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 ...
- 8,855
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 ...
- 27.2k
53
votes
Accepted
Why was Concorde's cockpit so complex?
Why was this cockpit much more complex than any other modern day aircraft
Firstly, as others have noted, you imply Concorde was modern when you compare it with "other modern" aircraft. OK, it was a "...
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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 ...
- 98.6k
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....
- 99.4k
44
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 ...
- 225k
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 ...
- 98.6k
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 ...
- 98.6k
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 ...
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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 ...
- 6,119
29
votes
Why was Concorde's cockpit so complex?
As others already said, the keyword in your post is "modern" and Concorde is not one. You compare dissimilar things. Try comparing with something similar, a Boeing 747-200 cockpit for example:
...
- 6,940
27
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 ...
- 99.4k
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
Accepted
Can a sonic boom produced at 60,000' be heard on the ground?
Yes, a sonic boom produced at 60,000' can be heard on the ground.
First of all, a sonic boom consist in a steep increase of air pressure, followed by a slow, linear decrease below the nominal ambient ...
- 7,197
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 ...
- 18k
23
votes
In what way are the Concorde's engines considered efficient?
You compare SFCs at different speeds. That is like comparing payloads for differently sized aircraft. SFC goes up with speed and, therefore, must be compared at the same speed. The work performed by ...
- 225k
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 ...
- 118k
21
votes
Why was Concorde's cockpit so complex?
Why was this cockpit much more complex than any other modern day aircraft or a fighter jet. It looks to have much more buttons and controls, and very small(interesting) screens
The cockpit is much ...
- 6,834
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 ...
- 27.4k
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, ...
- 1,261
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 ...
- 77.1k
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 ...
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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 ...
- 118k
13
votes
Why is it said that the Tupolev Tu-144 had superior aerodynamics to the Concorde?
Unfortunately, there is no hard data available (at least in open literature) to back up these claims.
One for the claim may be due to the fact that the Tu-144 was designed to fly higher than ...
- 99.4k
13
votes
Accepted
Why did the Concorde require a droop nose and how did it work?
1) Though already mentioned that this might be too broad, I would dare to guess a properly fitted camera could do the trick. But I doubt that this would be effective considering the technology of the ...
- 6,940
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 ...
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12
votes
Accepted
Did Concorde really fly above 55k feet as mentioned in this report?
Yes. The extra height was necessary in order to reach lower pressure air, and thereby reduce drag, and heating of the airframe from supersonic compression of the air.
Concorde's windows were extra ...
- 1,502
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 ...
- 99.4k
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 ...
- 99.4k
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