The studies for the Anglo-French Concorde supersonic airliner started in 1954, and France and the UK signed a treaty establishing the development project on Nov. 29,1962. Construction of the six prototypes began in February 1965, and the first flight took off from Toulouse on Mar. 2, 1969.
Powered by four Rolls-Royce/Snecma Olympus 593 turbojets with variable engine intake ramps, and afterburner for take-off and acceleration to supersonic speed, the Concorde had a speed of Mach 2.04 at an altitude of 60,000 ft.
Noteworthy the photo in this post is the only image featuring a Concorde flying at Mach 2.
It was brought to my attention by Paul L. Raper, MSc TESP/TESOL Aston Univeristy, Birgmingham, an aviation expert and a reader of The Aviation Geek Club.
According to the photo description (available on ConcordePhotos.com), the dramatic picture in this post features ‘Concorde G-BOAG flying at supersonic speed and is the only picture ever taken of Concorde flying at Mach 2, 1350 mph. This unique image was taken from a Tornado fighter jet, which rendezvoused with Concorde for just four minutes over the Irish Sea in April 1985. The RAF Tornado, rapidly running out of fuel, was struggling to keep up with Concorde. Cruising at Mach 2, Concorde stretches six inches from her normal 204ft length. Due to the heating of the airframe, she reaches 127 °C at the nose and trailing edges but the special ‘high-reflectivity’ white paint helps reflect and radiate heat.’
Supercruising at Mach 2.0 for hours
The whole thing took around 45 minutes and involved a refueling.
They rendezvoused at MACH 1, then accelerated to MACH 2 where upon the Tornado was not able to keep up with Concorde for more than a few minutes which was when Concorde had to slow to MACH 1.35 in order to allow the Tornado to catch up.
After racing to catch the Concorde and struggling to keep up, the Tornado broke off the rendezvous after just four minutes, while Concorde cruised serenely on to JFK!
Concorde’s fastest transatlantic crossing was on Feb. 7, 1996 when it completed the New York to London flight in 2 hours 52 minutes and 59 seconds.
As already explained, Concorde was an absolute beast. Supercruising at Mach 2.0 for hours to traverse the Atlantic, it could effectively outrun a nuclear blast and catch up with the sun.
Andrei Kucharavy, an aviation expert, explains on Quora.
‘Think about this picture. A state-of-the-art fighter jet, specialized interceptor, stripped to the bones and pushed to its maximum is rapidly running out of fuel, operational altitude and range. In the meantime, about a 100 people inside the aircraft it was trying to rendez-vous with are being served champagne, as it slowly climbed to its operational altitude and accelerated towards its cruising speed that it would maintain for the next couple of hours.
Parallel flight
‘Even the F-22, developed almost 50 years after the Concorde and the reigning undisputed air supremacy fighter can only supercruise at Mach 1.8 and its top speed – Mach 2.2 – is the same as for a Tornado. If Concorde was still flying, it is unlikely it would be able to photograph it at Mach 2.0. Even if the Soviets back at the time were willing to lend the Mig-25/Mig-31, it is not entirely clear if it would be able to sustain the level flight with Concorde at Mach 2.0 for long enough to have a picture taken.’
Could the SR-71 Blackbird reconnaisance aircraft have gotten a picture of it easily, as it cruised at up to Mach 3?
Kucharavy explains;
‘Realistically, Mach 2.0 at 60 000 feet is well within the operational envelope of an SR-71, but it’s more the logistics of a double refueling that would have been a problem. SR-71 take-off logistics were quite something. Right after the take-off it had a couple of minutes to get to 25 000 ft and find a tanker and then had at most 2.400 NM to get do the round trip. Significantly shorter if it performed an excursion into the supersonic range and used its afterburners. I believe for a NY-London traverse an SR-71 had to refuel once in the middle, but for the rest of it sustained close to the Mach 3.2. So a parallel flight with Concorde was not out of question, but definitely would have been quite a mission to organize.’
