| The scene on the ramp at Heathrow's Terminal Four, | | | | maximum design speed due to in-flight burn-off and a |
| with two needle-nosed, ogival wing-shaped | | | | resultant decrease in gross weight. Instead, the |
| Concordes in British Airways' livery and nary another | | | | airspeed increase would be counteracted by a gradual |
| aircraft type visible, had been like discovering an | | | | ascent through its assigned block altitude, its auto |
| advanced time pocket in which a science fiction | | | | flight system ensuring a Mach 2.00 velocity. |
| setting of exclusively supersonic aircraft had formed | | | | Delicate cirrus wisps moved well below the delta |
| an integral part of this future society's air | | | | wings at a velocity I had never previously |
| transportation system. But what had made this vista | | | | experienced. |
| particularly awe striking had been the fact that, in | | | | A five-course dinner, paralleling British Airways' |
| 1994, that this scene had been played out for almost | | | | subsonic Club World business class service, had |
| two decades. Aircraft G-BOAC, operating as Flight BA | | | | commenced in the narrow, single-aisle cabin. |
| 189 to Washington-Dulles, and aircraft G-BOAG, | | | | Cocooned in the slender, tapering fuselage on the |
| operating as Flight BA 003 to New York-JFK, had | | | | lower fringes of space where the earth's curvature |
| been in the process of being serviced for their daily, | | | | had just become visible and trailing an invisible, |
| evening transatlantic supersonic crossings, while a | | | | cone-shaped wave whose thunderclap-like explosion |
| third had conducted its nose-high flare in the distance. | | | | could only be heard by an Atlantic surface-plying |
| I would bullet across the pond on the second of the | | | | vessel, delta-winged Concorde G-BOAG had cruised |
| two. | | | | ten miles above the planet, devouring 23 miles with |
| Pushed back from the gate at 1900 local time by the | | | | every sweep of the clock's second hand, |
| tug connected to its elongated wheel strut well | | | | friction-induced heat producing 127-degree Celsius |
| below its needle nose, the aircraft had extended its | | | | temperatures on its nose, 92 degrees at it wing root, |
| visor and nose cone to the five-degree position | | | | and 98 degrees at its tip. Wing tank-located fuel rose |
| before maneuvering away from Terminal Four under | | | | to the 200-degree boiling point. The tiny, 46 |
| its own power with a brief throttle advancement. | | | | passenger windows lining either side of the fuselage, |
| Inter-tank fuel transfer, ensuring an aft, 53.5-percent | | | | had been hot to the touch, yet, because of the |
| center of gravity and increased take off wing lift, | | | | aircraft's 10.7 pounds-per-square-inch pressure |
| had been coupled with a 1.5-unit, pre-set stabilizer | | | | differential, its cabin elevation had been the equivalent |
| trim. The ogival wing's design itself, incorporating | | | | of 5,600 feet, 2,400 feet lower than that traditionally |
| camber, twist, taper, and droop, along with its | | | | created by a subsonic airliner cruising at 37,000 feet. |
| significant area, had precluded the necessity for | | | | The radiation meter in the cockpit, running from 0.1 |
| leading or trailing edge high-lift devices, thus | | | | to 1,000 millirons, with "10" the "alert" reading and |
| decreasing structural weight and drag, and its long | | | | "50" the "action" position, had hovered between 0.7 |
| chord, obviating the need for separate elevators, had | | | | and 0.9, a level higher than that of a subsonic, but |
| permitted the effective replacement of six trailing | | | | Concorde's speed had exposed its passengers and |
| edge elevons which had been operated by an equal | | | | crew to this level for a shorter period of time. |
| number of power flying control units fed by 4,000-psi | | | | Pursuing the Atlantic by latitude and longitude |
| hydraulic fluid systems pressurized by engine-driven | | | | coordinate waypoints, each separated by minutes |
| pumps and activated by electrical, or fly-by-wire, | | | | and progressive fuel burn off-induced weight |
| signaling. Two identically powered vertical tail surfaces | | | | reductions, the aircraft had paradoxically seemed |
| had completed Concorde's hinged devices, for a total | | | | suspended, without motion, over the |
| of eight. | | | | ocean-blanketed white fleece-like cumulonimbus |
| Turning on to the threshold of Runway 9-Right and | | | | whose pattern had resembled an intricately |
| throttling into its acceleration roll, Concorde G-BOAG, | | | | connected mosaic of pack ice south of Greenland, |
| unleashing a deafening roar with its four Rolls Royce | | | | one of the crossing's untouched land masses. In fact, |
| SNECMA Olympus 593 turbojets, ate the runway | | | | it would not encounter land until it had reached a |
| with deep, throaty determination, inducing its | | | | point just miles from its assigned runway. |
| rotational pitch by its six, upward-angling elevons at a | | | | Having pinnacled at 57,000 feet, and having |
| 194-knot V1 speed and disengaging itself from the | | | | subjected its aluminum-alloy fuselage to an eight-inch, |
| ground at a 217-knot V2 to cater to its 177,800-kg | | | | heat-generated, enroute expansion, the supersonic |
| gross weight, trailing a thick smoke plume. Fuel added | | | | transport, maintaining altitude, retarded its four engine |
| to its afterburner gases dilated its exhaust nozzles | | | | throttles to an initial 18-degree and subsequent |
| with fire-like fury, increasing its thrust capability by | | | | 34-degree position at Mach 1.60. Attaining a |
| 17-percent and producing a 1.7-greater | | | | 1,000-knot indicated air speed, it had been subjected |
| thrust-to-weight ratio than the Air Namibia 747 which | | | | to its second cooling-heating cycle as it had begun to |
| had preceded it into the sky. | | | | penetrate lower-altitude, higher-temperature air. |
| Ceasing afterburner light one minute, 15 seconds into | | | | Retransferring fuel to the forward wing tanks and |
| the flight due to overland supersonic speed | | | | activating its anti-atmospheric devices, such as its |
| restrictions, the now power-depleted aircraft dipped | | | | pitot tube heat, it had maintained a 5,000 |
| its nose downward to assume a shallower ascent | | | | foot-per-minute descent rate until it had intercepted |
| profile. | | | | 39,000 feet, the upper realm of subsonic travel. |
| Having completed its initial departure course left bank | | | | Recrossing land for the first time since Great Britain, |
| and two right ones, it had proceeded on a westerly | | | | Concorde had passed over the western tip of |
| heading over Reading toward the west coast of | | | | Rockaway Beach, unleashing its long-strutted |
| Great Britain, climbing through 5,500 feet at a Mach | | | | undercarriage into the slipstream and extending its |
| 0.57 airspeed over the ground's green patchwork quilt | | | | nose to its full, 12-5-degree position. |
| whose geometric pattern receded in size beneath | | | | Crossing Rockaway Inlet and southern Brooklyn, |
| the 70-degree swept ogival wings. | | | | Flight 003 had been handed off from terminal radar |
| A slightly pink-hued mist off the port side, where the | | | | approach control to the JFK Tower, executing the |
| sun had begun to inch toward the western horizon, | | | | Belt Parkway-paralleling Canarsie Approach to |
| had brush-stroked the sky's canvas, but Flight 003 | | | | Runway 13-Right. Its flapless, ogival-shaped wings, |
| would outpace the day's denouement to its | | | | which had required long main gear struts to cater to |
| destination, never eclipsing the line between light and | | | | its high flare angle clearance requirements, had |
| darkness. | | | | necessitated final-stage, height-to-ground radio |
| Climbing through 9,000 feet at 500 knots, or Mach | | | | altimeter readings: 500 feet...400...300... |
| 0.71, the aircraft, with its nose and visor having been | | | | Making a final right bank to 130 degrees, Concorde, |
| intermittently raised, shifted its center of gravity to | | | | with its drooped nose and hawk-like, outstretched |
| 55 percent. Its 13-tank fuel system, located in its | | | | main wheel struts, had passed over the |
| delta wings and arranged in three groups according to | | | | airport-perimeter roadway and runway-protective |
| "engine feed," "main transfer," and "trim transfer," | | | | blast fence at a 155-knot Vref speed to overcome |
| had been the design's only method of center of | | | | its 105,433-kg landing weight. Flaring on to the strip |
| gravity shift, although the tanks' equal distribution | | | | with an additional one-degree backward yoke |
| throughout the wings' planform had ensured that it | | | | movement, it had entered ground effect, cushioned |
| would remain constant during in-flight fuel burn unless | | | | between the surface and its underside at 100 feet, |
| transfer had necessitated pitch changes, such as | | | | which had required a further elevon application in |
| those during descent. | | | | order to maintain its pitch angle. The radio altimeter |
| Passing out over the glass-appearing surface of the | | | | had continued to unwind: 50 feet...40...30...20... |
| Bristol Channel, south of Cardiff, Wales, at 51 | | | | Closing its throttles at 15 feet, it bit into the concrete |
| degrees north latitude, the aircraft had completed its | | | | with main wheel tire erupting smoke puffs before |
| transonic checklist and the throaty grind of its | | | | applying sufficient forward yoke pressure to rotate |
| engines had indicated full throttle applications and | | | | the nose wheel to the surface, yet maintain a small |
| afterburner re-alighting. As if unleashed from hitherto | | | | enough cushion effect to do so. |
| invisible moorings, the needle-nosed aircraft, emitting | | | | Decelerating to 100 knots, it had throttled its two |
| fire-trailing, fuel-burning, thrust-producing projections | | | | outboard engines into their idle reverse thrust |
| from its two Olympus turbojet pairings with a barely | | | | settings, mimicking the action with its two inboard |
| detectable forward lurch, had transcended the speed | | | | engines at 75 knots, their secondary nozzle buckets |
| and pressure of sound and settled into the Mach 1.00 | | | | closing, like clamshell doors, over the exhaust and |
| eclipsing, altitude-gaining, nose high-projecting flight | | | | deflecting it up- and downward. |
| profile for which the engineers had intended it during | | | | Making the 180-degree turn on to taxiway echo to |
| its 15-year development period. Closely carrying its | | | | the inner perimeter, aircraft G-BOAG, whose glowing, |
| engines next to its narrow, arrow-like fuselage | | | | energy-absorbing brakes had intermittently heated up |
| beneath its ogival wing, and generating no horizontal | | | | to 300 degrees Celsius, had raised its nose to the |
| tail air resistance, the aircraft had entered the | | | | five-degree position a final time and taxied to Gate 5 |
| rock-steady, motionless void between the pale blue | | | | of the British Airways Terminal, now inundated on |
| of the channel below and the indigo blue of sky | | | | the ramp by a fleet of widebody, subsonic 747, |
| above south of Ireland, accelerating through Mach | | | | DC-10, and 767 intercontinental equipment, appearing |
| 1.24, an envelope no present subsonic airliner had | | | | strangely out-of-place, like a design of the future |
| ever experienced. For Concorde, it had been "home." | | | | which had somehow returned to the past. |
| Three thousand four hundred thirty miles had | | | | Defeated in numbers, but triumphant in speed, |
| separated Flight 003 from its destination, a distance | | | | Concorde, shutting down its engines at 1750 local |
| to be devoured at a little less than double its current | | | | time and causing its trailing edge, hydraulic |
| 860 knots. Passing over a contrail emitted by a | | | | power-severed elevons to gravity-snag downward, |
| subsonic airliner which had undoubtedly been at the | | | | had completed the 3,458-mile transatlantic crossing in |
| peak of its service ceiling, it had reached an altitude | | | | three hours, 19 minutes, or half the time of an |
| just over half of its own. | | | | intercontinental subsonic. |
| Shrouded in roaring slipstream and ascending through | | | | Having made the subsonic crossing myself on |
| 43,000 feet at a 1,090-knot, or March 1.70, airspeed, | | | | countless previous occasions, I exited the slender |
| the aircraft had discontinued afterburner use, its climb | | | | forward, left aircraft door and tunneled through the |
| angle no longer supportable by their excess power. | | | | jetbridge to the terminal, somewhat disoriented. I had |
| As Concorde's needle nose had pierced the | | | | clearly been in New York, but what had happened to |
| tropopause at supersonic speeds, a delicate balancing | | | | the other half of the journey, I had wondered? |
| act had begun: with the engine's insatiable, | | | | Somewhere over the Atlantic, in a three-sided |
| 50,000-pounds-of-fuel-per-hour thirst at full throttle | | | | equation of time, speed, and distance, lay the |
| settings, the aircraft would quickly exceed its | | | | answer... |