I have a dozen books on Concorde in my collection. This is what I found of interest in this book:
Concorde's hydraulic system operated at 4000 psi rather than the normal 3000 psi. The Olympus was the only afterburning turbojet to be fitted to a commercial aircraft. During 1979 - 80, Concorde was flown below Mach 1 by trained Braniff International ( BI ) crews between Dallas Fort Worth and Washington Dulles Airport. The pictures on pp 64 and 65 of what might have been but never was......... Concorde in BI colors......... were nonetheless welcome. Fares charged by BI on Concorde flights ranged from $154 - $227 in 1979 - 80, which was about 10% more than the First Class fare charged by a normal airline. However, Concorde carried only about 15 passengers on these flights, while the airline's B727s flew full on the same route. On pp 85 it is mentioned that on 7 February 1996 Concorde G-BOAD carried out the world's fastest transatlantic crossing ( JFK-LHR ) in 2 hours 52 minutes 59 seconds, aided by a 175 mph tailwind. Unfortunately, the speed has not been mentioned. For the record, Concorde G-AXDN attained 1,711 mph at 63,700' on 26 March 1974. In 1996, Pepsi paid Air France $500 million as part of a rebranding exercise. The aircraft, F-BTSD never flew supersonically in this stunning color scheme due to the heat created by air friction potentially being able to cause the paint to peel off, if it did. Concorde could only return 15.8 mpg compared to the DC-10's 53.6 mpg. It would burn 2 tons of fuel before it reached the end of the runway for take off. Take off speed was 250 mph. The temperature of Concorde's carbon brakes after landing was 300° - 400° Celsius. Fuel consumption was about 6,000 Imperial Gallons on the LHR - JFK route. Concorde had 13 fuel tanks which were numbered 1 - 11. Some allege that this was due to superstition, in order to avoid the unlucky number 13. The other 2 tanks were numbered 5A and 7A.
It is a telling comment that Richard Branson had to approach Air France for the wet - lease of Concordes by Virgin Atlantic, an idea that never panned out. Concorde suffered several rudder delamination incidents in both BA and AF service. Prior to preservation, several test landings had to be carried out to ensure that Concorde could safely be stopped within the 6,000' runway at Duxford Museum.
Though this book has not been proofread properly........there are some 20 typos in it and the name of the French Concorde designer has been misspelled........the photos for the most part are refreshingly unfamiliar. There should have been a color photo of the Concorde's cockpit. There are 24 gutters in the book. Overall, I am happy to add this book to my collection.
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