60
votes
Why was there no issue with the Tu-144 flying above land?
The actual 'legal' reasons have already been mentioned. However, there was a bit more to it.
Tu-144 was meant to fly over land from the beginning; there was no way around it, unlike Concorde. So it ...
- 9,013
57
votes
Why was Concorde never sold as a private business jet?
Private business jets have a few requirements:
Operational costs must be within budget. The concorde is pretty expensive to run as demonstrated by the high ticketprices you had to pay for a trip on ...
- 27.4k
51
votes
Was the transatlantic crossing for Concorde too short to reach optimal cruising altitude?
The simple answer is that the Concorde had no single assigned altitude, it was allowed to climb freely above ~FL450; this is discussed in depth in episode 166 – Flying the Concorde (worth the listen ...
- 100k
45
votes
Accepted
Why didn't the Concorde have flaps or slats?
Why no flaps?
Flaps change the pitching moment of a wing. After all, they add lift over the full chord, so the sum of the increased lift attacks at about mid-chord, which is a quarter chord aft of the ...
- 230k
44
votes
Accepted
Why doesn't the Concorde have any wing fences?
The main purpose of the wing fence is to prevent the boundary layer thickening in the wing due to the spanwise flow observed in swept wing, as can be seen below.
Image from fuckyeahfluiddynamics....
- 100k
43
votes
Why was the Concorde painted white and not black?
There is a discussion on it here that's worth reading but in short the requirements were just different. A few of the key points,
The black color on the SR-71 offered some night camouflage in ...
- 100k
41
votes
Why was Concorde never sold as a private business jet?
While it was never explicitly sold as such (although BAE would have happily delivered it as such) it was operated in such a manner on many occasions. As detailed by this former Concorde pilot, the ...
- 100k
35
votes
Accepted
Why was there no issue with the Tu-144 flying above land?
The Tupolev Tu-144 was just as loud as the Concorde. As it was already pointed out, the Concorde was legally prevented from going supersonic over land by the US, UK, but it was more than capable of ...
- 2,334
35
votes
Accepted
Why was the nose gear of Concorde located so far aft?
In a conventional "tricycle arrangement", placement of the nose landing gears is normally chosen to respect three basic requirements:
nose landing gear should carry 10 to 15% of the total ...
- 9,608
28
votes
Accepted
Could Concorde have used swing wings?
Actually, the Boeing design for the SST (Super Sonic Transport), the Boeing 2707 had a swing wing (swing wing was the hot thing during that time). It is instructive to look at what happened to that ...
- 100k
27
votes
Why doesn't the Concorde have any wing fences?
The Concorde makes use of vortex lift (link).
While one of the reasons for applying wing fences is to prevent air from flowing sideways, they are also able to create vortices (R. Whitford, Design for ...
- 1,207
24
votes
Was the transatlantic crossing for Concorde too short to reach optimal cruising altitude?
Concorde had a 10,000fpm climb and a max altitude of 60,000ft, so time to climb was not a problem. It had an optimum cruise altitude that varied with weight, so as it burned fuel it climbed higher to ...
- 19k
23
votes
Accepted
If the Concorde had an engine fail at cruise altitude, would they enter the coffin corner?
The Concorde doesn't need reheat to cruise supersonically, just to get there (the range would be pretty short if it did). If it loses an engine it's not going to put the other 3 into reheat to hold ...
- 126k
20
votes
Why was there no issue with the Tu-144 flying above land?
The Concorde didn’t “refuse” to go supersonic over land; it was legally prohibited from doing so by every country it flew to/over.
The Tu-144 produced the same sonic boom, but aside from a few ...
- 27.6k
18
votes
Accepted
Why was the Concorde painted white and not black?
Concorde's average skin temperature was 92°C (365K). Calculating the black body radiation using the Stefan Boltzmann law we get 1006W/m². This the maximum heat flux possible with perfect radiation, ...
- 1,271
18
votes
If the Concorde had an engine fail at cruise altitude, would they enter the coffin corner?
The coffin corner is the altitude where your maximum speed (limited by high speed buffetting) is equal to your minimum speed (limited by low speed buffetting / onset to stall).
The Concorde, when ...
- 82.9k
16
votes
Accepted
Why were there passengers allowed on Concorde's route proving flights?
Bear in mind that these tests weren't to prove the safety of the aircraft per se, just to show that it would work as an airliner. It had to be loaded up with an appropriate complement of passengers ...
- 2,375
16
votes
Why did Concorde not have horizontal stabilizers?
(Source: concordesst.com)
It does have elevators in the form of elevons at the trailing edge. A delta is effectively a tailless flying wing with a really long chord. Like any flying wing, pitch ...
- 126k
13
votes
Accepted
Where are the locations of the elevators or horizontal stabilizers in a Concorde?
There is no "horizontal stabilizer" on the Concorde like other commercial aircraft, the wing performs that duty because it is a delta-wing. The elevators for the Concorde are combined with the ...
- 11.9k
12
votes
Accepted
How were astronomical observations performed from Concorde?
The Concorde was first used for observing solar eclipse in 1973. The aircraft used was Concorde 001, piloted by André Turcat with a scientific team of 8 people from US, UK and France.
The main ...
- 100k
12
votes
Accepted
At what altitude did Concorde go supersonic?
Concorde went supersonic during its climb phase to the cruising altitude.
The altitude at which the Concorde can go supersonic was limited by the regulations. For example, the aircraft was only ...
- 100k
12
votes
Why was Concorde never sold as a private business jet?
At the time the jet was in production private jets were still in their infancy. The largest purpose built one was the Grumman Gulfstream II. I have a feeling the Concorde was a bit out of the reach ...
- 72.8k
11
votes
What was the commercial speed of Concorde?
The Concorde cruised at 1350mph (~Mach 2.05 at 55,000Ft.)
Concorde’s fastest transatlantic crossing was on 7 February 1996 when it completed the New York to London flight in 2 hours 52 minutes and ...
- 100k
11
votes
Accepted
What protection did the Concorde have against an uncontrolled decompression?
This is the main reason why Concorde had such small windows. It was calculated to reduce the rate of decompression to a survivable level in case one window fails. (The prototype, by the way, had much ...
- 9,013
11
votes
Accepted
Why were the windows on the Concorde about the size of a hand?
The Concorde flew above 15,000m. At this altitude a sudden reduction in cabin pressure would prove hazardous to crew and passengers with most falling unconscious within a few seconds. The low air-...
- 134
10
votes
Travelling at faster than mach 1, how sharp could Concorde turn to avoid injury to passengers?
All aircraft experience the same G force per degree of bank angle, so a 60 degree turn in a Cessna produces 2G just like a 60 degree turn in Concorde would produce 2G.
The difference is that a ...
- 1,815
10
votes
Could Concorde have used swing wings?
Well, it would help with low speed lift, but it would have the following problems:
The fuel tanks in the wings would have to be rearranged significantly affecting the CG, CL, and CP. As seen in the ...
- 11.9k
9
votes
What would have happened when the Concorde's low-pressure emergency system brought it lower mid-flight?
I'm answering a point in a comment by the OP, rather than answering the question itself directly - but I do think it's totally relevant. Feel free to vote accordingly :)
This list provides a list of ...
- 31.2k
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible