Concordes - cheetahs in the sky

Hope you remember us describing the supersonic boom in our earlier 'The world of Science' page. There, we mentioned Concordes which can fly faster than the speed of sound. So, today we thought of familiarising you about Concordes, though they are not used any more. The last commercial Concorde flight was made on October 24, 2003.

Research into supersonic airlines began in Europe in 1956 and resulted in the British and French governments signing an international treaty for the joint design, development and manufacture of a supersonic airliner six years later. The first prototype was rolled out from the factory at Toulouse, France in 1967. The first flight of Concorde 001 from Toulouse was made on March 2, 1969.

A Concorde is 204 feet in length and stretches further between six and ten inches in flight due to heating of the airframe. It is painted in a specially developed white paint to accommodate these changes and to dissipate (scatter) the heat generated by supersonic flight. The wingspan (the area over which the aircraft wings span) is 84 feet and is much less than conventional subsonic aircraft.

This is because Concorde flies in totally a different way using 'Vortex Lift' to achieve its unusual performance. The height of the Concorde is 37 feet. Its nose is lowered to improve the pilots' visibility for take-off and landing. Concorde has four engines to provide power. Extra power is supplied for take-off and the transition to supersonic flight. These aircraft have the most powerful pure jet engines flying commercially.

Concordes take off at 220 knots (250 mph), whereas conventional aircraft take off at around 165 knots. They fly at a speed of around 1,350 mph, which is more than twice the speed of sound. A typical London to New York crossing would take a little less than three and a half hours, as opposed to about eight hours for a normal flight.

Travelling westwards, the five-hour time difference means that Concorde effectively arrived before it left. It means the Concorde travels 'faster than the sun'.

The British Airways fleet of seven Concordes have now gone to their final resting places at museums around the world. They are exhibited at the Airbus factory, Filton Bristol, Manchester Airport, Museum of Flight near Edinburgh and Heathrow Airport (all in the UK), Museum of Flight, Seattle, and the Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum, New York (both in the USA) and Grantley Adams Airport in Bridgetown, Barbados.

Fact File

* October 1, 1969 - Concorde's first supersonic flight.

* November 8, 1986 - First round-the-world flight by a Concorde - covering 28,238 miles in 29 hours 59 minutes.

* August 11, 1999 - Two Concordes fly in supersonic formation to chase the total eclipse of the sun.