Last Concorde gets a nose job

A typical trademark of the Concorde was its folding nose. This function is intended to be the last built copy of the 50. Young get long-distance flight anniversary.

On 2. March 1969, graduated from the Concorde in Toulouse for its maiden flight. A week later, on 9. April, lifted off the supersonic plane for the first Time in the UK. These two 50-year anniversaries will celebrate the Museum Aerospace Bristol in the South West of England is worthy of. Since the fall of 2017, a Concorde is the Star of the exhibition. The Jet with the serial number 216 was the last Concorde built. They also completed the last Concorde flight on the 26. November 2003 from Heathrow to Filton.

However, the flyer has a flaw: The retractable nose was no longer used, since then, the aircraft went out of service. The hydraulic fluid was drained. Now the Museum wants to restore the characteristic function.

Folding nose for better visibility

"We have laid under the plane ground new cable to power a transformer that brings the voltage to 28 volts," explains the Museum on its website. So the original controls of the aircraft could be used again to lower the nose and raise. In addition, the need to generate hydraulic pressure equivalent to about 207 Bar. The company Zeus, Hydra-tech provides a Motor-and-pump-System. This is installed in the nose wheel Bay to allow easy connection to the existing hydraulic circuit.

The Concorde had a retractable nose to improve the view of the pilots in the landing approach. Because of the British-French Überschalljet is a so-called Delta-wing aircraft. The slower such a plane is, the more inclined it will have to face against the air flow to be able to have enough buoyancy. The Concorde needed the a hinged nose so the pilots had at slow speeds, enough point of view to the front.

Posted by Jack at .