How do Concordes ditch?
The Braniff planes had to carry FAA lifevests because they crossed Mississippi…
The structure of a Concorde differs a lot from ordinary subsonic planes – they land at a much faster speed, nose-high and have a different shape. How does the tail, wingtips or downturned nose of a Concorde react to the hydrodynamic forces of ditching?
How deep and in which attitude will an intact Concorde float at MTOW (e. g. 4 engines out at Idlewild rather than Roissy), or at maximum zero fuel weight (running out of fuel before coast)?
Which emergency exits are equipped with rafts and how are they to be deployed? Ive heard horror stories of rafts inflating inside cabins and blocking exits. And lifevests are pretty much useless anywhere except in USA in summer (in Northwest Europe or North Atlantic, anyone in water, even with a lifejacket, promptly freezes to death).
As the engines are mounted underwing, and not overwing, they are going to hit something on ditching, or belly landing without landing gear. One expects heavy forces when water floods into the air intakes…
Underwing engines on subsonic planes are commonly mounted on top of pylons, made weak enough that they break off cleanly when they hit ground or water – it is the engine fastenings that break, not the wing. But the Concorde engines are built in pairs tight to the underside of the wings. Are they easily broken off?
By: Scouse - 28th January 2008 at 01:42
Only recent one I can recall is the hijacked 767 off the Comoros in 1996.. There’s video footage doing the rounds – try Ethiopian airlines/767/hijack/ditching on U-tube – and, as far as I recall, about 25% of those on board survived.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethiopian_Airlines_Flight_961
and try this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_landing
By: DaveF68 - 27th January 2008 at 17:40
How many successful ditchings of airliners/large jets have there been?
The Nimrod in the Moray Firth is a rare exception
By: Nashio966 - 26th January 2008 at 21:15
considering that concordes landing speed was somewhere in the region of 185mph 😮
Water + Aluminium Aircraft X Speed = A big splash and not much left???
I really cant see there being anything left even if they managed to stall her in, considering that the velocity gained in a 90-100ft fall and impact with the sea, pretty much guarantees death, i cant see an aircraft travelling at twice if not more the speed surviving. Also taking into consideration, that essentially she was a dart, either would have completely disentegrated, or perhaps plunged straight into the water and gone straight to her grave in a matter of seconds, not nice to think about really
By: mackerel - 26th January 2008 at 20:35
Concord ditching
How do Concordes ditch?
The Braniff planes had to carry FAA lifevests because they crossed Mississippi…
The structure of a Concorde differs a lot from ordinary subsonic planes – they land at a much faster speed, nose-high and have a different shape. How does the tail, wingtips or downturned nose of a Concorde react to the hydrodynamic forces of ditching?
How deep and in which attitude will an intact Concorde float at MTOW (e. g. 4 engines out at Idlewild rather than Roissy), or at maximum zero fuel weight (running out of fuel before coast)?
Which emergency exits are equipped with rafts and how are they to be deployed? Ive heard horror stories of rafts inflating inside cabins and blocking exits. And lifevests are pretty much useless anywhere except in USA in summer (in Northwest Europe or North Atlantic, anyone in water, even with a lifejacket, promptly freezes to death).
As the engines are mounted underwing, and not overwing, they are going to hit something on ditching, or belly landing without landing gear. One expects heavy forces when water floods into the air intakes…
Underwing engines on subsonic planes are commonly mounted on top of pylons, made weak enough that they break off cleanly when they hit ground or water – it is the engine fastenings that break, not the wing. But the Concorde engines are built in pairs tight to the underside of the wings. Are they easily broken off?
Hi, im pretty certain that when I was an apprentice at British Hovercraft Corperation in 1970 that ditching test were being carryed out on Concord models in the large outdoor ditching tank. Ive no idea what the results were though.
Steve.
By: cypherus - 26th January 2008 at 19:02
If you have a working copy of FS9 with one of the ‘Better’ Concorde sims, try shutting down the engines and gliding the thing in various fuel states, you will soon get a good number of answers too your questions.
Happily it was something that was never tested but I doubt Concorde would have faired well in a ditching.
By: hunterxf382 - 26th January 2008 at 10:08
Why do you ask? No-one’s planning to fly one again are they? 😮
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January 26, 2008 at 8:33 am