Landroger
The whole concept of 'Supercruise' is quite stunning and the thought occurs; was it played for, or a happy outcome of the way the design froze?
It was both 'played for' from the very beginning and was certainly a happy outcome. But development of the intake was not completed until three years AFTER the aircraft entered airline service, after hundreds and hundreds of flight test hours. It was really quite a small team of designers at BAC Filton that developed the aerodynamics and control systems, a team of twelve extremely talented individuals, the leader being the great Dr Ted Talbot.
Your comments about the Tu144 are astonishing and quite unexpected. I had heard, over the years, that Concordski was a triumph of the Soviet state and a very close competitor to Concorde. You are saying though, that it could not maintain Mach 2 without reheat?
Yep, that aircraft was a total dog.
Roger I'm so glad that my blurbish explanations are making a little sense, the subject drives me nuts too, and I started doing it thirty six years ago.
I quite like ChristiaanJ's analogy on explaing how an inlet can provide thrust, but the precise shockwave geometry that the Concorde intake required in order to do what it did best, was little more than mind numbing in terms of complexity and control; It is really difficult to imagine if it could ever be bettered aerodynamically, even now.
Dude
