Concorde’s technical achievement is quite remarkable. It was developed during the 1960’s, the British and French designers and builders had to rely on the technology of that era and expand upon it. They had to invent many new materials and design philosophies along the way. A multitude of technical problems had to be over-come in order to make Concorde operation reliable, safe and routine. It was one thing to design and build an aircraft which could fly at twice the speed of sound and quite another to produce one which would be suitable for airline service.
Concorde’s design had to be radical in many ways. Systems, power-plants, aerodynamics and structure, all of these would be subject to forces and influences far different from any previous commercial aircraft. Read about this technical miracle in this section.
THE WING
(Design drawings of the wing included in this section)
NOSE & VISOR
INCLUDING – Nose and Visor Operations
AIRFRAME
INCLUDING - Structure – Dimensions – Performance – Weights & Loadings – Airframe Production – Materials
LANDING GEAR
(Main landing gear, Nose Landing gear, Tail bumper wheel, Brakes, Steering, Landing Gear Operation)
FLIGHT DECK
(See how the Prototype & Pre-production flight decks differs from that of the Production flight decks. Also instrument layouts)
FUEL SYSTEMS
(Centre of Gravity (CG) - Fuel Transfer Systems – Refuelling Concorde and types of Fuel used)
FLYING CONTROLS & SYSTEMS
INCLUDING - Fly-By-Wire System – Control Surfaces - Hydraulic Power Supply - Electric Power Supply - Ice Protection -
Air Conditioning & Pressurisation – Fire Detection
POWERPLANT
INCLUDING - Air In-take System – Olympus 593 MK.610 Engines – Variable (Hinged buckets) Exhaust Nozzles
FUSELAGE DOORS
(Passenger Doors – Service Doors – Baggage Compartments & Miscellaneous Doors – Flight Deck Door)
CAA & DGAC MODIFICATIONS 2001
(The background and modification required following the Paris crash in 2000)
AUTOMATIC FLIGHT CONTROL SYSTEM (AFCS)
INCLUDING - Autothrottles – Autopilot – AFCS Additional Components
EMERGENCY PROCEDURES & EQUIPMENT
(Oxygen Systems & Masks – Liferafts – Emergency Ditching & Crash Landing – Cabin, Flight Deck & Engine Fire – Rapid Depressurization – Emergency Descent )