Monday, April 11, 2011

Engineered to be the Best - Flew Above the Rest

The Manchester Aviation Viewing Park provides in equal measures runway side viewing of a relatively busy international airport, a cafe with screaming kids running around causing mayhem, and a static aviation park that hosts the first British Airways Concorde airliner housed in  a purpose built hangar.

Tours must be booked - we elected to go on the nerds special 45 minute certificated tour.

This is really rather special as one is allowed to feel the joystick (yoke) and fondle the volume controls (throttles) - reheat is preselected and cuts in when they reach 100%.

Something not found on an Airbus -  nose droop control  lever (aka droop snoot knob) - required because the vortex flow generated by Concorde's delta wing at high angles of attack reduces the forward visibility at take off and landing. Concorde does not need slats and flaps like an Airbus for take off and landing - the vortex flow acts like a giant Dyson vacuum cleaner and sucks  the 180 tonnes or so of aircraft into the air..
Captain Nikos' twin brother bites his lip as the tour guide John has his third nervous breakdown trying to answer impossible questions from a devout Concorde expert.
Manchester airport from the Concorde flight deck  - droop snoot down - obviously.
Hello good evening and welcome - David Frost once sat here commuting to New York from London  Interior redesign by Habitat  - small windows to peep through. Centre arm rests fold away and swivel by 180 degrees and depict speedbird motif (a BOAC thing) . Seatbelts have been stolen by a Liverpudlian visiting school party.
The paraffin dart - 202ft long when cold but due to supersonic compressive heating expanded by 1ft in supersonic cruise where it flew faster than a rifle bullet.
Previously never seen before top secret image from the Nikos World wind tunnel of an Airfix 1:144 model shows the pre Dyson vortex flow established as high angles of attack

Underneath the double delta wing - notice the camber that at high angle of attack allows the clean and stable formation of that  vortex flow that I keep banging on about


26 comments:

  1. In the history of man's technological progress, the grounding of Concorde is one of the very few examples of taking a step backwards. If the Americans can keep a fleet of B-52s flying - which will be nearly 100 years old before they are retired - surely we could have kept just two or three of these magnificent airplanes airworthy?

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  2. Dear Affarer and Nikos:

    Considering the B -52 is funded through the American military, I can assure you that that they will be flying, and pounding the shit out of evildoers, as long as there is $5 in a US bank. However, the cost of operating the Concorde was seldom offset by the airfares. Even id the planes flew full, at $12,000 to $14,000 (USD) per roundtrip ticket, it didn't put a denrt in the opreratig budget.

    In essence, the horrible crash of the Concorde was like the last flight of the Hindenberg. The most gracious form of travel, gone in a flash.

    Nice blog, Nikos.

    Fondest regards,
    Jack • reep • Toad
    Twisted Roads

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  3. Love the Concord, very proud of it. But shouldn't it have had variable-sweep wings, isn't that what people said?

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  4. I am tansfixed by the secret image. It looks like an abstract impression of a carwash.
    Sx

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  5. ..tRansfixed.
    Apologies, I am in Typo heaven at the moment.
    Sx

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  6. Affer

    Aren't we lucky that we did not pass them on the MoD for conversion to maritime patrol aircraft at a cost of £256Billion then cancel the contract when they were finished and then cut them up...

    TSR2
    Nimrod?

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  7. Dear Jack

    The french are always crashing aircraft - it's those long boozy lunches...

    Best regards from my local, N

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  8. My Dear Gadjo

    Well yes, variable geometry would be good for some American airliner that spends most of the time flying subsonically across environmentally mostly deserted countryside, but Boeing could not make it work with the 2707 project...just too heavy and Gerry Anderson like for it's own good!

    Yours aye

    Brains "Nikos" supermarionated as usual

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  9. Dear El D

    No, it is not a Greek fisherman's hat but a genuine Speedbird souvenir "I have control" BOAC Comet pilot's cap....according to my exactly identical twin brother

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  10. Dear Ms Scarlet in typo heathen

    I did not mention it before but, if you stare at that image from 10cm for 2 hours you can make out Greek mountain goats horns.

    That is so spooky!

    xsN

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  11. Once again, Niko, you're one step ahead of me - I'd no idea that the yanks had already tried this. Their eventual mock up of their proposed supersonic airliner looks like a Concorde, suggesting that our design was pretty much on the button. Wikipedia says that 'Concorde was operated profitably in a niche market for over 25 years', which pleased me.

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  12. Was a wonderful trip!! you shuld go there, too
    MRS Nikos

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  13. Concorde - that's a French name I guess, so was it a French plane? And that droopy snoot thing: is that because the French have big noses or because they've got droopy things?

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  14. Dear Gadjo

    No, I think that you are one step ahead of me! The picture that you link to is the 2707-300, whereas I was thinking of the -100 model.

    MIND YOU, the Yanks made the SR71/YF12A and that was painted black, made out of teflon and flew at Mach 3+

    best wishes and thanks for reading my kefetedes me domata salata, N

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  15. Dear Big Dog

    You are of course correct to point out that the French have big noses and are essentially "gay".

    Thanks for commenting, N

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  16. Mrs Nikos

    It's a real pity that I was terribly busy that day cleaning out the cat's dirt tray and that my identical twin brother Cosmote had to step in.

    xsN

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  17. Dear Captain Nikos, I am seething with jealousy in not being there. I did enter the one at Duxford on a return journey to the UK many moons ago but that didn't have many seats and was stuffed full of instruments.

    It was till an impressive, graceful aircraft though. I love planes - Dad was a scientist at RAE Thurleigh.

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  18. الحصول على اتصال دائم بي بعد مدة طويلة ثمن المقابلةبعد التحية صديقتي العزيزة وشكرا كثيرا في concordes هو زوج من الإب+ US$20 000000 بدون استخدام تتمتعون الثلاثاء تمنيات زوجته نيكوس تاجر خردة المشاهير

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  19. Dear Geoff

    You are better off in NZ, believe me!

    Thanks for commenting, N

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  20. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  21. جاءت أيضا. لا تنسوا لكمخبر بريان العاملةتبحثBrian Trubshaw عن وظيفة بالبطاقات

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  22. كما لا تمطر هنا. بريان Trubshaw من الإبل بقيمة عشرة.

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  23. من سباقات اليوم إليك ويساعد يؤديه الراحة والعمل

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  24. Great post! I'm not sure that I will ever have the opportunity to tour one of these. I was intrigued by the wind tunnel image...such clean airflow and tight vortices. Glad you were able to share the super secret images.

    -Lori

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