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Somewhat related. While Concorde flew supersonic, the air which entered the engine needed to enter at subsonic speeds. They needed to slow the air using flaps i

by mixtur2021 5y ago

Somewhat related. While Concorde flew supersonic, the air which entered the engine needed to enter at subsonic speeds. They needed to slow the air using flaps in a very short distance. This was done by the Air Intake Control Units (AICU). Originally Concorde used an analogue computer in the prototypes. The analogue computer wasn't accurate enough for smooth flight. In the end, a fully digital solution was created at short notice by the rather grandly named "Guided Weapons Division" of the "Electronics and Space Systems Group" at BAC. Here's a pic of the unit: http://images.yuku.com/image/pjpeg/4df3652018ef41c9e9669a5eac9ab52bcc6b12c3.pjpg http://images.yuku.com/image/pjpeg/4df3652018ef41c9e9669a5ea... All done in the early 70s. These units started to fail in the 90s and they had to bring folks out of retirement to produce new units. The Soviets struggled to crack this aspect and apparently approached UK Gov to license the tech. Unsurprisingly UK Gov said no as the tech was classified as it could be used by military aircraft too.

dfsegoat 5y ago
This account reminds me of the same issue that Lockheed faced in the design of the SR-71 Blackbird. They had to figure out the design of the 'spikes' and engine inlet systems that controlled inflow to the engines for the aircraft that still holds many speed records (Mach 3), to this day [1]. It was an enormous engineering challenge. I think this work was all done in the 60's. 0 - https://internationalaviationhq.com/2020/08/29/ben-rich-father-of-stealth/ https://internationalaviationhq.com/2020/08/29/ben-rich-fath... 1 - http://www.sr71.us/srrcd~1.htm http://www.sr71.us/srrcd~1.htm
publicola1990 5y ago
UK however has licenced Aircraft technology to Eastern Bloc countries. BAC One Eleven, jetliner was licensed to Romania by the UK, and several aircraft were made in that country in the 80s. Canada even built nuclear reactors in Romania during the Cold War years.

dfsegoat 5y ago

This account reminds me of the same issue that Lockheed faced in the design of the SR-71 Blackbird. They had to figure out the design of the 'spikes' and engine inlet systems that controlled inflow to the engines for the aircraft that still holds many speed records (Mach 3), to this day [1]. It was an enormous engineering challenge. I think this work was all done in the 60's. 0 - https://internationalaviationhq.com/2020/08/29/ben-rich-father-of-stealth/ https://internationalaviationhq.com/2020/08/29/ben-rich-fath... 1 - http://www.sr71.us/srrcd~1.htm http://www.sr71.us/srrcd~1.htm

publicola1990 5y ago

UK however has licenced Aircraft technology to Eastern Bloc countries. BAC One Eleven, jetliner was licensed to Romania by the UK, and several aircraft were made in that country in the 80s. Canada even built nuclear reactors in Romania during the Cold War years.