What did Concorde feel like?

Calvert: Flying Concorde involved a mixture of emotions. As an airplane it just felt right. You got an exhilarating feeling, which was very exciting. You almost wanted to be flying it and looking at it from the outside at the same time because you felt so grand in it.



People Also Ask

flying on the Concorde was not a comfortable experience. this ultra fast supersonic jet. was once revered as the future of business travel, but its interior felt more like flying in a shoebox.

MORE DETAILS

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.

MORE DETAILS

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.

MORE DETAILS

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.

MORE DETAILS

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.

MORE DETAILS

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.

MORE DETAILS

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.

MORE DETAILS

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.

MORE DETAILS

The challenges of manufacturing and certifying new parts, maintaining a licensed flight crew capable of flying it, and ongoing maintenance and preservation mean we are no closer to seeing Concorde flying again since its last flight in 2003.

MORE DETAILS

Concorde was also popular with the Queen and celebrities. Joan Collins travelled with the aircraft so frequently that she became something of an ambassador for the service. Other notable passengers included Elton John, Mick Jagger, Elizabeth Taylor and Sean Connery.

MORE DETAILS

BA never suffered a serious accident with its seven strong fleet. Concorde service was profitable by the late 1980s and if not for the economic downturn and Air France Concorde crash of 2000, may have survived to this day.

MORE DETAILS

The Concorde Fleet - Breakdown of each air frame built “When you take off from New York in the dark, and see the sun rise in the west, you know you are doing something slightly different.” Between 1966 and 1979, a total of 20 Concordes were built, 10 of these were built in Britain and 10 in France.

MORE DETAILS

Afterburning was added to Concorde for take-off to cope with weight increases that came after the initial design. It was also used to accelerate through the high-drag transonic speed range, not because the extra thrust was required, but because it was available and improved the operating economics.

MORE DETAILS

And the jet pilots don't feel a sonic boom from the cockpit, just as passengers on a boat don't feel the effects of the wake behind them, she added.

MORE DETAILS