

There’s a Concorde at the USS Intrepid museum in NYC. They are indeed tiny inside. The only other time I was close to one was when I was paddling on the middle bay on LI and one taking off from JFK went overhead at low altitude. They were loud as hell.

[PNWbrit]

Although one time they didn't quite make it.

That was to NY surely?

[Timberridge]

That was to NY surely?

Yeah that one.

Then the subsonic one from Rio.

[bennymac]

The article I posted earlier in this thread is an interesting breakdown of what went wrong when that Concorde took off from Paris - media zoomed in on the runway debris but there is so much more to the story than that - spoiler alert: the plane should not have crashed

This is the one about the South America back to France flight - this is an excellent and sobering read about how fucked up and scary those last few minutes in the cockpit were - it's a must read article for anyone who is interested in this stuff

https://www.vanityfair.com/news/busi...ight-447-crash

[Toadman]

I watched the Concorde land at Boeing field after this flight. It's much quieter during landing. I passed on an opportunity to fly on it before they moth balled them. I had a stupid amount of FF miles on BA at the time. But instead of cashing in the miles for a flt on the Concorde decided to go FC on a BA 747 from SEA to Lisbon with the wife. Used up a lot of FF points but gained a ton of bonus points with the wife.

The Museum's aircraft, registration code G-BOAG, is referred to as Alpha Golf. It was first flown in April of 1978 and delivered to British Airways in 1980. It was the eighth British-built production Concorde. Equipped with four powerful Rolls-Royce/SNECMA Olympus 593 Mk. 610 turbojet engines, Alpha Golf logged more than 5,600 takeoffs and over 16,200 flight hours while in service. It flew the last British Airways commercial Concorde flight, from New York to London, on October 24, 2003. On its retirement flight to The Museum of Flight on November 5, 2003, Alpha Golf set a New York City-to-Seattle speed record of 3 hours, 55 minutes, and 2 seconds. Much of the flight was over northern Canada, where it flew supersonic for 1 hour, 34 minutes, and 4 seconds

[subtle plague]

Father's mistress had to do this when we took family vacations on the G4.

I'm just here for the Hamptons gossip. Soaking up tr tidbits is my keyhole into the 1%.

[riser4]

Father's mistress had to do this when we took family vacations on the G4.

Did your dad really care if the mistress came or not?

[hawkgt]

Never seen a concord other than TV, did take my kids up to Ellsworth AFB years ago to watch the B1's take off from outside base. Was there for silo tour next day and guide said to come outside for something big. They were doing practice emergency departure or what ever it is called, full afterburners, one right after the other. I think it was 4 or 5 that took off and shook the world.

FUCKING IMPRESSIVE!!!!!!!!!!

[bennymac]

I remember watching B52s out of Loring AFB in Maine - those things are huge. Got to go inside one as well. What a beast. Loring woulda been a prime target of the Russians if nukes ever came over.

[AdironRider]

Growing up near Pease AFB in NH some air force jock got a little spicy one night and went supersonic somewhere over Stratham. Blew out three windows in my house at like 3 in the morning.

Apparently happened again over Keene a few years back as well, this time they were flying out of Westfield.

I can see why that is illegal to do. No way this company gets around the physics of the matter.

[Dantheman]

No way this company gets around the physics of the matter.

NASA seems to think it's possible: https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/n...final-assembly

[Toadman]

NASA seems to think it's possible: https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/n...final-assembly

I think one can clearly state that if it's possible, it's a game changer.

I've heard the space shuttle double sonic boom once while I was in SoCal and it came in to land at Edwards AFB.

[summit]

The reason we don't have supersonic airliners is because:
1. NOISE you cannot fly supersonic unless you are over 10,000ft and at least 15 miles from shore (limits useful routes)
2. ECONOMICS the Concorde sucked at fuel economy at a time when fuel became pricey.

Lockheed and Boeing were developing SST in the 1960s and even building airports from them (look at MCI Kansas City International). TWA was very interested. US Government was interested and funding R&D. Then in the early 70s it was all cancelled after the cascade of sonic boom ban, OPEC oil embargo, and US government termination of R&D support.

I have models of the Boeing 2707 and the Lockheed L2000 in TWA livery as my Grandfather was TWA and involved in US SST development.

You have a market for sure if you can make a SST with the follow:
1. Quiet the sonic boom (fly anywhere)
2. Good fuel economy with 2 engines that do not need reheat to supercruise (economic operational and maint costs)
3. No swing-wing (lowers weight plus maintenance and manufacturing costs)

This may be technically feasible as we have spent decades researching how to quiet booms which allows transcontinental supersonic flight. Engine technology has come lightyears since 1950 when Bristol first spun up the turbine on the Olympus engine that would make the Concorde the first non-experimental aircraft to supercruise without reheat. You can optimize aircraft and engines to supercruise.

[Not DJSapp]

I've heard the space shuttle double sonic boom once while I was in SoCal and it came in to land at Edwards AFB.

Same, was living at Manhattan Beach at the time. So fucking loud, shook the apartment and set ever car alarm off for miles.

[Toadman]

Same, was living at Manhattan Beach at the time. So fucking loud, shook the apartment and set ever car alarm off for miles.

I thought it was a mini earthquake at first. Was standing outside an office building on the 2nd floor deck. Shook the deck and the windows.

[summit]

The prototype? I didn't realize it was that fast.

The reason the production B-1B isn't anywhere near as fast as the Concorde is that it needed to have a way larger flight envelope, i.e. it's fast everywhere. The Concorde is only fast above FL400.

Well, more specifically, B-1B needed to be fast on the deck because high flying supersonic penetrators go BOOM when hit by Soviet SAMs, so goodbye B-1A. Otherwise, we would be flying B-70s which had their max efficiency at Mach 3 at 70K.

[summit]

Two more modern SST projects than 2707 and L2000 worth reading about are the Boeing Sonic Cruiser and the Lockheed QueSST

I come from a line of pilots who each all worked for the military, the airlines, and NASA/DARPA, so I'm full of useless aerospace info. One day I'll get my license.

[dunfree]

Amusing that the last SST startup, Aerion, shuttered two weeks ago.

[Core Shot]

Did your dad really care if the mistress came or not?

The beauty of a mistress is not having to care