63
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 ...
- 9,133
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 ...
- 27.5k
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 ...
- 102k
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 ...
- 237k
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 ...
- 102k
40
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 ...
- 102k
37
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 ...
- 2,444
34
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 ...
- 15.8k
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 ...
- 21k
24
votes
Tu-144 vs Concorde: which one of the two carried passengers first?
Concorde was first by almost two years:
Aircraft
Maiden Flight
First Commercial Flight
Source
Concorde
2 March 1969
21 January 1976 (London → Bahrain & Paris → Dakar → Rio de Janeiro)
...
- 58.3k
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 ...
- 136k
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 ...
- 27.9k
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 ...
- 84.5k
17
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 ...
- 136k
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 ...
- 2,365
14
votes
Tu-144 vs Concorde: which one of the two carried passengers first?
The Tu-144 commenced commercial on the 1st of November 1977 (according to Sinsheim Museum)
According to some sources the first commercial flights of the Concorde took place on the 21st of January 1976....
- 353
13
votes
Accepted
Why did Concorde have a max pitch down attitude in supersonic flight?
I'm assembling this answer mostly based on Concorde operating manual, volume 2, in French.
ADI
The Attitude & Director Indicator is (was) actually a superb instrument, only outdone by the Orbiter ...
- 80.9k
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 ...
- 75k
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
Accepted
Why is it said that the Tupolev Tu-144 had superior aerodynamics to the Concorde?
Let's see if we can find numbers to support this claim:
Tu-144D:
Ogival delta wings without conical camber, cranked delta. A distinctly low set & a much simpler wing, a poor performer at low speed,...
- 10.3k
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 ...
- 1,825
9
votes
Accepted
What is the maximum speed for regulation of sonic boom noise?
Business jets are developed to different rules than airliners. The biggest difference is that, indeed, fuel price and fuel efficiency are not an issue when what counts are bragging rights for the ...
- 237k
9
votes
Should all aircraft have landing gear debris deflectors, following the Concorde disaster?
If you look at the current regulations for aircraft certification, at least half the rules can be traced back to a specific incidence. Why would aviation-grade hydraulic fluid be required to be non-...
- 237k
8
votes
Should all aircraft have landing gear debris deflectors, following the Concorde disaster?
Debris deflectors would not have worked for Concorde and certainly aren't universally viable, unless they were somehow designed to magically deflect all debris coming from all angles at all speeds ...
- 16.3k
8
votes
Accepted
Why is it common to speak of "Concorde" rather than "the Concorde"?
The Wikipedia article about Concorde confirms that the name is typically used without an indefinite or definite article, at least in British English:
Concorde also acquired an unusual nomenclature ...
- 58.3k
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible