Concorde eng surge incident?

[FRIDAY]

In relation to the engine shutdown on concorde the other week,
I am just curious why the aircraft did not land at shannon.
It was my understanding that with any problem encountered endangering the flight that you land at nearest possible airport.
If over the atlantic on turnabout why not head for shannon as opposed overfly back to Heatrow.

[IRRenewal]

Only guessing here, since like most of us I have never flown Concorde :D :D

[list=a]
It was not an emergency. A performance A aircraft will fly with one engine out
Engineering base is at LHR, not Shannon
[/list=a]

[r200biggles]

An engine failure on a four engined aircraft is a mere inconvenience, it does not endanger the flight. Thats probably why they went back to the more convenient London Heathrow.

[MMEMatty]

Can someone tell me what an engine surge actually is? The only definition i was able to come up with came from the Daily Snail, saying it was where the engine develops too much power? why dows this necessitate an engine shutdown, cant they just bring the Throttle back or something?

[lomapaseo]

"Can someone tell me what an engine surge actually is? The only definition i was able to come up with came from the Daily Snail, saying it was where the engine develops too much power? why dows this necessitate an engine shutdown, cant they just bring the Throttle back or something?
"

Actually it's an momentary interuption in power. In most cases the pent up compressive force in the compressor shoot forward out the front with a loud bang. With many engines this signals something wrong in the compressor and thus the crew shuts down the engine since they don't need it for safe flight.

However in some cases the problem causing the surge may be temporary in nature (AOA on inlet, turbulent air, thermal changes, etc.etc.) and the engine may be recovered by simply retarding the throttle a bit.

Experience coupled with manufacturer recommendations guide the pilot's choices.

[FRIDAY]

Thanks guys for replying.
I am unsure about the exact science of an engine surge but I did see one on a programme a few years ago documenting the devolpment and building of the 777. The took the first ever 747 out of retirement momentarily to act as a test bed for a 777 engine and at about 500ft after rotation the engine suffered a surge. It looks and sounds all ther world like a car engine back firing only louder and muffled and of course the belch of smoke.
The crews response was immediate shut down. The cause as
Iomapaseo stated "a monentary interuption in power", which came about by "I THINK" some indiferrence in power produced and power actually needed for airframe of a 747, therefore the 777 engine was to powerful compared to the 747's usual.
Spectacular to see.
Maybe someone can clarify this explanation as its a bit lacking tech talk.:)

[eyeinthesky]

I remember watching the C-17 doing its famous short-field landing and then reverse down the runway at Farnborough a few years back. He got going a bit fast backwards and there was a loud bang and puff of smoke from No 2 engine. I thought this was a compressor stall caused by interrupted airflow into the nacelle. Would that be correct?