There used to be one of those hanging from the Foyer roof of the Engineering Department of Leeds University. AFAIR is was motorised and the HP & LP Spools used to rotate at a fraction of an RPM. I think there were internal lights too and/or the spools were painted as well. I think it was also in a Concorde type nacelle. This must have been in the 70's as I used to go to the annual Open Days with my Grandad who worked there.

I can't seem to find any reference to it as to whether it is still there, disposed of or in storeage ??? Perhaps someone has contacts ???

regards
Howie

Now that raises an interesting question - "why?". Why would turbojet engines need to be handed? Was it to eliminate the need for slightly offset trims required to cancel the gyroscopic forces of symmetrical rotation of the engines in cruise??

Storage space for pipes/gearboxes/ancillaries in the nacelle??

See, Concorde Engineers CAN make it happen and fit a round peg in a square hole!!!

:ok:

handed? really?
 

If the quote in message #1504 is correct, why would there be a vibration problem on take off in engine #4 only?
Ref: p80 Haynes 'Owners Workshop Manual'

I make no claim to technical knowledge but this seems unlikely. Is there a source for this?

Smug
 

ref #1496
I have still got my key ring from my 1980 flight. Thank you Birmingham Evening Mail competitions department.

Still cost me an arm and a leg. I arrived in Paris by Concorde and tried to live up to the image. Trip to the Lido, dinner on the Champs Elysee. Never did admit to the wife what I spent. :)

Sorry to have caused some confusion....

BN2A is right : some of the pipes, pumps, generators, ancillariy gearboxes, connectors and suchlike on the outside of the 'round peg' are installed either on the left or the right side of the engine, so that they fit inside the 'square hole' while remaining accessible for inspection/maintenance.

911slf, all engines rotate in the same direction. However, the vortices rolling off the leading edges of the wings into the air intakes rotate in opposite directions.
Now if you look at a photo or a model, you'll see that the intakes of the outboard engines (#1 and #4) are quite close to the leading edges.
No problem for engine #1, because the rotation of the air entering the intake is the same as that of the engine itself, but for engine #4 there is a conflict between the senses of rotoation, leading to vibration at low speed.
Engine #3 is further back from the wing leading edge, so the airflow into the intake has already been 'straightened out' more, hence the problem doesn't occur there.
Maybe M2dude has some more details?

CJ

I've said it before to Dude, but it will bear repeating I think: it was the vortex coming off the intake sidewall that caused the problem, not anything coming off the wing. The highly swept, sharp leading edge was perfect for generating vortices at high engine demand and low aircraft forward speed.

CliveL

CliveL,
Many thanks for chipping in.... I gave the explanation to the best of my knowledge, but as you know I'm not an aerodynamicist, nor an engine expert, so I was actually hoping either M2dude or you would add the corrections.

What caused the actual vibration? Incipient stall of the first compressor stages, or some separate phenomenon?

CJ

Christiaan,

To be honest, it was all a long time ago http://images.ibsrv.net/ibsrv/res/sr...lies/smile.gif

#4 intake was marginally worse than #1 in several ways. Obviously this particular problem was linked to the engine face distortion pattern and may have been associated with the combination of the 'handedness' of the incoming vortex with the non-radial inlet guide vanes which together could have given some subtle variations in distortions between sides. But it was all pretty fine drawn stuff, and the problem disappeared by 60 kts or thereabouts.

CliveL

Anyone got £1.25m under the sofa?

Concorde Rolls-Royce Olympus 593-610 Turbojet Engine with Reheat | eBay

Hi

I had a look on the eBay link and I question the engine model - the Forward Bearing supports are 5 struts but not the same configuration as the Series 200. I thought the 593 was derived from the 300 Series.

see below a picture of a 593 from Wiki:
http://www.pprune.org/%3Ca%20href=ht...Olympus593.jpg
File:Olympus593.JPG - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

regards
Howie

ambidextrous
 

Thanks ChristiaanJ#1508 and CliveL#1509. That's what I thought. It was the quote in #1504 that implied left and right handed engines with all the stock problems that would cause.

At risk of thread drift I think that anything with propellers would be likely to suffer much more from asymmetry, but I think folk just put up with it - except in the few cases where there are contrarotating propellers.

Am I right in thinking that once the necessary minimum rpm was achieved, reheat was selected on all four engines, but that some (automatic?) control restricted the power to engine#4 until 60kt was achieved?

M2dude Not surprisingly, the first edition of this excellent book sold out very quickly.

It's now available again.


Reviews here

H.

I must say a very interesting and worthwhile read, it is so excellent that the general oiks like I have the opportunity to pose some questions - for the participation of those in the know I applaud you :D. My first memory of her is when I was 8 from the top of the Queens building (IIRC) watching her taxy and take off, I have visited her many times at RNAS Yeovilton but alas did not have the funds in 2003 to make one of the final flights.

I have some questions if I may, they are very general and aimed at getting some more fascinating discussion going - I am only a student ppl so cant go into the nitty gritty so hope to prompt some memories.

1) I adore the lady in many ways but I would imagine she was far from perfect with the challenges that had to be overcome. I would imagine the positives way out weighed any negatives. So what were the downsides for the Capt/FO/FE that were most discussed - was anything done to alleviate these is design/Pre-Production and what if any gripes made it through to production.

2) For each of you (I would imagine they would be different based upon your skill set) what were the biggest challenges you personally had to overcome when switching to/designing our iconic aircraft.

Finally some more anecdote's from LandLady and Concorde Trivia from M2 would be good.

Many thx

DVD copies are also available direct from ITVV where I got mine from. Well worth the money, it's fascinating!

She was pretty well 'state-of-the-art', really.
And through the long proto-preprod-prod developent cycle, I would say she was as near 'perfect' as we could make her at the time she went into service.

Maybe I should mention that in 'my field' (automatic flight control systems) the 'state-of-the-art' was changing significantly almost from year to year.

I'd be interested too.

LOL.....
Being Dutch, I had to convert my school French to engineering French on the one hand, and 'argot' on the other hand, while at the same time getting familiar with the way 'my' firm was implementing the latest developments in electronics.

Has anybody here read "The Soul of a New Machine", by Tracy Kidder?
It's a pity no book quite like that has ever been written about Concorde... and I can't imagine it could be written today. Too many of the 'actors' have retired, or are not there anymore....

Maybe somebody ambitious could use this thread as a base, and do some interviews, and write "Concorde, From Then to Now" ?

CJ

I'd vote for M2 for writing that book.

Cockpit Color
 

Hi folks. Christian,M2 etal.

On numerous cockpit photos I have seen,; sometimes the cockpit panels seem to have a bluish tint to them. Other times they look like the standard gray, I see in the 737NG I fly.

Can you shed a little light on the actual color of the cockpit panels.

I realize that different panels installed maybe slightly different colored, but overall, what was the general color of the panels.

Thank You, for ALL your Wonderful insight and Stories of the Beautiful Aircraft; I missed out on.

Best,
David

Concorde Cockpit
 

Hi folks. Christian,M2 etal.

On numerous cockpit photos I have seen,; sometimes the cockpit panels seem to have a bluish tint to them. Other times they look like the standard gray, I see in the 737NG I fly.

Can you shed a little light on the actual color of the cockpit panels.

I realize that different panels installed maybe slightly different colored, but overall, what was the general color of the panels.

Thank You, for ALL your Wonderful insight and Stories of the Beautiful Aircraft; I missed out on.

Best,
David

I just looked at the one cockpit item I possess, and indeed I would call it dark gray, without a bluish tint. Unfortunately I don't have the color/paint reference....
I suspect the bluish tint is the result of lighting and camera settings.
If you're really interested, I can ask my wife to dig out her "Munseill Book of Color" (standard color chips) and try to match it up.

CJ