Posts about: "Aerospatiale" [Posts: 8 Pages: 1]

I don't want to divert this fascinating thread into acrimony, so answer at your discretion.

Really? Why would that be? Aerospatiale (forerunner of Airbus) were responsible for just as many parts on the British production run as they were the French.

The dispersal and disposition of the British aircraft was BA's decision though, not that of Airbus.

This discord really saddens me. Maybe Concorde's premature end-of-life was politically motivated and maybe it was financially motivated - but at the end of the day it doesn't make a blind bit of difference. Can't we just celebrate what was rather than end up fighting over infinitessimal might-have-beens?

Oops, I've done it again, forgetting that other people are also reading this thread, who wouldn't have a clue what we are talking about...

OK all.
On the 'blunties' and most other aircraft (subsonic or supersonic) there is a fuselage, and there is a wing.
The wing is connected to the fuselage by only a few very big bolts, linking a few very big forgings.

Concorde is different, right? Right.

Fuselage and inner wing are the same structure, and there were no "big bolts" that allowed you to separate fuselage and inner wing once the aircraft was built.

The only separate "bits" were the outer wings, the parts just outside the engine nacelles.

So 'rib 12' was the rib where the inner wing ended, and where the outer wing (built by Dassault, rather than Aerospatiale, actually) was attached.

Rib 12 actually was two halves, the one at the outboard side of the inner wing, and the one on the inboard side of the outer wing.
Both machined numerically from single 'blanks'...

And no, these two halves were NOT just bolted together with a few massive bolts. They were bolted together with hundreds of bolts in all. I did say Concorde was different, no?

Words now fail me, and I'll have to find or scribble some drawings ASAP.

In brief, so far.. each half of rib 12 had MANY machined "bath tub shaped" slots allowing to insert a bolt between the two halves, and bolt the outer wings to the inner wings.

And simplistically, the 'bath tub covers' were just small sheet panels held in place with fasteners fitted inside the 'bath tub' slots.

I should know.... I still have the scars of helping, one day, to refit a batch of them on Delta Golf at Brooklands

CJ

For a second, 'astings, I thought I 'ad been premature...

Later photographs of 002 show her bearing the Aerospatiale name, like her sister ship - she'd presumably been repainted at some point. However, the photo of 101 Christiaan posted is captioned on concordesst.com as being taken at her rollout, which I am presuming means that she never carried Sud Aviation titles, the companies presumably having merged before 1971.

Yes, you are right - on her first flight G-BSST had Sud Aviation logo; in 1971 and now at Yeovilton she carries Aerospatiale. Sud became AS in 1970.

My own humble black and white photos of 101 roll out show her with the Aerospatiale logo.

I guess from that data one could approximately date the LE photo that Christiaan posted.

Interestingly, the 'concordesst' site has a photograph of G-AXDN under construction and I would think about 2 weeks from rollout where "British Aircraft Corporation" has been painted on but there is a big gap where "Sud Aviation/ Aerospatiale" should be. This would be in November/early December 1971 I think. Just maybe this was the time when the new French company were making up their mind how they would like to be known. I know they didn't like the simple use of company initials - Societe Nationale Industrie Aerospatiale if I remember correctly and one must admit that Aerospatiale sounds a whole lot nicer than SNIAS! Maybe Christiaan could comment?

CliveL

CliveL ,
I should have kept a diary... never did.

According to the ConcordeSST site, the roll-out was on 20 September 1971, but (according to various internet items) Aerospatiale was already formed in 1970.

Looking at the general mess, the photo you mention (see below) was several weeks, if not a few months, before the roll-out.
Look closely.. I would say even the leading edges are not in place yet.



CJ

ChristiaanJ

Although it looks messy and there are parts missing (LE, nozzles and probably tail cone) none of them would take long to fit, which is why I estimated a couple of weeks before rollout, but I wouldn't quarrel with a longer time.

I knew the company merger was in 1970, but AS took a while to decide that they wanted to be known as Aerospatiale, so I thought that maybe, just maybe, this fell into that time slot. Obviously it didn't.

AZR

Your eyesight is better than mine! I had to fiddle with PSP to see it, but yes, the Aerospatiale logo is there. I was fooled by seeing the red fuselage stripe underneath into thinking that cover was more transparent than it actually was.

CliveL

SSD:- this answers your question on where the TAT probes were located. Strictly, you don't need temperature to calculate Mach as it is independent of temperature when expressed in EAS (or CAS) terms.

Shane:
The "crown modifications" were external straps to be applied to the upper part of the fuselage to extend its life in those areas which had been designed to safe life concepts - basically the Aerospatiale bits since BAe designed their bits according to damage tolerance rules. It wasn't a small job, but I'm afraid I can't tell you how many aircraft were modified.