Concorde: Queen of the Sky (FULL MOVIE)

[Music] [Music] [Music] concorde first flew in 1969 30 years later she was still the world's only supersonic airliner there had been many rivals to her crown but they quickly faded 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 concorde'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 mach 1. but in the early days the sounds barrier of mach 1 was a mystery no one knew quite what would happen as an aircraft approached mach 1. 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 messerschmitt 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 france [Music] one of the first british aircraft to benefit from this research was the hanley page victor which first flew on christmas eve 1952 the victor had a swept wing shaped like a crescent this compound swept wing was designed to delay compressibility effects up to high subsonic speed although a victor did on one occasion and unofficially fly supersonic another development was the delta wing which first appeared on the avro vulcan bomber with its four powerful turbo jets the vulcan first flew in august 1952 nearly two decades before concorde 1954 was the year when british test pilot roland b beamont exceeded the speed of sound in the new ultra fast english electric lightning two years later another britain test pilot peter twiss set a new world record of more than 1800 kilometers per hour his fairy delta ii experimental jet with its wing swept at 60 degrees also sported the first group snoot to improve forward view at takeoff and landing [Music] experience led to even smarter designs the saab drachen featured a very distinctive wing it was a cranked double delta shape its outer section swept at 80 degrees the french two were busy with delta wings the mirage three proved highly successful its maker dasso liaised with fairy to develop an even smarter wing for the mirage 3a it reached mach 2.2 as early as october 1958 [Music] the mirage 4 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 durango 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 sartre its designer also masterminded another great success the caraval airliner later on he worked on concourse 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 hanley page 115 was another strange-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 concorde [Music] one of the problems of supersonic flight was the effect of heating on the aircraft's structure the bristol 188 was built to test the kinetic effects of supersonic flight [Music] late in november 1962 france and britain signed a deal to develop a civil supersonic aircraft together it led to lengthy negotiations there'd 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 sudhavacion and bac would build the airframe bristol sydney later to become rolls royce and snecma 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 lockheed planned an sst that would fly 150 people at 3 000 kilometers per hour and boeing launched a program to develop an sst that was just as fast but big enough for 250 people and built in titanium four general electric engines would produce 23 tons of thrust [Music] 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 ground research laboratories investigated fuels lubricants paint plastics metals 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-to-metal bonding techniques were developed at its peak europe's sst research involved 600 companies and nearly 200 000 skilled 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 2-2-1 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 an o g 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 bed another vital factor for the new sst would be its power plants a supersonic version of the bristol olympus engine had been developed for britain's new and advanced bomber the tsr-2 but defense cuts in the mid-1960s scrapped this highly promising new bomber luckily its engine proved the ideal basis for developing an even more powerful olympus for the sst [Music] meanwhile wind tunnel tests helped to define the new airliner's optimum shape the aerodynamic behavior of the new og wing looked promising vortex patterns in the wind tunnel confirmed the wing's potential these trials worked out the effects of different angles of attack on airflow across the wing they also helped to define the position of the aircraft's engine nozzles all four engines would need free unhindered airflow at all speeds to work efficiently sudaviacion in france focused on parts of the structure shown here in yellow many of these parts would be made on the first numerically controlled milling machines in europe again the sst was lifting europe's technology to new heights [Music] nearly 20 000 test cycles proved the strength of concord's landing gear which was designed in france a full-scale mock-up was built to help 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's 240 kilometers 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 mock-up of the flight deck as well to help confirm the radical new drooping nose would work in practice this droops newt 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 sud aviacion's works in toulouse structures also suffered massive extremes of heating and cooling in test chambers they helped work out the new airliners expected fatigue life [Music] rear fuselage sections and the tail fin were built at bac's workshops in britain units were shipped to and from toulouse and bristol to give each country its own final assembly line each centre 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 bomber [Music] 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 dust were needed in the intakes to feed the olympus with smooth air at subsonic speed a whole new design of exhaust nozzle was required to ensure the massive thrust of the olympus was used most efficiently this pioneering design worked almost perfectly it also carried special ducts called buckets to provide reverse thrust to slow the aircraft after landing [Music] 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 sights on roads around bristol and toulouse royal air force belfast transports were recruited to airlift sub-assemblies [Music] 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 toulouse in december 1967 but the rollout in december 1967 was perhaps the most emotional moment for the first time we saw the aircraft in its entirety without scaffolding painted and we could appreciate its true size outside the hangar 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 concorde also had a rival it came in the surprisingly familiar shape of the tupolov tu144 from the other side of the iron curtain at once it gained the name konkordski 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 mach 2.2 and to fly that little bit further as far as six and a half thousand kilometers [Music] 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 anglo-french project [Music] much more threatening competition came from another direction for in the same year that concord made its first flight another distinctive shape took to the sky boeing's giant newcomer the 747 soon made its presence felt concorde'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 concorde was far ahead of the big boeing and far faster by march 1969 concorde was cleared for takeoff at last at 1500 hours on march the 2nd 1969 in toulouse chief test pilot andre turka released the breaks of prototype 001 with engines on full reheat power they made a thunderous glorious noise with the whole world watching concord 001 and the hopes of a new europe took to the air kept the undercarriage down for this first slow but vital flight the flight deck every last detail of the prototype's performance was monitored and locked [Music] 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 turcar's name rang around the 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 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 9 1969 and concourse zero zero two is ready for her maiden flight from bac's airfield at filter as in concord 0-001 no passenger seats but 12 tons of flight test equipment today the six-man crew was led by brian trumpshaw director and general manager flight operations bac filter together with his co-pilot john cochran of thousands of people concerned with the production of zero zero two 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 [Applause] 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 airspeed in the 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 you it's working unfortunately it was and off we went concord 002 is clear take off and good luck gentlemen fingers crossed full power and reheat at this point brian trumpshaw decided to turn a high-speed taxi run into a first flight obviously the isi is all right [Music] well on an airplane where the pilot's eyes are very high off the ground when you when the main wheels touch you need to be aware of the height quite accurately and you use radio altimeters for the last say hundred feet or so uh and they're called out either by the co-pilot or the flight engineer in the case of the concorde and we were denied their very accurate information on our first flight because they both failed during the flight from filton to fairford it wasn't too bad i think we i think we arrived about a quarter of a second earlier after a 22-minute flight concord 002 landed safely at the royal air force airfield at fairford in gloucestershire the 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 sudaviacio in the knowledge that the british-built concorde flew just five weeks after her sister 001 and that two concords are now flying brian trumpshaw said the flight was cool calm and collected and that the crew enjoyed it immensely [Music] now with two prototypes flying development work could press ahead twice as quickly at farnborough a full-sized test aircraft was already well into intensive trials its job was to soak up all the structural punishment a real concorde could expect in one and a half lifetimes in service at toulouse a similar airframe underwent a gruelling 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 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 attack for different mach numbers engineers gave each prototype a thorough check after every flight pre-flight preparation too had to be rigorous nothing could be left to chance or [Music] improvisation each concorde was a flying laboratory crammed with instrumentation and measuring equipment they bought 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 airspeeds it proved impressively easy to fly flight trials continue the pace within just six months each prototype had logged 120 hours of flying this was good going for a pioneering high-tech project of such complexity [Music] 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 but for different reasons because we were worried about the possible effects of an engine cut out or the cut out of two the americans had many a problem in this field their bomber b-58 hustler had crashed several times at mach 2 and had had accidents due to engine breakdown you had to operate the airplane to get the maximum range obviously and and so doing it meant that you operated the engine as near to what's called the surge line as you did and getting the margins correct which meant tinkering with the with the in 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 mach 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 for these men flying at twice the speed of sound is part of the daily routine [Music] about 350 miles an hour or slightly faster than the muscle velocity of a 303 rifle bullet [Music] mach 2 is now routine 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 and 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 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 and approach speeds [Music] patiently tests of the two prototypes opened up concorde'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 concorde 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 into normal approach patterns were essential then concord began to make international flights its first was the dakar in senegal [Music] concord also became a new favorite at air shows and demonstrations officials from many leading airlines took their turns to visit to look to see to fly they were impressed by concord in so many ways [Music] but one big concern still remained concourse range then after this flight to dakar we thought that the best destination for the aircraft was the aerospaceal route to south america to rio de janeiro sao paulo but the prototype didn't have that kind of range and couldn't cross the atlantic not even the south atlantic atlantic we stopped off in the cape verde so as to shorten the south atlantic crossing and from there flew to cayenne we flew what i would call almost a sea route over the virgin amazon rainforest to rio de janeiro and sao paulo [Music] but then to the immense relief of concord's builders the first deals were signed british airways ordered five concordes and air france 4 by 1970 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 air espacial continued to fly concorde 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 mech2 is going to mean to intercontinental travel [Music] 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 boom and its emissions in the united states boeing realized that the problems of noise pollution and pure economics were compelling reasons to abandon its sst program privately boeing officials admitted their design still carried major technical problems that threatened its promised range and payload he was just too ambitious to become a 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 593s 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 toulouse and filton new enormous transport aircraft called guppies helped move large concord sub-assemblies between factories in britain and france [Music] 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 spray [Music] engines and airframes alike had to show they'd worked reliably at extremes of heat and cold here at fairbanks alaska concorde proved perfect at temperatures as low as -45 degrees centigrade things change below -30 degrees 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 they were minor problems after having abandoned the aircraft for 36 hours that was the rule for 36 hours at -45 we returned the first problem was getting into the aircraft the door was stuck then the second problem 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 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 two 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 conditions [Music] in warmer climes concorde flew its proud flag on the pacific coast and in mexico where prototype double o2 won a tremendous reception at mexico city's airport 2000 meters 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'd back down from developing a competitor to concord their nervousness was understandable prototype double o2 flew the world anchorage and los angeles were just two airports of call in south america the intense global sales effort went on [Music] in 1975 with concord now in the production phase the whole program got another big lift concorde received its full certificate for their worthiness [Music] at last concord was cleared to enter service and to carry fair paying passengers two cabins accommodated a hundred passengers served by two galleys travel agents were overwhelmed with applications for tickets high prices typically 20 above subsonic first class fares 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 dakar in senegal made it an ideal airport for training airline crews takeoff after takeoff proved the point that concorde's makers had stressed right from the start that concorde would be just another easy aircraft to fly easy to fit into airport arrival and departure schedules [Music] and then early in 1976 concorde's big moment finally arrived its first scheduled 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 complete with a special concord stand after intense lobbying by britain and france the u.s agreed concords could land at washington and from november 1977 the u.s cleared concourse to use new york airport too 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 concorde's much-wanted russian rival was running into bumpy weather crewed by comparison the tu-144s airframe and systems couldn't easily cope with flight at mark ii 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 erroflot service flying the mail konkordski quickly 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 concorde now stood alone the undisputed world leader [Music] concord schedule 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 concorde 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 perfect [Music] 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 concorde's sonic boom meant it could not fly supersonically over most countries restricting its usefulness to roots over oceans compared with more modern airliners concorde 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 when the air france and british airways put concords into service [Music] concord's public loved every moment the sleek airline and stole the show every time it appeared in toulouse the world celebrated the 20th anniversary of concorde's first flight with true french flair 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 trumpshaw celebrated again with his french counterpart andrei toka [Music] 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 island is remarkably intelligent this aircraft can fly at high speed at high temperatures it climbs fast it loses height smoothly we did our best so on the whole it surprised me [Music] i think the concord is a wonderful example of what you can achieve sometimes in spite of politicians if you really mean to i mean nobody nobody thought that such a complex project could be made to work the way concord 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 interfered 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 an airbus industry has become and will always be a great competitor to the american aircraft industry which up to the arrival of the airbus industry was dominating rarely all of the civil worlds 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 charles de gaulle airport outside paris crashed there were no survivors debris on the runway had caused a puncture but as the tyre disintegrated it ruptured a fuel tank engulfing the port side in a catastrophic firewall 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 concord 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 [Music] but by now the world's airlines were facing financial crisis following a downturn in passenger numbers that not even concorde could change after barely 18 months the painful decision was made concorde was to be grounded this time for good on october the 24th 2003 concorde lifted off the runway at john f kennedy airport new york for the last time thousands gathered at heathrow to greet her and two other eggs in the weeks that followed the fleet was dispersed with the aircraft going to museums the most poignant delivery flight was concorde's homecoming on november the 26th to filter near bristol from where the british part of the concord story began so many years ago [Music] you

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Id: fopQCCtQS-c

Length: 51min 15sec (3075 seconds)

Published: Mon Nov 30 2020