Was Concorde a bumpy ride?

The Concorde, with a service ceiling of 60,000 feet, did have significantly less turbulence than other commercial aircraft that fly at lower altitudes - that high up and the air doesn't have the density needed to have much of a pronounced affect on the flight.



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The high temperatures also caused Concorde's titanium and steel skin to expand—the plane stretched as much as ten inches in length during flight. A specially developed white paint accommodated this stretching and dissipated the heat generated by supersonic speeds.

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Small cabin: Space was tight inside Concorde. The seating configuration was only four across with about 100 seats available per flight. There was little to differentiate between Business and First Class. Restricted view: Concorde's windows were much smaller than those on a normal passenger airplane.

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It is a common misconception that only one boom is generated during the subsonic to supersonic transition; rather, the boom is continuous along the boom carpet for the entire supersonic flight. As a former Concorde pilot puts it, You don't actually hear anything on board.

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Such speed didn't come cheap, though: A transatlantic flight required the high-maintenance aircraft to gulp jet fuel at the rate of one ton per seat, and the average round-trip price was $12,000.

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Its “droop nose,” designed so pilots could lower the front cone for better visibility during takeoff and landing, was disabled when the plane was decommissioned and drained of hydraulic fuel. Conservators and volunteers, however, are now working to reactivate the feature.

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Concorde is sadly no longer flying, but it is still possible to visit some of the remaining 18 airframes, there are others not open to the public but you can still see them.

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Technical, financial, and regulatory hurdles make a return to the skies extremely unlikely. Concorde is an aircraft that captures the imagination and is instantly recognizable even to non-aviation fanatics.

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The Concorde was famously loud: a take-off at Washington airport in 1977 measured 119.4 decibels. By comparison, a clap of thunder hits 120 decibels while the pain threshold for the human ear is around 110.

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Air France Flight 4590 was the Concord's only fatal accident in its 31-year history (no other commercial aircraft has matched that record). At the time, with a record of zero accidents per km traveled before the accident, the Concorde qualified as the safest airliner in the world.

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Concorde used the most powerful pure jet engines flying commercially. The Aircraft's four engines took advantage of what is known as 'reheat' technology, adding fuel to the final stage of the engine, which produced the extra power required for take-off and the transition to supersonic flight.

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Flying at Mach 2 – about 1,350mph – the Concorde could fly 100 passengers and a crew of nine from NYC to London in an average of three hours and 30 minutes.

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Bathroom: The smallest room on Concorde was also a squeeze. Su Marshall, who flew on the airplane, said she was advised by a regular passenger to go before takeoff as the size made it impossible to pee once in the air.

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Only 20 Concordes were ever built. The standard return fare from London to New York was £6,636 in 2003. Concorde guzzled a staggering 25,629 litres of fuel per hour. Over one million bottles of champagne have been consumed on Concorde passenger flights.

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Boom Supersonic, the US plane manufacturer, plans to have the answer with its new Overture jet, which is set to transport customers at twice the speed of today's fastest commercial aircraft, and is regarded as the new Concorde.

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Virgin may have been shut down by British Airways over 15 years ago, but Virgin Galactic and Boom Supersonic briefly had a deal to acquire the Overture, the manufacturer's supersonic flagship jet, dubbed 'the New Concorde.

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