Posts by user "stilton" [Posts: 60 Total up-votes: 1 Page: 3 of 3]¶

Thanks for that, very impressive,as if I couldn't be more impressed by this amazing Aircraft.

I may have overlooked this but did Concorde have a flight mode annunciator ?

Thanks for that EXWK, doesn't look like there would be any room in that cockpit (while a masterpiece of design) for a separate FMA.

Directly above the Captains ADI there are two small annunciators side by side, the one on the left has a symbol I can't quite make out while the one on the right appears to have four separate segments, the upper right of which is amber, there also seems to be a small
white switch to the right of this.


Can you tell me what these are for ?

Thanks for that, J4, just what I was looking for, as amazing, cleverly laid out cockpit
using every nook and cranny in an incredible aircraft.

I understand Concorde had no speed brakes / spoilers but was certified to use reverse in flight.


What were the airspeed and altitude limits on its use ?


Was this done very often in service and was it activated on
all engines or just the inboards ?

I can imagine !


Thanks for that BP, just to clarify you say inboard engines only either or both, so you might use reverse on only one engine ? any assymetric issues with that ?


Also, why the 4 minute restriction ?

Were both BA and AF involved / lend aircraft to the short lived Braniff Concorde operation flying the aircraft subsonic from Washington Dulles to the Dallas Fort Worth airport ?


I read somewhere that the aircraft owner, whether it was BA or AF always had one of their captains as an observer in one of the cockpit jumpseats on these flights ?


Not sure if that's true but any other insights or information on this unusual arrangement
would be welcome.

Thanks for that Bphon, yes the noise abatement makes sense now !

looking at the Concorde instrument panel lately brings up a couple more questions:

Why is the radar altimeter positioned where the altimeter is normally placed ?
Did the designers decide it was more important for the radalt to have a more
prominent position in the pilots scan for a particular reason ?

While on the subject of radar altimeters Concorde has a fairly unique VSI, at least
for civil aircraft, it's vertical strip presentation is a clever way of saving space in
a compact, crowded panel.

But in the era that Concorde was designed a popular option on other jet transports was a vertical strip radar altimeter.

The radalt, after all is an instrument that is only used very briefly at the final stages of the approach and landing and is
situated accordingly, easily seen but not part of the classic 'T' airspeed, attitude, altimeter, HSI, of primary instrumentation

But in Concorde it literally has the most 'prime location'

For some reason I wasn't consulted on cockpit design despite going to school
with John Cochrane's son but surely a more conventional design would have had:

Altimeter, top right , VSI bottom right in their usual place and a vertical strip radalt
taking the place of the vertical strip VSI.

Curious as to the design choices, anyone with further insight ?

Thanks for that, useful information.


Another question, there is what appears to be a fixed red line marked on the airspeed indicator opposite or pointing to around 190Kias.


Anyone know what this was for ?

That's certainly possible, I was looking at the picture of the Captains instrument panel taken in level cruise at FL600.


It appears as a thin red line on the face of the instrument itself opposite 190 knots
approximately.


The picture i'm referring to is on page 4 of this thread reply #66 posted by yourself !
And on further examination I think I can see what you're saying, it does look like
the lower red edge of the warning flag just visible in that window.


Thanks again BP and for the person that did the very useful indexing which made finding that picture a breeze.

Thanks for the clarification BP and for your many informative and fascinating
replies enlightening all of us on this incredible and unique aircraft.


I didn't think a simple question about an APU would take off into a
delightfully detailed account of Concorde's technical achievements and even
better, personal accounts of operating her 'on the line'


Thank you, I feel fortunate that I asked !


Best wishes

I thought the Tupolev had to stay in after burner continuously to maintain M2

All I asked was a question about not having an APU, what a delight this thread has been

Not sure if this question has been answered in this thread yet, was Concorde approved for three engine ferry flights ?

Fascinating, a quite unique solution and 3 engine ferry protocol

Without going through this entire wonderful thread can anyone refresh my memory as to whether Concorde ever incorporated GPS updating to its triple inertial units ?