GON
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Never saw a commercial airliner cockpit look anything like this. Pure guess minimum crew of three?
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Concorde cockpit
- Thread starter GON
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Here you go:
www.heritageconcorde.com
Enjoy!
Concorde flight deck (Cockpit)
Detail menu for the Flight deck on a Concorde
www.heritageconcorde.com
Enjoy!
I know that looks seriously complex to the average person. But to those of us who deal intimately with such things, that's pretty much as expected for the cockpit technology of that time. For the most part, there are multiples of everything, making it look quite busy.
Here is a modern Gulfstream G600 cockpit. Not much in the way of analog stuff.
Here is a modern Gulfstream G600 cockpit. Not much in the way of analog stuff.
Always thought the British inverted ram's horn yokes were cool. I prefer them, at least from my (very) limited experience in a Hawker.
Didn't realize Gulfstream went to side sticks, been out of that scene for a while...
Didn't realize Gulfstream went to side sticks, been out of that scene for a while...
A wonderful aircraft.
My old mum was fortunate to get a flight on an Air France Concorde. Paris to RAF Finningley. The Concorde landed at an airshow.
When you consider that she was born in 1925, the age of the biplane, yet in her lifetime she was able to travel at Mach 2 over the Bay of Biscay in a civilian aircraft. The technological advances over such a short period never cease to amaze me.
Shame that British Airways did not take up Virgin's offer to buy the fleet and keep them flying. Hopefully, those who know about these things will explain why this did not happen.
My old mum was fortunate to get a flight on an Air France Concorde. Paris to RAF Finningley. The Concorde landed at an airshow.
When you consider that she was born in 1925, the age of the biplane, yet in her lifetime she was able to travel at Mach 2 over the Bay of Biscay in a civilian aircraft. The technological advances over such a short period never cease to amaze me.
Shame that British Airways did not take up Virgin's offer to buy the fleet and keep them flying. Hopefully, those who know about these things will explain why this did not happen.
I guess it’s all relative. 60s to 70s era jets had lots of controls and required flight engineers. Here’s a 707.
The flight engineer on Concorde was quite busy. In addition to all the normal FE responsibilities, the airplane Center of Gravity had to be closely managed as the airplane went supersonic.
The center of pressure would move aft during supersonic flight, and make the airplane “nose heavy”. The pilots could have trimmed nose up to counteract, but that approach requires ever increasing deflection of control surfaces, and causes more drag.
By moving CG to keep it just ahead of CP, you can reduce that drag, keeping the airplane performing at its best. Sustained Mach 2 required that performance edge.
The center of pressure would move aft during supersonic flight, and make the airplane “nose heavy”. The pilots could have trimmed nose up to counteract, but that approach requires ever increasing deflection of control surfaces, and causes more drag.
By moving CG to keep it just ahead of CP, you can reduce that drag, keeping the airplane performing at its best. Sustained Mach 2 required that performance edge.
How was this accomplished.... moving fuel?
Due to the age of the airframes, as they only have so many hours to fly on them, fuel and noise issues. It burns 2885 gallons per hour at full thrust. Kick in the afterburner known as "re-heat" and it jumps to 6150 gallons per hour to get it over mach 1.5. Basically the fuel bill alone would eat an airline alive.
Exactly. Once the airplane had climbed to altitude, it had burned a bit of the fuel, so there was room in the tanks to move it around.
Managing the balance between forward and aft tanks was a full time task to keep the CG in limits.
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Nice looking cockpit ( old analog gauges still look nice ).
No APU, first with FADEC engine controls and FBW IIRC.
Look at the old, monochrome weather radar ( good thing it flew so high ).
Used to see it flying into Toronto in the summer.
A well-known Concorde CA said it was easy to fly but a much more complex operation to run.
FE job was busy.
An amazing piece of engineering.
IIRC, 6 months long coarse for type rating ( all crew )
No APU, first with FADEC engine controls and FBW IIRC.
Look at the old, monochrome weather radar ( good thing it flew so high ).
Used to see it flying into Toronto in the summer.
A well-known Concorde CA said it was easy to fly but a much more complex operation to run.
FE job was busy.
An amazing piece of engineering.
IIRC, 6 months long coarse for type rating ( all crew )
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I have a dream to become a Concorde pilot Part 1: Learning to fly
Captain Tony Yule describes the Concorde pilot training programme.
I have a dream to become a Concorde pilot Part 2: Flying the world
In two parts Captain Tony Yule tells us about his career as a Concorde pilot with British Airways.
GON
$100 Site Donor 2024
Lurker,I have a dream to become a Concorde pilot Part 1: Learning to fly
Captain Tony Yule describes the Concorde pilot training programme.blog.nms.ac.uk
I have a dream to become a Concorde pilot Part 2: Flying the world
In two parts Captain Tony Yule tells us about his career as a Concorde pilot with British Airways.
That is a great article. Thanks so much for posting.
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Way back when it was still flying, while working at IAD Dulles (Washington DC area) for Mobil Oil's flight department, I was fortunate enough to occasionally be able to get near the taxiway, on one of our approved vehicles, fairly close to the Concorde on takeoff. Righteous noise level, that's for sure! And always an impressive sight.
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