CONCORDE Flight International

essential part in the control of the aircraft. Because approach

is made at high incidence the aircraft is "on the back of the
drag curve," and auto-throttles are essential. There are no
flaps on the Concorde, their function being performed by
amgle-of-attack; but one characteristic that has had to be
designed out is the lift effect of the elevons which tend to
produce an initial reversal of control.
Externally the most striking design consequence of the high
angle-of-attack approach is the hinged nose. This gives the
pilot a better view for landing, and performs a necessary
function at the other end of the speed range by acting as a
visor and protecting the windscreen glass from being melted
in the supersonic cruise.
The position of the engines keeps them well clear of the
fuselage boundary layer, that flow of sluggish air close to
the skin which has to be sucked off for good supersonic intake
conditions, ' The^positioning of the engines is the only, major
configuration difference between the Concorde and the Russian
supersonic transport, t he designers of which presumably reckon
that the penalties of a disturbed air intake are less than the
penalties of assymetrie thrust in the event of an engine failure
in the critical take-off case.
POWERPLANT
The Concorde' s engines are Rolls-Royce Bristol Olympus 593
two-spool turbojets of 38,3001b thrust each with reheat. Intro-
duced into civil transport for the first time are not only reheat
but variable-area air intakes and variable-area primary and

The Concorde is a fifty-fifty Anglo-French venture
launched in November 1962. The prime contractors
are British Aircraft Corporation and Sud Aviation
(France) on the airframe, and Rolls-Royce and
Snecma on the engines. Systems and components
work is equally shared among hundreds of firms in
the two countries. The programme is controlled by
a joint governmental technical committee.
secondary jet nozzles (see diagram). These are necessary to
ensure that the engines are running at their optimum through-
out the very wide range of pressures and temperatures imposed
by the Concorde' s wide speed range. The intake is required
to handle pressure differences of from 21b/sq in to 201b/sq in,
and to reduce the speed of the air from Mach 2 to Mach 0.5
at the compressor inlets.
A movable r amp inside the top of the intake mouth
controls the shock-wave pattern at the front of the intake
and the main 20ft diffuser section of the intake gets t he flow
down to a speed acceptable to the engine. The compressor
inlet pressure is higher than on subsonic engines, and inlet
temperature also is higher120C compared with 20C for
most subsonic engines. Other spill valves help to keep the
flow optimum in all flight conditions. One, at the bottom of
the diffuser section of intake, also doubles as a supplementary
intake scoop on take-off.
The very big intake-temperature range is the reason for
the variable primary jet nozzle, which is the most efficient
way of keeping the temperature of the engine within limits.
It enables mass flow to be optimised for best fuel consumption
in all flight conditions. The variable secondary nozzle keeps
"afterbody" or base drag to a minimum.
The operation of these variable intakes and nozzles is the
responsibility of an automatic electronic control system, with
something like 850 electronic components per powerplant, the
heart of which is a duplicated air-data computer. This receives
all the inputsnot only temperatures and pressures, but fuel
flow and temperature, yaw, sideslip, roll, pitch and the many
other variables which have to be matched for optimum engine
performance. This is absolutely critical, because on the Con-
corde there is a payload penalty of about 5 per cent for every
1 per cent increase in fuel consumption.
The powerplant system could be managed by the flight
engineer in an emergency, but he would have a full-time job,
3
REARWARD TRANSFER- TRANSONIC ACCELERATION
FRONT TRiM TANKS MAIN TANKS REAR TRIM
EMERGENCY DECELERATION TRANSFER
FORWARD TRANSFER - END OF CRUISE
RETRIMMING FOR LANDING - AFTER PROLONGED SUBSONIC FLIGHT
Fuel transfer is an essential means of ensuring transonic stability
and control
and he would not be able to achieve the optimum conditions
that economy demands and' which computers can process
instantly, particularly in the event of a sudden engine failure
during supersonic cruise. Reheat is provided primarly for the
take-off case, though it can be used for t he supersonic tran-
sition at altitude should boom-abatement requirements preclude
a supersonic climb.
STRUCTURE
Above Mach 1 aerodynamic heating starts to make itself
felt on the structure. Above about Mach 2.5 conventional
aluminium alloys begin to soften, and materials like steel and
titaniumwith their attendant problems of weight and cost
and difficulty of fabricationhave to be employed. Fuel nears
the boil, and new materials for numberless details like sealants
and windows have to be developed.
The Concorde' s designers decided that there were enough
problems without courting t he unknowns of thermal stresses.
Hence the choice of 2.2 (later reduced to 2 as a result of
weight increases) as the design Mach number. At this speed
the general aerodynamic temperature is about 120C, rising
t o 155C on leading edges (wings and nose). This is well
within the strength and creep-resistance capabilities of alu-
minium alloys, especially the copper-based RR 58 aluminium
alloy chosen for the Concorde.
FUEL FOR TRI MMI NG AND HEAT SI NK
The fuel system has to do more than feed the engines. It
is used also as a sink for excess heat caused by the much
higher general temperature of the airframe during the cruise
heat from the electrical, air-conditioning, hydraulic and other
systems. The actual temperature of the fuel (normal kerosene)
in the tanks will not get anywhere near the point at which
auto-ignition could take place, though it is almost certain that
a Mach 2.7 supersonic airliner would require inerting gas in
the tanks.
The other and equally vital role of the fuel system is to
trim the aircraft during the supersonic cruise, when the rear-
ward shift of the aerodynamic centre of pressure causes a
strong nose-down pitch which has to be trimmed out. To do
this aerodynamically with elevons would create unacceptable
drag, so it is done by moving the centre of gravity. This is
achieved by transferring fuel from the wing tanks t o a trim
tank at the aft end of the fuselage, and vice-versa during
deceleration back to subsonic.
The transfer pumping system is, of course, engineered to