First half-year 2018
|
12th APRIL 1988
That was thirty years ago. At Orly. On the 12th April 1988.
The Concorde 102, F-WTSA, left the tarmac of Orly airport and entered the DELTA museum to live a peaceful retreat.
|
|
|
|
Of the different built planes, this Concorde had the shortest working life : namely three years.
Indeed, she is the first plane that had rigorously the outer forms of the future planes. On the other hand, from the point of view of the dimensioning of the structure, the capacity of the fuel tanks and, above all, the definition of many systems, it was not the definition adopted for the series and that is why almost all the tests of certification was performed by both top-of-the-line planes (the 201 F-WTSB then registered F-BTSB and the 202 G-BBDG).
|
|
|
|
The essential testing that she has made under the program development are :
-
establishment of supersonic and subsonic performance characteristics from a polar determination point of view (curve to determine wing profile) ;
-
development of sequences of secondary nozzles and search for optimal positions under the aspects "noise", "performance" and "thrust reversal" ;
-
cold weather campaign to extreme conditions ;
-
development of carbon brakes, a totally new technique for a transport device. Two types of brakes were tested: Goodyear brakes, the use of which was abandoned due to lack of success in the development, then Dunlop brakes that were retained, as defined on the aircraft 102, for the series Concorde ;
-
study of water ingress, snow problems and the development of very specific Concorde devices at the main and nose levels.
From 1973 to 1975, she made 314 flights, or 657 hours 56 minutes, including 189 supersonic flghts or 281 hours 17 minutes :
The photo here-under was taken at Orly when returning from the only Washington Orly flight made on the 26th September 1973, in 3 hours 47 minutes : Captain Jean Franchi; Senior First Officer Gilbert Defer ; Flight Engineer Officer Yves Pingret ; Chief of Staff Claude Monpoint.
|
|
