Concorde's Last Flight

[Chris Sykes]

Its on Channel 4 at 9pm...

Thought you guys might like to know

[Kevin Farnell]

Thanks for the 'heads up' Chris.

Just finished watching this and thought I was well read on the Air France Concorde disaster.
A real eye opener as to what had happened behind the scenes, prior to the crash.

Cheers

Kevin

[Sl4yer]

Just finished watching this and thought I was well read on the Air France Concorde disaster.
A real eye opener as to what had happened behind the scenes, prior to the crash.

They didn't even open the can of worms, if some of the stuff on Pprune is to be believed. No mention of the rough, unfinished runway surface the T/O roll started on, taking off with a tailwind outside limits, possibly with CG outside limits due to being overweight, F/E shutting down an engine still producing power without the Captain's authority, water deflectors not tethered like the BA aircraft. IIRC from the time, BA used Michelin tyres which were more resistant to dangerous breakage than the Goodyears used by AF!

I don't know just how much of this is true, and probably never will. But I'm afraid I'm as suspicious as many from across the pond when it comes to BEA accident reports.

James

[VEGAS]

I really enjoyed it. A very good documentary.

[DaveB]

You can bet that some of what has been said over at Pprune has more than a hint of truth threaded through it though I'll grant a lot of hot air is also spouted from that esteemed forum

Missed the first 30mins unfortunately but happy to find it still had an hour to go I see Mike Bannister a lot at Brooklands and he looks bigger sitting down than he is in real life

As with all programmes of this type, I think you have to read between the lines but it was an interesting prog (the hour I saw) nontheless

ATB

DaveB

[Harry Basset]

I watched all except the first 30 minutes and found it very interesting. Did pilots really slam the throttles forward like that?

[Garry Russell]

Every vid I've seen of Concorde take offs have seen the throttle slamed forwards.

[Sl4yer]

I watched all except the first 30 minutes and found it very interesting. Did pilots really slam the throttles forward like that?

Yes, the 'computers' do the rest (reheats are already armed), including retarding the acceleration of the No.4 engine so that the vortices off the leading edge don't stall it at low speed! Incredibly advanced stuff for it's day. It's easy to see why the Russian effort didn't cut it - it's wing could have been designed with a ruler compared to the advanced Concorde wing.

I love the "3, 2, 1, go!" as well. All done from the stopwatch from that point.

Wasn't too sure about the computerised FBW system though. Electrical signalling yes, but computers controlling the outputs, not really...

I really enjoyed it too. Was saddened as well...

James

[gordon-in-aberdeen]

Caught it last night as well. I did wonder who or how someone was where they were to get that take off photo.
The stuff about the previous, eerily similar incident in the US caught my attention very much.
The one thing that I got out of it though was the feeling of deep raw emotion of those involved at what happened and then the plug being pulled on her.
Very sad it all went the way it did

[Garry Russell]

I didn't watch this last night but isn't it the same one shown quite often on Satellite??