Just finished the Haynes 'Concorde workshop manual'
This is a collaboration between a retired Concorde Captain and Flight Engineer.
The one excerpt that really caught my eye was the reference to the method of construction and differences between the British and French built Aircraft.
'The French fuselage was designed to safe life principles while the British was designed to fail safe. From window line to window line across the top of the fuselage Bristol used three skin panels overlapping at 10 o'clock and 2 o'clock while Toulouse used two, overlapping at 12 o'clock'
This revelation was a big surprise to me, for a production run of 14 airframes two different construction methods were employed apparently, amazing.
I had always thought the airframes were virtually identical.
Anyone have any further insight on this ?
Last edited by stilton; 27th Aug 2012 at 06:30.