Concorde-End of An Era

[Music] [Music] Concord first flew in 1969 30 years later she was still the world's only supersonic airliner there had been many rival V to her crown but they quickly faded [Music] away and despite her age she never failed to win new admirers it was not just her awesome speed but also her elegant purposeful lines that stirred so many Souls but concord's Beauty was not the result of an artist's fertile imagination but years of diligent scientific study and research that pushed back the boundaries of our understanding of flight today's airliners have a Mac meter on the flight deck showing the aircraft speed compared with the speed of sound or Mac 1 but in the early days the sound barrier of Mac 1 was a mystery no one knew quite what would happen as an aircraft approached Maan early trials gave some ideas they showed that as an aircraft nears the Speed of Sound Shock waves develop at the leading edges of the structure the thin boundary layer of air is heavily compressed drag increases control surfaces can vibrate madly the whole aircraft could become unstable and even break up in order to fly faster than the speed of sound aircraft would need to be designed with a completely new Wing shape that delayed the effects of air compressibility much of the early Research into aerodynamics was carried out in Germany during the second world war one of the fruits of their work was the messes Schmid me262 which apart from being the world's first jet fighter had a gently swept Wing after the war many of the German scientists found new employment in America Britain and [Music] France one of the first British aircraft to benefit from this research was the Handley page Victor which first flew on Christmas Eve 1952 the Victor had a sweat Wing shaped like a cresant this compound swept Wing was designed to delay compressibility effects up to high subsonic speed although EV Victor did on one occasion and unofficially fly [Music] supersonic another development was the delta wing which first appeared on the afro Vulcan bomber with its four powerful turbo Jets the Vulcan first flew in August 1952 nearly two decades before Concord 1954 was the year when British test pilot Roland B bont exceeded the speed of sound in the new Ultra fast English electric [Music] lightning 2 years later another Britain test pilot Peter twis set a new world record of more than 1,800 kmph his fairy Delta 2 experiment jet with its wing swept at 60° also sported the first droop snoot to improve forward View at takeoff and Landing experience led to even smarter designs the sa draon featured a very distinctive wing it was a cranked double Delta shape its outer section swept at 80° the French too were busy with Delta wind The Mirage 3 proved highly successful its maker daso liased with fairy to develop an even smarter wing for the Mirage 3A it reached Mark 2.2 as early as October [Music] 1958 The Mirage fall was intended to be a light bomber and was designed to fly at twice the speed of sound it was also stable at much lower subsonic speeds another bold French design was the Durand an experimental supersonic jet its shape was designed to fit inside the shock wave from its nose intake Its Behavior in the air made its Pilots call it the flying slab Pierre SRA its designer also master another great success the caravel airliner later on he worked on concord's development in April 1960 France began its first studies for a future supersonic airliner seen here in its wind tunnel testing meanwhile in Britain aerodynamic research continued the handle page 115 was another Strang looking but even more useful experimental design designers needed to gain clear practical knowledge of how high-speed Delta airliners would fly at low speed so this low speed research plane with a wing that could be fitted with leading edges of different sweep proved crucial in the development of [Music] Concord one of the problems of SuperSonic flight was the effect of heating on the aircraft structure the Bristol 188 was built to test the kinetic effects of SuperSonic [Music] flight late in November 1962 France and Britain signed a deal to develop a civil supersonic aircraft together it led to lengthy negotiations there' never been such a big development deal between two different countries with two very different traditions in the end they agreed on details of who would undertake design development and production and there was no cancellation Clause four leading aerospace companies would handle the program suda and BAC would build the airframe Bristol sidley later to become Rolls-Royce and snma of France would develop its Mighty Olympus engines meanwhile the Americans didn't want to be left behind they too proposed new supersonic transports or ssts loed planned an SST that would fly 150 people at 3,000 km hour and Boeing launched a program to develop an SST that was just as fast but big enough for 250 people and built in tanium four General Electric engines would produce 23 tons of [Music] thrust but these were only proposals in Europe a real program was now underway development of Europe's first SST needed to cover much new technical grounds Research Laboratories investigated fuels lubricants paint Plastics metal materials and hundreds of other challenges materials for the new plane structure were put through intensive trials for 24 hours a day over 18 months the effects of heat and pressure on new adhesives were another priority new metal toetal bonding techniques were developed at its peak Europe's SST research involved 600 companies and nearly 200,000 skill bu workers on both sides of the English Channel for the two Nations it had become a new and exciting challenge another experimental aircraft that played a major part in SST research was this Bristol 221 it was a rebuilt version of the fairy Delta 2 record holder its job was to confirm the high-speed behavior of a new refined type of delta wing called the o Wing in theory this type of wing could give the new SST the range and payload it needed in practice the only way to find out for sure was to build a flying test [Music] bed another vital factor for the new SST would be its power class a supersonic version of the Bristol Olympus engine had been developed for Britain's new and advanced bomber the tsr2 but defense Cuts in the mid 1960s scrapped this highly promising new bomma luckily its engine proved the ideal basis for developing an even more powerful Olympus for the [Music] SST [Music] meanwhile wind tunnel test helped to define the new airliner Optimum shape the aerodynamic behavior of the new OG Wing looked promising Vortex patterns in the Wind Tunnel confirmed the Wing's potential [Music] these trials worked out the effects of different angles of attack on air flow across the wing they also helped to define the position of the aircraft's engine nozzles all four engines would need free unhindered air flow at all speeds to work efficiently sud AV in France focused on parts of the structure shown here in yellow many of these paths would be made on the first numerically controlled Milling machines in Europe again the SST was lifting Europe's technology to new [Music] heights nearly 20,000 test Cycles proved the strength of concord's landing gear which was designed in France a full-scale mockup was built to help conf confirm the shape and fit of all the sst's components in the days before electronic design on screen this was the only way to make sure the airliner 240 km of electric wiring would fit and function properly sections shown here in red were the task of BAC the British aircraft Corporation BAC Engineers built a mockup of the flight deck as as well to help confirm the radical new drooping nose would work in practice this droop snoot was essential to give the flight crew enough forward Vision at takeoff and Landing all major structural items went through highly intensive fatigue tests here we can see how a forward fuselage section was immersed and pressurized at s avion's Works into Clues structures also suffered massive extremes of Heating and Cooling in test Chambers they helped work out the new airliners expected fatigue life rear fuselage sections and the tail fin were built at bac's workshops in Britain units were shipped to and from tulo and Bristol to give each country its own final assembly line each Center became a source of extreme national pride one of the biggest challenges of all was the development of power plants after four hard years of research development and ground trials the first Olympus 593 was test flown in a converted Vulcan [Music] bomber like all jet engines the Olympus could only work efficiently when it received air flowing at subsonic speeds so for flight at twice the speed of sound a complex system of Inlet doors and Ducks were needed in the intakes to feed the Olympus with smooth Air at subsonic [Music] speed a whole new design of exhaust nozzle was required to ensure the massive thrust of the Olympus was used most efficiently this Pine ering design worked almost [Music] perfectly it also carried special ducts called buckets to provide reverse thrust to slow the aircraft after [Music] landing final assembly of the prototypes of Europe's SST now named Concord began in April 1966 major sub assemblies travels between plants in the two countries by Air Road and ship often on specially designed trailers wide loads became familiar sites on roads around Bristol and too Royal Air Force Belfast transports were recruited to Airlift subassemblies at both final assembly plants the new SST came together with the highest standards of accuracy tolerances were tighter than ever before at last the two prototypes neared completion the Sleek new pride of France and Britain made its first appearance at too in December 1967 but the roll out in December 1967 was perhaps the most emotional moment for me for the first time we saw the aircraft in its entirety without scaffolding painted and we could appreciate its true size outside the hangout and it was at that moment that its beauty although it was to be further perfected in production aircraft impressed us all and I think the same is true for all the different flight Crews that were to be responsible for flying this aircraft which was the fruit of millions of hours of work but Concord also had a rival it came in a surprisingly familiar shape of the tupalo TU 144 from the other side of the Iron Curtain at once it gained the name concordski this was the Cold War and Russia was desperate to go one better than its European Rivals so the TU 144 was designed to fly marginally faster than Concord at that Mark 2.2 and to fly that little bit further as far as 62,000 km the Russians even scored by getting the 144 Airborne before Concord but that was about the only time concordski ever edged in front of the angl French project much more threatening competition came from another direction for in the same year that Concord made its first flight another distinct ative shape took to the sky Boeing's giant newcomer the 747 soon made its presence felt concord's makers watched with concern as Britain's own National Airline boac became one of the 747s launch customers Boeing's rivalry with Europe's Aerospace industry grew even more intense but technologically Concord was far ahead of the Big Boing and far Faster by March 1969 Concord was cleared for takeoff at last at 1500 hours on March the 2nd 1969 in Tulu Chief test pilot Andre Turka released the brakes of prototype1 with then on full reheat power they made a thunderous glorious noise with the whole world watching Concord o1 and the hopes of a new Europe took to the air TOA kept the undercarriage down for this first slow but vital flight on the flight deck every every last detail of the prototype's performance was monitored and logged it proved a perfect first flight the world's most advanced most exciting aircraft had flown at last it made a perfect Landing From This Moment On Andre to car's name rang around the [Music] world but that aircraft had fixed geometry air intakes the air intakes were to direct Inlet air towards the engines and reduce its speed from supersonic to subsonic [Music] the intake regulation systems were not yet ready and we had to fly with fixed inlets which reduced the scope of our tests it's April the 9th 1969 and Concord 002 is ready for her maiden flight from bac's Airfield at philon as in Concord 001 no passenger seats but 12 tons of flight test equipment today the six-man crew was led by Brian trubshaw director and general manager flight operations BAC filon together with his co-pilot John cochr of thousands of people concerned with the production of 002 few have awaited this moment more eagerly than those whose job it is to finally prove the aircraft in the air the flight test crew the great day was interesting to put it my way I'm very excited because we'd had two days of frustration with the failure flag on the um first Pilot's air speed indic popping up every time we did a taxi run up above uh 80 knots and after about the third go to fix it I said to the the engineers and the designers well if it works this time we'll we'll go we're not going to come back and tell her it's working unfortunate it was and off we went Concord 02 is clear take off and good luck gentlemen fingers crossed full power and reheat at this point Brian Traw decided to turn a high-speed taxi run into a first flight [Music] hey so obviously the ASI is all [Music] [Music] right 402 a fa technique Roger understand what control clear two you're clear to Lear from this approach well on an airplane where the Pilot's eyes are um very high off the ground when you when the main Wheels touch you need to uh be aware of the heights uh quite accurately and you use radio altimeters for the last say 100 ft or so uh and they're called out either by the co-pilot or the flight engineer in the case of the conord and we were denied their their accurate information on our first flight CU they both failed during the flight from filton to fford it wasn't too bad I think we I think we arrived about a quarter of a second early after a 22-minute flight Concord 002 landed safely at the Royal Air Force Airfield at fairford in gloustershire British base for Concord flight operations after years of careful study and dedicated attention to detail here was another thrilling and rewarding climax for the thousands of men and women working in the factories of British aircraft Corporation and sud avas in the knowledge that the British built Concord flew just 5 weeks after her sister 001 and that two Concords are now flying Brian Traw said the flight was cool calm and collected and that the crew enjoyed it immensely now with two prototypes flying development work could press ahead twice as quickly at farra a full-size test aircraft was already well into intensive trials its job was to soak up all the structural punishment a real Concord could expect in one and a half lifetimes in service at to lose a simp SAR airframe underwent a gurling series of static tests to simulate the effects of extreme heating Concord was entering new territory tests were crucial to the program's success fatigue tests showed the structure could stand up to massive stresses they also proved its ability to cope with repeated Heating and Cooling during supersonic flights landing gear showed it could withstand heavy [Music] overloads concord's fuel tanks were designed to help trim the aircraft at different stages of flight fuel could be pumped from one tank to another to adjust the trim to just the right angle of a tank for different Mac [Music] numbers Engineers gave each prototype a thorough check after every flight pre-flight preparation too had to be rigorous nothing could be left a chance or [Music] improvisation each Concord was a flying laboratory crammed with instrumentation and measuring equipment they brought more knowledge and more confidence with every flight Airborne tests proved this big new airliner could fly almost like a fighter it was responsive hugely powerful and fast even at low air speeds it proved impressively easy to fly flight trials continue to Pace within just 6 months each prototype had logged 120 hours of flying this was good going for a pioneering high-tech project with such [Music] [Music] complexity vibration tests had opened new Vistas in terms of pure speed now we had to increase speed and with the variable geometry air intake systems during the 1970s we were to make progress with great Prudence but for different reasons because we were worried about the possible effects of an engine cutout or the cutout of two the Americans had had many a problem in this field their bomber b-58 Hustler had crashed several times at Mac 2 and had had accidents due to engine breakdown to operate the airlane to get the maximum range and and and so doing it meant that you operated the engine as near to what's called The Surge line as you Dar and getting the margins correct which meant tinkering with the with the int the intake uh was quite a drawn out performance and it went on right through the whole development program so we went carefully step by step and were pleasantly surprised to find that aircraft handling was good up to Mac 2 and that even with two engines out on the same side the pilot still had several seconds which is a long time you know to regain control of the aircraft to these men flying at twice the speed of sound is part of the daily [Music] routine ma 2 about 1350 mph or slightly faster than the muscle velocity of a 303 rifle [Music] bullet Mac 2 is now routine if then we were not only concerned to test fly at high speeds but also at low speeds to allow for Landings under normal conditions in other words landing at higher angles of attack than would ever be used by normal aircraft these were exciting tests first we tested straight Landings then simulating a sudden obstacle in the line of approach another aircraft crossing our path for example simulating avoidance techniques so we tested increasingly violent Maneuvers at different approach speeds and increasingly brutal avoidance Maneuvers and then we decided to push the aircraft to its limits with the most violent maneuver possible and I saw the angle dial increase we had a small indicator of angle of attack and the needle began spin spinning like a ventilator and I realized that we would have to react quickly if we were not to put the aircraft at risk the aircraft responded well we had gone far beyond the conditions for which the design office had guaranteed the safety of the aircraft all we had to do was to develop a better safety system so that today it is impossible for the pilot to go beyond certain danger limits even if his avoidance measures are violent at approach speeds steadily patiently tests of the two prototypes opened up concord's flight envelope speed and height proved to be relatively easy parts of the design to achieve but a third Factor range was just as important for without enough Range Concord could never enter service to carry airline passengers Concord also had to fit in with conventional much slower aircraft its speed of approach to airports and its ability to fit in to normal approach patterns were essential then Concord began to make international flights its first was to Dear in Sagal Concord also became a new favorite at air shows and demonstrations officials from many leading Airlines took their turn to visit to look to see to fly they were impressed by Concord in so many [Music] ways but one big concern Still Remains concord's range then after this flight to Dakar we thought that the best destination for the aircraft was the aerospatial route to South America to Rio De Janeiro sa Paulo but the Prototype didn't have that kind of range and couldn't cross the Atlantic not even the South Atlantic so we stopped off in the cap Islands so as to shorten the South Atlantic Crossing and from there flew to cayen and from cayen we flew what I would call almost a sea route over the Virgin Amazon rainforest to Rio Deano and sou Pao but then to the immense relief of concord's Builders the first deals were signed British Airways ordered five Concords and Air France four by 1970s standards the asking price of $31 million was immense rival Airlines backed off although some like China's national airline continued to show interest in theory the world's Airlines still held options for more than 70 Concords BAC and aerospatial continued to fly Concord around the world the whole world wanted to see this remarkable new aircraft 002 has done its share of VIP flights Australian government Representatives go aboard to learn at firsthand what Mech 2 is going to mean to Intercontinental travel Australia though also saw some of the early protests against supersonic transport people were starting to get worried about its noise its heavy fuel consumption its Sonic Boo and its emissions in the United States Boeing realized that the problems of noise pollution and pure economics were compelling reasons to abandon from its SST program privately Boeing officials admitted their design still carried major technical problems that threatened his promised range on payload it was just too ambitious to become a [Music] reality meanwhile the Concord program cruised on Britain and France together agreed to build 16 production standard aircraft these were bigger and more capable than the four prototype and pre-production models power plants too were improving by now Olympus 593 were virtually smoke free and highly reliable even at the continuous full power rating required for cruising at twice the speed of sound production moved into Top Gear at too and filton new enormous Transport Aircraft called Guppies helped move large Concord subassemblies between factories in Britain and France before Concord could earn its ticket to enter Airline service still more trials were needed water ingestion tests on the Olympus engines showed that the world's most powerful turbo Jets could cope with huge amounts of rain and [Music] spray [Music] engines and airframes alike had to show they'd work reliably at extremes of heat and cold here at Fairbanks Alaska Concord proved perfect at temperatures as low as -45° C things change below -30° you can't just go around as before you have to be protected constantly your nose your ears Etc then there were small problems with the aircraft but there were minor problems after having abandoned the aircraft for 36 hours that was the rule for 36 hours atus 45 we returned the first problem was getting into the aircraft the door was stuck then the second problem in inside the cockpit the temperature was - 27 but in the end we were going to have to welcome passengers on board and we couldn't welcome them at - 27 second test heating the [Music] cabin we had to make a last minute change we couldn't tow the aircraft as a plug had been put into the hole where the hook goes and we couldn't get it out we had to blow hot air onto it for 2 hours before being able to pull it out making the original hole just a bit bigger allowed us to solve the only real problem we had under freezing [Music] conditions in warmer climbs Concord flew its proud flag on the Pacific coast and in Mexico where prototype2 won a tremendous reception at Mexico City's airport 2,000 m above sea level Concord coped easily with the Heat and the thin air the sst's reception in San Francisco was more nervous Americans could reach the moon but they backed down from developing a competitor to Concord their nervousness was understandable prototype2 flew the World Anchorage and Los Angeles were just two airports of Co in South America the intense Global sales effort went [Music] on in 1975 with Concord now in the production phase the whole program got another big Lift Concord received its full certificate of airworthiness at last Concord was cleared to enter service and to carry fair paying passengers two cabins accommodated 100 passengers served by two ganes travel agents were overwhelmed with applications for tickets high prices typically 20% above subsonic first class fairs didn't put people off imminent arrival in Airline service also bought a new phase of crew training for airline Personnel the clear air and steady weather of Dhaka in Sagal made it an ideal airport for training Airline Crews takeoff after take take proved the point that concord's makers had stressed right one start that Concord would be just another easy aircraft to fly easy to fit into Airport arrival and departure schedules and then early in 1976 concord's big moment finally arrived its first schedule FL flights with Fair paying passengers two production aircraft took off simultaneously one from Paris one from London it was a double moment of trial a new era in Air transport a tremendous success for its designers and for technology one was bound for Bahrain the other to Rio De Janeiro supersonic flight now became an everyday event for passengers complet with a special Concord sta after intense lobbying by Britain and France the US agreed Concords could land at Washington and from November 1977 the US cleared Concourse to use New York airport 2 and so began a transatlantic success story that was to run for 25 years Concord supersonic flights soon became routine reliability punctuality and above all speed proved just what the top of the market demanded meanwhile concord's much wanted Russian rival was running into bumpy weather crude by comparison the TU 144s airframe and systems couldn't easily cope with flight at Mark I worst of all its engines couldn't provide enough power for supersonic Crews without running continuously on reheat this meant their fuel consumption was enormously high in turn its range fell far short after a few token months in Russian national carrier era flot service flying the mail concordski quietly disappeared from the airline scene 12 production 144s were built but few entered service two pre-production aircraft also crashed Russia's entry in the supersonic transport race faded into disuse Concord now stood alone the Undisputed world [Music] leader Concord shedule Services became part of those airports daily routine although even the most seasoned Travelers and Spectators could never fail to feel a little excitement every time Concord flew but behind the scenes nothing was taken for granted pre-flight preparations were thorough and painstaking with passengers paying well above first class rates they expected everything to be [Music] perfect routine scheduled flights were just one aspect of concord's working life records were set such as enabling passengers to witness two sunrises in one day in another stunt she flew around the globe in just 32 hours but concord's Sonic Boom meant it could not fly supersonically over most countries restricting its usefulness to Roots over oceans compared with more modern airliners Concord was costly to keep flying it was an aircraft born of the 1960s when Aviation kerosene cost just a few cents a barrel and the fuel crisis of 1974 more or less put the brakes on any other sales of the aircraft so only Air France and British Airways put Concords into service [Music] concord's public loved every moment the Sleek airliner stole the show every time it appeared in tulo the world celebrated the 20th anniversary of concord's First Flight with true French flare an Air France Concord even got a special paint Scheme many of the program's outstanding leaders received their Ovation too Britain's Chief test pilot in the early days Brian trubshaw celebrated again with his French counterpart Andre [Music] toer so over the many years of design and development we tried to create an aircraft where the passengers would feel comfortable but where the pilot would feel happy too so now you must tell us what you think of this aircraft that we delivered to you on the 21st of January 1976 well I started flying it later but I must say that as far as I'm concerned it's an aircraft that surprised me it surprised me by the way it handled and by its quality in general it's an extremely sensitive aircraft its intelligence surprised me you spoke of the help you tried to give the pilot and in high altitude fight I must say that the automatic pilot is remarkably intelligent this aircraft can fly at high speed at high temperatures it climbs fast ites height smoothly we did our best so on the whole it surprised [Music] me I think the Concord is a wonderful example of what you can achieve uh sometimes in spite of politicians uh if you really mean to I mean nobody nobody thought that such a complex uh project could be made to work the way Concor has worked and it did work because nobody was going to allow it to be a failure I think everybody that was involved on both sides of the channel were tremendously proud to be in it and consequently they got on with the job every now and again somebody into inter feared at the top but it happens and it shows you what you can do but you have to have determination you have to see the other person's point of view sometimes you have to have a level of understanding but above all it's the determination that this is what you want the Concord has had a big bearing in my view on the very successful formation of Airbus industry and Airbus industry has become and we always be a great competitor to the American aircraft industry which up to the arrival of air buus industry was dominating really all of the uh civil world for nearly 30 years Concord enjoyed a relatively trouble-free life but on July the 25th 2000 tragedy struck an Air France Concord taking off from char g airport outside Paris crashed there were no survivors de on the runway had caused a puncher but as the tire disintegrated it ruptured a fuel tank engulfing the port side in a catastrophic farall the loss of life was tragic enough but the accident also resulted in a crisis of confidence in the aircraft the entire Concord fleet was grounded there were some who felt that maybe it was time to retire Concor after all she was 30 years old and other problems were beginning to appear but in the end it was decided to make the necessary modifications despite the enormous cost in November 2001 Concord returned to service but by now the world's Airlines were facing financial crisis following a downturn in passenger numbers that not even Concord could change change after barely 18 months the painful decision was made Concord was to be grounded this time for good on October the 24th 2003 Concord lifted off the Runway at John F Kennedy airports New York for the last [Music] time thousands gathered at Heathrow to greet her and two other [Music] a freeny apprach [Applause] in the weeks that followed the fleet was dispersed with the aircraft going to museums the most poignant delivery flight was concord's Homecoming on November the 26th to filon near Bristol from where the British part of the Concord story began so many years [Music] ago [Music] oh

Channel: The Brar's

Views: 43,558

Keywords: Concorde, Airplane, Video, History, Travel, Flying, Plane, Air France, British Airways, Jet, Airline, Luxury, Brar Films, 2012

Id: ZVhKZlxWEWs

Length: 50min 27sec (3027 seconds)

Published: Thu Aug 09 2012