4 ms·
They have larger fan blades, for one. That means they move a large volume of air relatively slowly, instead of a small volume of air moving quickly. Consider t
by HPsquared 4y ago
They have larger fan blades, for one. That means they move a large volume of air relatively slowly, instead of a small volume of air moving quickly.
Consider the difference between a large shop fan, and a small high pressure compressed air nozzle commonly used in workshops for cleaning, with both sized to give the same "reaction force" (i.e. the same thrust). The high-pressure nozzle makes much more noise.
- chasil 4y agoThe metallurgy of the fan blades has also vastly improved. Monocrystaline fan blades have very different material properties from the polycrystaline blades that (I am guessing) were used on Concorde. https://www.americanscientist.org/article/each-blade-a-single-crystal https://www.americanscientist.org/article/each-blade-a-singl...
- solardev 4y agoThanks for sharing that link! It's amazing what people were able to come up with in the 60s, before computers and Wikipedia and 3D modeling... wow. One of the patents mentioned is how VerSnyder was able to grow a turbine blade in a monodirectional crystalline structure: https://patents.google.com/patent/US3260505?oq=versnyder+1966 https://patents.google.com/patent/US3260505?oq=versnyder+196... just using a special mold and a specific alloy. That would later form the turbine blades of the SR-71 Blackbird.
- chasil 4y agoI just reread it. All of it was familiar, but I had forgotten a few of the details. The first monodirectional blades were introduced to commercial jet engines in 1974, so Concorde definitely did not have this technology with the original engines.