The Concorde Experience - East Fortune

Looking over the main part of the port side delta wing. The overall wing span is 83’ 10” with a length of 90’ 9”. The total area of the delta wing shape is 3,856 square feet.

Inside the cockpit and this is part of the instrument panel, gauges and switches which the flight engineer looked after.

The front cockpit with the pilot and co-pilots seats and their controls and instruments. Centre lower are the engine throttles.

Looking towards the nose with the variable nose section in the raised flight configuration

Looking back down the port side with the wing root right at the bottom of the image. The fuselage is just 9’ 5” wide externally and 8’ 6” internally. Its height is 10’10” externally and 6’4” internally.

The twin-wheel nose undercarriage retracts forwards and its tyres are inflated to a pressure of 191 psi, and the wheel assembly carries a spray deflector to prevent standing water being thrown up into the engine intakes. The starboard nose wheel carries a single disc brake to halt wheel rotation during retraction of the undercarriage. The port nose wheel carries speed generators for the anti-skid braking system which prevents brake activation until nose and main wheels rotate at the same rate.

Standing below the airframe and the port wing with the engines mounted below.

Looking into the port engines and I’m not entirely sure if they are still fitted or not. The top part of the intakes are flaps which are variable during the various take off, subsonic and supersonic speeds. The port side main undercarriage strut is to the left.

9. The starboard side main undercarriage bogie with the four wheels which are inflated to 232 psi.

The hydraulic actuators that move the elevon control surfaces are hidden in streamlined casings. There are three elevons on each trailing edge.

The underside of the port engines showing the various airflow panels and flaps in their closed positions.

Looking up at the fin which is 40 feet off the ground at its highest point.

13. On the underside of the fuselage below the tail is the wheeled tail bumper. Due to the high angle of attack needed at rotation, a small set of wheels was added aft to prevent tailstrikes.

Looking forward down the centreline from the back and the height of the underside from the ground is evident from the person standing below by the starboard undercarriage. Because of the way Concorde's delta-wing generated lift, the undercarriage had to be unusually strong and tall to allow for the angle of attack at low speed. At rotation, Concorde would rise to a high angle of attack, about 18 degrees.

Looking into the tail pipes (now sealed) of the starboard side. Visible are the variable-geometry exhaust nozzle, consisted of two "eyelids" which varied their position in the exhaust flow dependent on the flight regime; for example, when fully-closed (into the exhaust flow), they acted as thrust-reversers, aiding deceleration from landing to taxi speed. In the fully-open cruise position, together with the engine nozzle, they formed an ejector nozzle to control the expansion of the exhaust.

Looking along the leading edge of the starboard wing from below the engines.

On the side of the engine mounts is this plague for the four Rolls Royce-Snecma Olympus 593 powerplants. The Rolls-Royce/Snecma Olympus engines that are fitted to Concorde are a highly developed version of the Bristol-Siddeley Olympus that was fitted to the Vulcan bomber, which generated 11,000Lbs of thrust. Roll-Royce provided the development of the Olympus engines while SNECMA developed the exhaust and reheat system. On the prototypes this powerplant system was upgraded to generate 33,000Lbs of thrust and by the time it was fitted to the production aircraft, 38,050Lbs were available.

The two main undercarriage bogies are 25’ 4” apart. Like most airliners, Concorde has anti-skid braking – a system which prevents the tyres from losing traction when the brakes are applied for greater control during roll-out. The brakes, developed by Dunlop, were the first carbon-based brakes used on an airliner. The use of carbon over equivalent steel brakes provided a weight-saving of 1,200 lb (540 kg). Each wheel has multiple discs which are cooled by electric fans. Wheel sensors include brake overload, brake temperature, and tyre deflation. The main undercarriage units swing towards each other to be stowed but due to their great height also needed to contract in length telescopically before swinging to clear each other when stowed.

Looking back along the starboard leading edge giving an idea of the shape of it. When flying at Mach 2 the leading edge would reach a temperature of 105 degrees Centigrade, only the nose would get hotter at 127 degrees.

Concorde's drooping nose, developed by Marshall's of Cambridge, enabled the aircraft to switch from being streamlined to reduce drag and achieve optimal aerodynamic efficiency during flight, to not obstructing the pilot's view during taxi, take-off, and landing operations. Due to the high angle of attack, the long pointed nose obstructed the view and necessitated the ability to droop. The droop nose was accompanied by a moving visor that retracted into the nose prior to being lowered. When the nose was raised to horizontal, the visor would rise in front of the cockpit windscreen for aerodynamic streamlining. This photo shows a Concorde in its landing configuration https://www.jules-merlin27.com/Aircraft/Concorde-Finale-at-Edinburgh-A/i-XJCD75g/A This is a close up of the nose fully drooped https://www.jules-merlin27.com/Aircraft/Concorde-Finale-at-Edinburgh-A/i-B8wcPbL/A