essential part in the control of the aircraft. Because approach
is made at high incidence the aircraft is "on the back of the drag curve," and auto-throttles are essential. There are no flaps on the Concorde, their function being performed by amgle-of-attack; but one characteristic that has had to be designed out is the lift effect of the elevons which tend to produce an initial reversal of control. Externally the most striking design consequence of the high angle-of-attack approach is the hinged nose. This gives the pilot a better view for landing, and performs a necessary function at the other end of the speed range by acting as a visor and protecting the windscreen glass from being melted in the supersonic cruise. The position of the engines keeps them well clear of the fuselage boundary layer, that flow of sluggish air close to the skin which has to be sucked off for good supersonic intake conditions, ' The^positioning of the engines is the only, major configuration difference between the Concorde and the Russian supersonic transport, t he designers of which presumably reckon that the penalties of a disturbed air intake are less than the penalties of assymetrie thrust in the event of an engine failure in the critical take-off case. POWERPLANT The Concorde' s engines are Rolls-Royce Bristol Olympus 593 two-spool turbojets of 38,3001b thrust each with reheat. Intro- duced into civil transport for the first time are not only reheat but variable-area air intakes and variable-area primary and
The Concorde is a fifty-fifty Anglo-French venture launched in November 1962. The prime contractors are British Aircraft Corporation and Sud Aviation (France) on the airframe, and Rolls-Royce and Snecma on the engines. Systems and components work is equally shared among hundreds of firms in the two countries. The programme is controlled by a joint governmental technical committee. secondary jet nozzles (see diagram). These are necessary to ensure that the engines are running at their optimum through- out the very wide range of pressures and temperatures imposed by the Concorde' s wide speed range. The intake is required to handle pressure differences of from 21b/sq in to 201b/sq in, and to reduce the speed of the air from Mach 2 to Mach 0.5 at the compressor inlets. A movable r amp inside the top of the intake mouth controls the shock-wave pattern at the front of the intake and the main 20ft diffuser section of the intake gets t he flow down to a speed acceptable to the engine. The compressor inlet pressure is higher than on subsonic engines, and inlet temperature also is higher120C compared with 20C for most subsonic engines. Other spill valves help to keep the flow optimum in all flight conditions. One, at the bottom of the diffuser section of intake, also doubles as a supplementary intake scoop on take-off. The very big intake-temperature range is the reason for the variable primary jet nozzle, which is the most efficient way of keeping the temperature of the engine within limits. It enables mass flow to be optimised for best fuel consumption in all flight conditions. The variable secondary nozzle keeps "afterbody" or base drag to a minimum. The operation of these variable intakes and nozzles is the responsibility of an automatic electronic control system, with something like 850 electronic components per powerplant, the heart of which is a duplicated air-data computer. This receives all the inputsnot only temperatures and pressures, but fuel flow and temperature, yaw, sideslip, roll, pitch and the many other variables which have to be matched for optimum engine performance. This is absolutely critical, because on the Con- corde there is a payload penalty of about 5 per cent for every 1 per cent increase in fuel consumption. The powerplant system could be managed by the flight engineer in an emergency, but he would have a full-time job, 3 REARWARD TRANSFER- TRANSONIC ACCELERATION FRONT TRiM TANKS MAIN TANKS REAR TRIM EMERGENCY DECELERATION TRANSFER FORWARD TRANSFER - END OF CRUISE RETRIMMING FOR LANDING - AFTER PROLONGED SUBSONIC FLIGHT Fuel transfer is an essential means of ensuring transonic stability and control and he would not be able to achieve the optimum conditions that economy demands and' which computers can process instantly, particularly in the event of a sudden engine failure during supersonic cruise. Reheat is provided primarly for the take-off case, though it can be used for t he supersonic tran- sition at altitude should boom-abatement requirements preclude a supersonic climb. STRUCTURE Above Mach 1 aerodynamic heating starts to make itself felt on the structure. Above about Mach 2.5 conventional aluminium alloys begin to soften, and materials like steel and titaniumwith their attendant problems of weight and cost and difficulty of fabricationhave to be employed. Fuel nears the boil, and new materials for numberless details like sealants and windows have to be developed. The Concorde' s designers decided that there were enough problems without courting t he unknowns of thermal stresses. Hence the choice of 2.2 (later reduced to 2 as a result of weight increases) as the design Mach number. At this speed the general aerodynamic temperature is about 120C, rising t o 155C on leading edges (wings and nose). This is well within the strength and creep-resistance capabilities of alu- minium alloys, especially the copper-based RR 58 aluminium alloy chosen for the Concorde. FUEL FOR TRI MMI NG AND HEAT SI NK The fuel system has to do more than feed the engines. It is used also as a sink for excess heat caused by the much higher general temperature of the airframe during the cruise heat from the electrical, air-conditioning, hydraulic and other systems. The actual temperature of the fuel (normal kerosene) in the tanks will not get anywhere near the point at which auto-ignition could take place, though it is almost certain that a Mach 2.7 supersonic airliner would require inerting gas in the tanks. The other and equally vital role of the fuel system is to trim the aircraft during the supersonic cruise, when the rear- ward shift of the aerodynamic centre of pressure causes a strong nose-down pitch which has to be trimmed out. To do this aerodynamically with elevons would create unacceptable drag, so it is done by moving the centre of gravity. This is achieved by transferring fuel from the wing tanks t o a trim tank at the aft end of the fuselage, and vice-versa during deceleration back to subsonic. The transfer pumping system is, of course, engineered to