Aviation News — September 2017

FLIGHT DECK

The  ight deck is accessed down a long

tunnel, the port side occupied by a wall

of avionics and circuit breakers. Facing

this is the  ight engineer’s huge panel

on the starboard side of the  ight deck,

facilitating face-to-face discussion with

the captain on the port side. Supersonic

thermal expansion occurred throughout

the fuselage (requiring telescopic hydraulic

joints and electrical cabling slack) but

the effects were only visible between the

 ight engineer’s panel and the adjacent

bulkhead.

A standard 1970s panel of analogue

instruments reveals a few subtleties, such

as the machmeter and nose droop control

under the glareshield. The reheat switches

are white ‘piano keys’ under the thrust levers

which were engaged by the  ight engineer.

The hydraulics use a convention lifted from

the de Havilland Comet to aid identi cation:

two primaries and one secondary – green,

blue and yellow. An identical convention is

employed by Airbus today.

Centre of gravity (CG) position is

essential for weight and balance purposes.

It is also necessary in airliners to optimise

efficiency, and critical in Concorde.

Approaching Mach 1.0, the rearwards

movement of the centre of pressure (the

point at which the lift is considered to act

through the wing) from the CG causes a

nose-down pitch. Conventionally, a nose-

up order from the tail control surfaces or

trim-tabs would counteract this, but the

subsequent drag would restrict supersonic

 ight and push the controls towards the

edge of their authority. Instead, control

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Below: The machmeter – one of several

iconic instruments on Concorde. All photos

Martyn Cartledge unless stated

Below right: The nose-droop/visor selector

• detents for ‘up’ (nose and visor), the other
  three are all with the visor down ‘VIS/O°’ is
  for the nose in the normal position (0°), then
  at 5° droop for taxi/take-off and ‘Down’ meant
  lowered 12.5° for approach/landing.

Above: The fastest airliner  ight deck in

the West. Note the white reheat ‘piano key’

switches immediately aft of the thrust levers.

Bottom: Airspeed indicator with no redline

indicated. In the climb, indicated airspeeds

would eventually translate into a Mach number,

displayed on the machmeter. Robin Evans

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