Zeno~SPARTA~ Posted March 16, 2017 Share Posted March 16, 2017 Speedbird 002s flight from JFK to London Here is a guys detailed flight from JFK to Heathrow with full systems management Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Athlon64~SPARTA~ Posted March 18, 2017 Share Posted March 18, 2017 Fantastic aircraft untill something bad happends Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Athlon64~SPARTA~ Posted March 18, 2017 Share Posted March 18, 2017 That prittey well did the concord in and that was the end. When the plane first came on market it allmost failed untill they decided to double the cost of a flight Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zeno~SPARTA~ Posted March 18, 2017 Author Share Posted March 18, 2017 My post is about the last passenger flight of the British Airways Concorde, not the tragedy that befell the Air France Concorde. That was the only Concorde incident and was nothing to do with the airframe or the crew. Concorde served for a long time and is unsurpassed to this day. Even though it was not an economic success initially it still served nonetheless for 27 years. Anyway this is more about Flightsim Labs Concorde for FSX, which is a beautifully detailed model. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zathrus~SPARTA~ Posted March 18, 2017 Share Posted March 18, 2017 While I know the post is regarding the last passenger flight of this beautiful design, based on my understanding of the incident, I must disagree that the Air France tragedy had nothing to do with the airframe. While the respective manufacturers deny it, it was in fact the airframe that caused the tragedy with the Air France flight. As an engineer, having nothing between the fuel tanks and the landing gear to protect from a blow out in the landing gear was a calculated risk that should never have been taken. Why? because of the takeoff speeds (225mph) required for the Concorde. Any time your taking a 10+ ply tire to those kinds of speeds, there is the potential for a blowout, if it occurs right before rotation, the chunks of rubber that come off a 10 ply tire at that speed might as well be canon balls fired from it. Yes hindsight is 20/20.... but they knew of this potential threat. Blowouts are not uncommon during takeoff. I have experienced two during takeoff in the 100 or so flights I have taken. It is impossible to guarantee blowouts will not happen. When I researched this right after the Air France crash, there was fuel tank protection contemplated during design. They wanted to put a ballistic blanket below the fuel tanks to protect them from potential blowouts. This design was dropped due to weight constraints. This design was reviewed again after the tragedy, but they knew the added weight was going to make something that was having difficulty making money... make even less money. Which is why they eventually shelved the airframe. There is no way, a blown tire should have brought that plane down, but it did. In my mind it was a design issue that allowed that to happen. It was a known, calculated design weakness that eventually bit them. While the probability this could happen in a catastrophic manner was very low it is never a good idea in my opinion to ignore a known threat. As happens often, Murphy's law rose to the occasion and made it happen in the most catastrophic manner possible. Having said that, The Concorde is one of the most beautiful passenger jets & safest passenger jets ever built/flown commercially. Certainly one of my favorite airliners. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zeno~SPARTA~ Posted March 18, 2017 Author Share Posted March 18, 2017 Interesting, I did not know this. British Airways made 30 million a year from Concorde. Air France operated at a loss. BA resumed operation after the initial grounding, having reinforced its fuel tanks with kevlar. Sadly after the 2001 tragedy, air travel reduced and Concorde was no longer commercially viable for BA so they halted Concorde operations also, bringing an end to the SST era. So now, how about that flightsim labs detailed model of the Concorde. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zathrus~SPARTA~ Posted March 18, 2017 Share Posted March 18, 2017 totally awesome Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zathrus~SPARTA~ Posted March 18, 2017 Share Posted March 18, 2017 To add... I am really hoping, we see this type of transportation return. I know that NASA is currently wind tunnel testing a new design that is a "quiet super sonic design". This new design supposedly greatly reduces the "loudness of a sonic boom" which was a problem we had with the Concorde (as anyone who has watched one take off can attest... they are extremely loud). In my mind, the primary problem for Concorde was the limited places it could take off and land from. If someone could create such a design, that was as quiet as the large turbofan engine airliners of today during takeoff... I think they would have something. NASA is currently working on "sonic boom strength reduction" which they have learned can be controlled to some extent by the shape of the aircraft. Based on what I have read, if they could combine this reduced sonic boom with hybrid turbofan engines that also had afterburners to push into supersonic flight... that would be a wow. below is the current artists rendition. Could be cool to super cruise all the way around the world in 3 or 4 hours.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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