LONDON – British Airways has begun modifying its Concordes, with hopes rising that the airline’s supersonic flagship will be back in service this spring after the supersonic aircraft’s certificate of airworthiness were suspended, forcing British airways to ground its seven aircraft.
The airline will be investing more than £30 million to ensure its delta-winged aircraft can resume flying safely, and offering the best customer experience in the skies. Of that, £17 million will be spent on safety-related modifications, and £14 million, announced last year, on new seats, cabin interiors and other customer service improvements.
Alpha Foxtrot is the first of its seven aircraft to be adapted. It is currently in the Concorde hangar at Heathrow, where engineers are preparing it for new linings to its fuel tanks to be fitted and wiring in the undercarriage area to be strengthened.
The new fuel tank liners – manufactured by EADS, the former Aerospatiale, in Toulouse – are made of a kevlar-rubber compound. They have been designed to contain the fuel should the wing skin be punctured, adopting an approach already successfully used in military helicopters and Formula 1 racing cars.
Current estimates are that it will take a team of 40 engineers around eight to ten weeks to carry out these alterations to each aircraft. Initial tests on the modifications, carried out by the manufacturers using advanced computer modelling and actual physical trials, have proved encouraging. They were presented at the most recent meeting of the Anglo-French Government Concorde working group last month.
Before passenger flights resume, the modifications will be subject to further exhaustive proving, with thorough ground testing on an Air France aircraft due to begin later this month. Once the modifications have been completed, Alpha Foxtrot, the first British Airways Concorde, will then be used for in-flight proving. Data will be collected and analysed to verify the operational effects of the tank liners, on the aircraft’s fuel transfer systems and fuel gauges etc. British Airways will then modify two Concordes at a time, until the entire fleet has been completed.
Provided the modifications are signed off by the airworthiness authorities and no unforeseen issues arise from the investigation into the Paris tragedy it is expected that the aircraft’s certificate of airworthiness will be returned. In July 2000, an Air France Concorde crashed in flames just after take-off from Paris’s Charles de Gaulle airport.
Separately, British Airways will carry out its own, thorough safety audit, drawing on the experience of technicians who have worked on Concorde throughout its lifetime in commercial service.
While the modifications are carried out, new cabin interiors, including new seats, will be installed, as part of the £14 million package of improvements for Concorde announced early last year. While no firm date has yet been targetted for a resumption of Concorde services, British Airways hopes to start flying passengers supersonically again this spring, with an initial daily return service between London Heathrow and New York JFK, building later, when modifications have been completed to more aircraft, to the regular two daily flights in each direction.
Mike Street, British Airways, Director of Customer Services and Operations, said: British Airways has always said that we would only resume Concorde services once we are convinced we can do so safely. We are confident that the modifications now underway will enable us to achieve this.
Concorde’s customers can’t wait to get back on board. We are very much looking forward to carrying them – sooner rather than later. Since services were suspended in August, the airline’s engineers have been keeping its Concordes in tip-top condition, checking them every day, running the engines regularly and testing the computer, electrical and hydraulic systems, while the airline’s Concorde flight crew have been keeping their skills honed in the airline’s simulator.
By Janusz J. Überall
NEW YORK – Great Britain and France started working separately towards a supersonic aircraft in 1956. They were working along such similar lines that in 1962 they decided to develop one jointly.
This partnership, between British Aircraft Corporation (now British Aerospace) and Aerospatiale, led to 20 Concordes being build. Each country manufactured one prototype, one pre-production and eight production aircraft. Development costs totalled over 1.5 billion shared jointly, with the research and development producing many break throughs – among them the medical use of laser-beam technology.
The first flight of the French prototype aircraft 001 took place from Toulouse, France on March 2, 1969. The two aircraft are now in air museums.
Five thousand hours of testing went into Concorde by the time it was certificated, making it the most tested aircraft in aviation history.
Of the 16 production Concorde, 14 were made available for sale. British Airways was the world’s first supersonic airline, having ordered five Concordes in July, 1972. Shortly afterwards, Air France ordered four. Today, British Airways and Air France each have seven Concordes. One production aircraft remains at Filton and another at Toulouse where they were made.
British Airways accepted its first Concorde reservation in 1960 and by the time of the first service, had 1500 people listed.
Many books have been written about the product, one of the most interesting was “The Concorde Story” by Christopher Orlebar, a British Airways Concorde pilot.
Concorde’s cabin is pressurised to a more comfortable level than on subsonic aircraft, reducing flight fatigue. The major fatigue saving, however, results from dramatically reduced journey times. Concorde’s ability to cruise at twice the speed of sound – faster than some rifle bullets – means it takes an average of only three hours 25 minutes to fly the 3660 miles between London and New York compared with nearly eight hours by subsonic aircraft.
As a result Concorde turns a transatlantic crossing into a pleasant medium haul journey, allowing passengers enough time for a good meal and a little reading. Travelling westwards, the five hour time difference means it arrives before it leaves, at least in local time. A 10.30 A.M. departure from London gives an arrival in New York at the start of the business day.
More important, the traveller is fresh enough to use that full day working. The 7.00 P.M. departure gives the business person the opportunity of a full day’s work in London and he or she still arrives in New York in time for dinner. Eastbound, a morning departure gets the business traveller to London in the early evening in time for dinner. A lunchtime departure allows time for a morning business meeting while still arriving home in time for bed.
Concorde is a long, slim, streamlined aircraft with a length of 204 feet – but it stretches almost ten inches in supersonic flight due to heating of the air frame. ‘The slim delta wing is only 84 feet across, while the top of the tail soars 38 feet above the ground.
The characteristic droop nose is lowered to improve the pilots’ visibility on landing. Concorde, like 747’s and other jets, has automatic approach and landing capability.
The four engines – specially modified Rolls-Royce/Snecma Olympus 593s – give over 38,000 pounds of thrust each, with reheat. Reheat adds fuel to the final stage of the engine to produce the extra power required for take-off and the transition to supersonic flight.
Cruise speed is Mach Two, 1,350 mph or twice the speed of sound. Range ith full payload and fuel reserves is more than 4,000 miles.
Concorde’s cruise altitude of 55,000 to 60,000 feet is up to 20,000 feet igher than subsonic jets, and invariably above the weather.
Concorde takes off at 220 knots, compared with 165 knots, for most ubsonic aircraft. Landing speeds are also higher. In other respects it erforms in much the same way, for example with approach and holding atterns, diversions and runway requirements, despite the absence of flaps nd wing slats.
While business travellers are the primary market, a new demand for luxury leisure travel has also developed. This has helped the aircraft to attract more passengers each year, with a current rate of increase of five percent in numbers on last year.
Concorde makes headlines and attracts enormous crowds wherever it goes; the aircraft has visited more than 80 cities across the globe, mostly on charter flights. With its delta-shaped wing, slim fuselage and drooped nose, Concorde is undoubtedly the most famous airliner in today’s skies.
The development of the Anglo-French Concorde (Air France and British Airways are the only two airlines flying Concorde) is one of the most advanced technological projects undertaken in Western Europe.
- Capacity: 100 Supersonic Class passengers and 2204 lbs / one tonne of freight.
- Seating: In rows of two abreast at 37 inch / 94cm pitch.
- Engines: Four Rolls-Royce / SNECMA Olympus 593, each producing 38,050 lbs / 169 KN thrust with reheat.
- Take-off speed: 230 mph / 370 kph.
- Cruising speed: Mach 2.0 1,350 mph / 2173 kph at 55,000 feet / 16,765 metres.
- Landing speed: 190 mph / 306 kph.
- Range: 4040 miles / 6502 kilometres (maximum)
- Autoland capability: Category IIIa.
- Length: 204 feet I inch / 62.1 metres.
- Wingspan: 83 feet 9 inches / 25.5 metres.
- Height: 37 feet / 11.3 metres.
- Fuselage width: 9.6 feet / 2.9 metres.
- Fuel capacity: 26,286 Imp. gallons / 119,482 litres/95,550 kg.
- Fuel consumption: 5641 Imp. gallons per hour / 25,644 litres / 20,508 kg per hour.
- Maximum take-off weight: 408,000 lbs / 185,070 kg.
- Landing gear: Eight main wheels (tire pressure 207 lbs / sq inch), two nose wheels (tire pressure 181 lbs / sq. inch).
- Flight crew: 3.
- Cabin crew: 6.
- Fastest crossing times: New York-London 2 hours 56 minutes / London-New York 3 hours I 1 minutes.
- 1956 – Start of supersonic airline research in Europe.
- 1961 – Preliminary British/French discussions.
- 1962 – November 29 British/French Governments sign agreement for joint design, development and manufacture of supersonic airliners.
- 1967 – December 11 Roll-out of first prototype@ at Toulouse.
- 1969 – March 2 First flight of Concorde 001 from Toulouse.
- 1969 – April 9 First flight of Concorde 002 from Filton.
- 1969 – October 1 Concorde’s first supersonic flight.
