The document provides information about the Concorde, the first supersonic passenger airliner. It describes key facts like its cruise speed of Mach 2.04 and joint development by England and France. Unique features that allowed supersonic flight are discussed, such as its needle-like fuselage, swept-back delta wings, and droop nose. Challenges of high speeds like heat and structural issues are also summarized. The document concludes with details of the fatal 2000 Paris crash and the plane's retirement in 2003 due to low passenger numbers and rising costs.

1. The Concorde
Chirag Kothari 10114014
-A Technological Marvel

2. Some eye catchy facts..
• First supersonic passenger airliner or SST(SuperSonic
Transport)
• Had a cruise speed of Mach 2.04 and cruise altitude of
60,000 feet.(Boeing 747- Mach 0.85 & 35,000 ft)
• One of the 2 SSTs to enter commercial service ( other
being Tupolev Tu-114)
• Entered commercial service in 1969 , flew for 27 years and
Finally retired in 2003.
• Jointly developed by England and France under an Anglo-
French treaty.
• Till now only 20 concordes have been built.

3. Origins
• In late 1950s , Americans ,French, British and the Soviets were
all interested in making supersonic jets.
• Britain’s Bristol company and French Sud Aviation were
working on type 233 and Super-Caravelle resp.
• Concorde 001 took
off on a test flight on
March 2, 1969 and the
first supersonic flight
followed on October 11

4. Unique Features of Concorde
• Any Aircraft that approaches speed of sound (343
m/s) an air pressure builds up in front like a wall,
so as to pass through it an aircraft’s design must be
streamlined.
Streamlined design :-
1. Needle like fuselage.
2. Swept-back delta wing
3. Movable nose.
4. Vertical tail design
• The long narrow shape of concorde helps it to reduce
the drag on the plane as it moves through the air.

5. Unique Features of Concorde
• The wings have Triangular delta wing design which solve
the following purpose:
1. Reduce the drag by
being thin and
Swept-back.
2. Provides sufficient lift
while take-off at subsonic
speeds.
3. Provides stability during
the flight so that no
horizontal stabilizers are needed on the tail.

6. Unique Features of Concorde
• Droop Nose:
Special kind of nose that can be drooped down not
obstructing the pilot's view during taxi, takeoff, and
landing operations and pulled up for being
streamlined to reduce drag and achieve optimum
aerodynamic efficiency.
Also, a visor to protect
windshield the windshield.

7. • For generating the enormous amount of thrust
needed , concorde uses 4 Rolles Royce Olympus
turbo Jet engines.
• Each engine produces 18.7 tons (180 kN) of thrust
and all four engines together use up around 26,000
litres of fuel per hour.
Unique Features of Concorde

8. Heating Issues
• Beside engines, the hottest part of the
structure of any supersonic aircraft is the
nose.
• Engineers wanted to use aluminium
throughout the aircraft, due to its familiarity,
cost and ease of construction. The highest
temperature that aluminium could sustain
over the life of the aircraft was 127 °C, which
limited the top speed to Mach 2.02.

9. • The body of the plane also gets heated up to
very high temperatures (127 C on nose end to
91 C on tail end )
• To combat this , a white paint of very high
reflectivity is used that is twice as high in
reflection as paints used in normal jets.
Heating Issues

10. Structural Issues
• Due to the high speeds at which Concorde
travelled, large forces were applied to the aircraft
structure during banks and turns.
• This caused twisting and the distortion of the
aircraft’s structure
• This was resolved by the neutralisation with the
use of elevons at high speeds. Additionally, the
narrow fuselage meant that the aircraft flexed
more, particularly during takeoff.

11. Brakes and Undercarriage
• Due to a high average takeoff speed of 250 miles per
hour (400 km/h), Concorde needed upgraded
brakes.
• The brakes, developed by Dunlop, were the first
carbon-based brakes used on an airliner. They could
bring Concorde, weighing up to 185 tons (188
tonnes) and travelling at 190 miles per hour
(310 km/h), to a stop from an aborted takeoff within
one mile (1600 m).

12. The Paris Crash

13. The Paris Crash
• Took place on Tuesday, 25th July 2000
• The very first fatal accident involving Concorde with
Concorde 203, F-BTSC out bound from Paris to New
York.
• Crashed 60 seconds after take off after suffering tyre
blow which was due to a titanium strip falling from
another flight which took off a few minutes earlier ,
resulting a fuel tank to rupture.
• This started a sequence of events that caused a fire
which eventually lead to 2 engines failing and the
aircraft crashing.

14. The Paris Crash
• All 109 people (100 passengers and 9 crew) on board
including 4 people in a local hotel on the ground got
killed.
• Prior to the accident, Concorde had been arguably
the safest operational passenger airliner in the world
in terms of passenger deaths-per-kilometres
travelled with zero, but with a history of tyre
explosions 60 times higher than subsonic jets

15. Retirement…Retirement

16. Retirement
• On April 10, 2003 British Airways and Air France
simultaneously announced that they would retire the
Concorde later that year.
• 3 Major reasons cited were:
1. Low passenger count following the July 25, 2000 crash
2. The slump in air travel following 9/11, and
3. Rising maintenance costs.
• But, it is still and will always be celebrated for being - the
only profit making Supersonic Passenger Jet to ever to
go into regular revenue service.

17. Thank You