quote
uring landing, Concorde isn't flared at all, it is flown onto the ground at a constant pitch attitude.
What does happen is that the ground effect over the last 50 ft or so of height considerably flattens the trajectory, so you do not touch down with the same vertical speed as during the final approach !
What also happens is that the ground effect produces a pitch-up moment, so the pilot has to push
forward on the stick to maintain the same pitch attitude.
Putting the nosewheel down after touchdown is enough to completely “ruin” the lift, so that there is no need for “lift-dumpers” or spoilers.unquote
Sorry Christan, but I did the original pre first flight work on this one, so I know you are mistaken here. You are abolutely correct in saying that the ground effect cushions the aircraft beautifully so that all the pilot needs to do is to hold constant attitude, but the ground effect also produces a nose DOWN moment, so the pilot must exert a steadily increasing pull on the stick to maintain the correct attitude.
So far as lift on the ground is concerned, the aircraft attitude (and therefore the AoA) is substantially zero. without any flaps then the lift is also zero so, as you say, leif dumpers would be useless. They could of course act as airbrakes but you wouldn't add their weight and complexity just for that.
I see I have covered about 10 pages out of the 45 or so, but I don't want to hog this thread so I had better shut up for a while
CliveL