Testing Concorde

[sangiovese.]

Having just read last weeks Flight International articles about Concorde, can anybody shed any light on the high speed envelope testing?

Mach 2, 0g pushovers for 20 -30 secs? What sort of dive did this result in? How fast was the aircraft flown and to what altitudes?

These questions are from a regular airline pilot who is absolutely intrigued by this aircraft (not unlike everyone else I guess!)....any ideas?

many thanks :8

[John Farley]

I have no details on Concorde specifics, but normal civil certification requires Vmo and Mmo to be exceeded by at least 10%. My understanding is that the Concorde team were not excused anything.

In Brian Trubshaw's book there is one figure that lists the envelope explored by 1 Sept 75

Flight duration 6hr 15 min
Altitude 68000ft
Airspeed 565 kts
Alpha 23.7deg
Mach number 2.23
Min speed 119 kts
TO weight 181700kg
Supersonic duration 3hr 7 min
Flight distance 3530 n.miles
Double engine cuts at M 2.0 without auto rudder
Emergency descents

Brian Trubshaw - Test pilot
ISBN 0 7509 1838 1