Posts about: "Thrust Recuperator" [Posts: 3 Page: 1 of 1]¶

Thanks for yours reply.

BTW, what about the super-stabilization? Does it only function when the
aircraft was lift on for 10 minute or for a whole flight regime? Also, what is
the stalling AoA of the Concorde?

Finally, What does the function of the Thrust recuperator and how does it work?

Edit: According to the CliveL picture, why Concorde wing LE has to droop down?
Is it use to produce the "negative drag" by the vortex?
Also, does the tip of the wing always has a negative AoA at all flight regime
or does it gonna bend up as the airspeed increase?

Thanks for all of yours reply.

Best regards

NW1 - amen..........

Clive L - the whole aeroflexing of the 'A' tanks thing was something mentioned during ground school on my conversion course; I may have misunderstood or it may have been less than accurate info.

Mr Vortex - the superstab was always available, though clearly it wasn't a regime one could get into during many phases of flight. As for the 'stalling' alpha - it doesn't have any meaning on a delta. By normal standards Concorde lifted off and landed in what would be called a 'stalled' condition on a conventional aircraft; in Concorde this was 'vortex lift' and was the secret to having an 1100kt speed range on one wing section. (We've talked about this much earlier in the thread).

The limiting factors for max alpha are pitch-down control and drag. IIRC the ability to stop pitching up ended at about 21-22degs alpha (CliveL will know exact numbers I guess!).

Stick shake went off at 16.5degs and stick 'nudger' (badly named - nearly tore my arms out when we tried it on the conversion course) at 19.5 degs, although this could go off sooner under phase advance if the rate of increase was high. (NB - all the above from memory; flt crew with manuals or development men with proper knowledge feel free to correct)

Lastly - the thrust recuperator was explained by M2dude much earlier in the thread, I'll have a look for it. Short answer - clever gizmo on the port(?) fwd outflow valve to recover thrust from outflow air.

Mr Vortex
The Thrust recuperator (or thrust recovery nozzle) was fitted to the outlet of #1 (that is, left hand) forward discharge valve (outflow valve in Boeing speak) only. It was a variable 'louvre' type nozzle that would progressively close between 3 and 7.5 PSI diff'. The idea was to direct pressurisation outflow air directly backwards along (theoretically) the aircraft centre line (That at least was the theory). I read somewhere that at max diff' (10.7 PSIG) it would recuperate some 600 lb of thrust. HOWEVER, this system was fitted to the #1 system only (1 & 2 were used on alternate flights) and there was no performance penalty when the thing was not working. Here are a couple of diagrams.

Best Regards
Dude