Did Concorde ever fly over London at Mach1?
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Location: Sydney
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I can clearly remember from the 70s/80s when living on the edge of Dartmoor the regular early evening 'double-boom' (always a double-boom) - my understanding at the time was that it was the French Concorde heading out across the Atlantic. Was a novelty at first but after a while we hardly noticed...
Despite that they didn't do very well considering the Challenger had flown the entire width of the country out of radio comms on the wrong frequency! It was heading to Dublin and was intercepted near Shrewsbury.
A quick look at the map will show that the geometry isn't favourable for a rapid interception. After which, if the Typhoons crews' brief was to take a look at the Challenger they've got to slow down to a safe and sensible closing speed in the later stages of the intercept, all of which eats up track miles, especially if the target is doing perhaps 0.8M or 0.9M.
You can only do so much with overtake, even if you got shed loads of it.
Last edited by wiggy; 14th Apr 2016 at 07:31.
Despite that they didn't do very well considering the Challenger had flown the entire width of the country out of radio comms on the wrong frequency! It was heading to Dublin and was intercepted near Shrewsbury.
Might have to change their tactics if / when supersonic bizjets enter service... tailchases won't be so easy then.
Question: if an SSBJ could operate above controlled airspace ( say, FL700 ) would it still be subject to a ban on supersonic flight over populated areas?
Might have to change their tactics if / when supersonic bizjets enter service... tailchases won't be so easy then.
Question: if an SSBJ could operate above controlled airspace ( say, FL700 ) would it still be subject to a ban on supersonic flight over populated areas?
(Sorry for the continued thread drift, just an attempt to put the Typhoon/QRA performance into perspective))
I'm sure one of you fine chaps can do a direct link, until then sorry for the provenance but a replay of the track flown by the Challenger is embedded in this article:
RAF Typhoons break the sound barrier to intercept Dublin-bound private jet | Daily Mail Online
If that is to be believed it entered the UK FIR northwest of Abbeville and then was on a direct'ish route towards Cardigan Bay (so south of London, just north of Bristol. If the loss of comms only happened/was only detected by ATC at the entry into the London FIR then I'm not surprised the Challenger got as far west as it did before it was intercepted from aircraft operating out of Coningsby. TBF that plot doesn't indicate exactly when the Typhoon's got up alongside, but I'd suspect it would have been before the turn towards north that was made near Brecon, perhaps made to keep the formation inside the UK FIR until the situation was resolved.
If folks want all "no comm" aircraft to be intercepted and identified, subsonic or supersonic, at or shortly after the FIR boundary then they'll need to stump up the taxes for lots of QRA aircraft, holding on CAP (i.e. airborne), 24/7.
Anyhow, hopefully back to the thread.
I'm sure one of you fine chaps can do a direct link, until then sorry for the provenance but a replay of the track flown by the Challenger is embedded in this article:
RAF Typhoons break the sound barrier to intercept Dublin-bound private jet | Daily Mail Online
If that is to be believed it entered the UK FIR northwest of Abbeville and then was on a direct'ish route towards Cardigan Bay (so south of London, just north of Bristol. If the loss of comms only happened/was only detected by ATC at the entry into the London FIR then I'm not surprised the Challenger got as far west as it did before it was intercepted from aircraft operating out of Coningsby. TBF that plot doesn't indicate exactly when the Typhoon's got up alongside, but I'd suspect it would have been before the turn towards north that was made near Brecon, perhaps made to keep the formation inside the UK FIR until the situation was resolved.
If folks want all "no comm" aircraft to be intercepted and identified, subsonic or supersonic, at or shortly after the FIR boundary then they'll need to stump up the taxes for lots of QRA aircraft, holding on CAP (i.e. airborne), 24/7.
Anyhow, hopefully back to the thread.
Last edited by wiggy; 16th Apr 2016 at 11:39.
