British Aircraft Corporation/Sud Aviation Concorde

(Sud Aviation became Aérospatiale in 1970)

For a description of the format and data included in Production Tables, see here.

Contents

Type Description

• Series 100
• Four-jet supersonic transport, based on a combination of the earlier Bristol Type 223 and Sud Aviation's.Super Caravelle. Anglo-French negotiations concerning the development of a supersonic transport aircraft culminated on 29 November 1962 in the signing of two agreements - one between the French and British governments. the other between the manufacturers to whom the project was entrusted. Since the original Bristol and Sud Aviation studies, both companies had been absorbed into larger entities - Bristol becoming part of BAC in 1960 and Sud Aviation part of SNIAS, later to be renamed Aérospatiale, in 1970.
  The airframe development and production of the Concorde was undertaken jointly by Aérospatiale and BAC, with two final assembly lines, at Toulouse and Filton respectively. There was no duplication of main production jigs. Aérospatiale was responsible for development and production of the rear cabin section, wings and wing control surfaces, hydraulic systems. flying controls, navigation systems, radio and air-conditioning system. The automatic flight control system was designed by Marconi in the UK and SFENA in France, under contract to Aérospatiale. BAC was responsible for the three forward sections of the fuselage, the rear fuselage and vertical tail surfaces, the engine nacelles and ducting, the electrical system. sound and thermal insulation, oxygen system, fuel system, engine installation. and fire warning and extinguishing systems.
  The low mounted cantilever wing was of ogival delta planform, with slight anhedral and continuous camber. The wing was multi-spar torsion-box structure, manufactured mainly from RR.58 (AU2GN) aluminium alloy. lntegrally-machined components were used for highly loaded members and skin panels. In the centre wing, spars were continuous across the fuselage. the spars and associated frames being built as single assemblies extending between the engine nacelles. The forward wing sections were built as separate components attached to each side of fuselage, spar loads being transferred to cross-members in the lower part of main fuselage frames. Three elevons were fitted on the trailing-edge of each wing, of aluminium alloy honeycomb construction, each independently operated by a tandem jack. Only the innermost elevons, which are attached to the stiffest area of the wings, were active at high speed. No high-lift devices were fitted. The tail unit featured a vertical fin and rudder only, the fin being a multi-spar torsion box of similar construction to wings. The two-section aluminium rudder was controlled in same way as elevons.
  The fuselage was mainly a conventional, slightly oval, pressurised aluminium alloy semi-monocoque structure of constant cross section, with unpressurised nose and tail cones. Hoop frames supported integrally-machined panels having closely-pitched longitudinal stringers. Window surrounds in the passenger cabin formed of integral skin-stringer panels machined from aluminium alloy planks. The nose was drooped hydraulically to improve forward view during take-off, initial climb, approach and landing. The droop nose consisted of a single structure hinged at its lower edge and raised and lowered by hydraulic jacks: the subcontractor for this assembly was Marshalls of Cambridge. Protecting the main windshield assembly was a retractable visor whose purpose was to divert kinetic heat away from the inner screens and provide a more aerodynamic shape to the nose. The restrictive visibility of the visor used on the first two prototype Concordes led to the redesigned visor used in the production and the four pre-production aircraft. The nose window and visor glass, needed to endure temperatures at supersonic flight, were developed by Triplex. Also, drag discrepancy, which had been noted on the prototypes, had recurred on both pre-production machines. Careful redesign by both the ailframe and engine manufacturers eventually resolved this deficiency. The main changes to the airframe were applied to the wing, where the camber and the leading edge droop were altered and the wingtip redesigned, along with the fuselage being lengthened by 11ft, by the fitting of an extended tail-cone. The first airframe to have these changes applied was Concorde 102.
  The engine nacelles each consisted of a hydraulically controlled variable-area (by ramp) air intake, engine bay and nozzle support structure. The intakes were of RR.58 or AU2GN aluminium alloy with steel leading-edges. The engine bay had an lnconel centre wall with aluminium alloy forward doors and titanium rear doors. The nozzle bay, aft of the rear spar, was of welded stressed skin sandwich panels and heat-resistant nickel alloys. Reverser buckets. which were also used as a secondary nozzle, were actuated by ball-screw jacks driven by compressed air through flexible shafts. The leading-edges of intakes, rear ramp sections and intake auxiliary door were electrically de-iced, whereas the engine nose bullet and inlet guide vanes were de-iced by hot engine bleed air.
  All fuel tanks were of integral construction and in two groups. The main group comprised five tanks in each wing and four tanks in the fuselage, and maintained the centre of gravity automatically in cruising flight. The trim tank group (three tanks) comprised two tanks at the front and another beneath tail fin. This group maintained the correct relationship between centre of gravity and aerodynamic centre of pressure by transferring fuel rearward during acceleration and forward during return to subsonic flight.
  The pilot and co-pilot side by side on flight deck, with third crew member behind on starboard side, plus there was provision for supernumerary seat behind pilot. Wide variety of four-abreast seating layouts to suit individual requirements of airlines. With all normal toilet and galley service facilities, up to 128 economy class passengers could have been carried with 34 in seat pitch, and a version with 144 passenger seats at 32 in pitch is available. However, both British Airways and Air France used a 100 passenger configuration.

Specification
Span	Length	Height	Wing Area	Empty Wt	Max AUW	Cruise Speed	Maximum Speed	Range	Service Ceiling
83 ft 10 in	203 ft 9 in	37 ft 5 in	3856 sq ft	173500 lb	408000 lb		1354 mph/ 1177 kn	4090 mi	60000 ft
25.55 m	62.1 m	11.4 m	358.23 m2	78698 kg	185066 kg		2179 kph	6582 km	18288 m

Projected Variants

• Concorde 'B'
• Concorde 'B' would have introduced aerodynamic modifications to enable a moderate increase in the range. These included lengthening the wing tips and mounting droop slats on the leading edges of the wings. These modifications would reduce the induced drag at supersonic speeds and increase the available lift at slower speeds. Increase of fuel capacity would be obtained by the enlarged wing and by the addition of a fuselage tank.

Production Details

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Production Summary

Notes

1. Concorde 001 was modified for the  30 June 1973 solar eclipse mission with rooftop portholes and observation equipment. Its flight over Africa became the longest observation of a solar eclipse, lasting some 74 minutes.

Production References

1. Building Concorde: From Drawing Board to Mach 2, Tony Buttler (Crecy, 2018)
2. BAC Concorde, Kev Darling (The Crowood Press, 2004)
3. Concorde - Story of a Supersonic Pioneer, Kenneth Owen (Science Museum, 2001)
4. https://www.concordesst.com/home.html
5. https://www.planespotters.net/aircraft/production/aerospatiale-bac-concorde