Way to Go Down Under

[johnfowles]

Somehow I doubt if I'll be around to see it but this headline on
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/global/ma...ethyper105.xml looked exciting
Hypersonic flight: Brussels - Sydney in 5 hours
A British-designed, 3,800mph (6,115kph) hypersonic airliner could one day ferry holidaymakers from Brussels to Sydney in five hours


The company aims to have the plane in service within 25 years, and believes that an Antipodean return trip would cost about as much as an existing business-class ticket – around £3,500.
The project, known as the Long-Term Advanced Propulsion Concepts and Technologies or LAPCAT, is funded by the European Space Agency (ESA) to encourage the use of space-travel technology in aircraft design.
According to Reaction Engines the A2 would be capable of sustained travel at Mach 5, or 3,800mph - more than double the late Concorde’s top speed.
Powered by liquid hydrogen engines called Scimitar, based on existing technology, the A2 will be 143 metres long, or roughly twice the length of an Airbus A380, the largest airliner currently in service.

[Jesse Joe]

That is some good looking aircraft.

"Hear the mighty engines roar, see the silver bird on high
She's away and westward bound, far above the clouds she'll fly"

[Kerstin]

Hi jesse,
you're right, that is a fine looking air plane. Looks a bit like the Concord. Are they still using that, by the way?

[timetraveler]

Way I see it, it will only end up going the way that the Concorde did. Perhaps a bit on the pesimistic side, but that's how I see it ending up.

[Jesse Joe]

The front of it looks like a giant pencil, I dont know if they are still using the Concorde Kerstin

[charlene]

The Concorde is no longer flying. The last flight was in 2003.

[johnfowles]

To be honest I though the proposed aircraft was more reminiscent of the still born Boeing 2707

picture of the mock up found on a very descriptive website:-
http://www.arthurhu.com/toys/sst.htm
Concorde was completely removed from service with both British Airway and Air France in 2003 due to the continuing high costs involved. possibly exacerbated by negative publicity after the crash of one in Paris in 2001.

and despite an offer of just £1 by Virgin Airways' Richard Branson to take all of BA's fleet,

they were all given away to various museums around the world
a fully detailed register of every Concorde and where it now is can be found at:-
http://www.concordesst.com/retire/retirestatus.html

A few of these are now "stored" out in the open and despite my accursedly tardy dial up connection I found three using the local.live aerial picture site

1. 
   
2. At a museum in Seattle. ironically near the Boeing plant
   
   a largish ground picture of that one is at :-
   http://conspiracy.cia.com.au/Holiday...1-dsc04495.jpg
3. there used to be a third in New York
   

I have previously displayed the Intrepid screenshot in a thread about local.live at:-
http://www.corfid.com/cgi-bin/ubb/ul...2;t=000938;p=2
a local.live screenshot of an ex British Airways Concorde on a barge alongside the USS Intrepid aircraft carrier/museum on the Hudson in New York.However it is not there now as the Intrepid is curently having an extensive restoration over the other side in New Jersey.[/list]No doubt there are others outside and therefore viewable by either local.live or Google earth.
a google image search found me
http://maps.pomocnik.com/satellite-maps/?map=2626
from which I made this screenshot*** of the Concorde at London's Heathrow Airport


It remains to show two pictures I found on the internet somewhere or other

All 7 of BA's Concordes on the ground

All 4 Air France Concordes flying together
Jessie Joe might care to try to track down a few more.
for example can you get to the German Sinsheim Technik Museum??

where both a Concorde and a Concordski are on open air display
found on:-
http://www.showbus.co.uk/gallery/foreign/de/sinstm.htm
*** TIP to make a screenshot use the wonderful, reliable and easy to use freeware
Gadwin Printscreen

[Kerstin]

Hi John,

you sure managed to track down quite a few of them. Very interesting. I remember seeing one in England at an air plane museum, can't remember where in England, though. That was sooo long ago. Never heard of that German Museum you mentioned, but I'll look into that.

[Jesse Joe]

http://www.ruudleeuw.com/sinsheim05.htm


http://travel.webshots.com/album/356405751AElQUt

[Jesse Joe]

Translation required here, Kerstin can you do it ?

YouTube - Tupolev TU-144 @ Auto & Technik...

[Kerstin]

Hi Jesse,

how long did it take you to find that museum? 2 seconds? Amazing. They have my favourite plane,too, it seems. A Ju-52. Those are pretty hard to find. They had one doing sight seeing flights over Hamburg years ago.

[Jesse Joe]

[Kerstin]

That Concord that caught fire in Paris. That was so shocking. I remember it like it was yesterday. I wonder if that was the reason they stopped using them.

[Jesse Joe]

That was maybe one darn good reason ?

[Kerstin]

Hi Jesse,

that video talks about the Tupolev being the first airplane that was faster than sound. Something about it being the first plane that did the sonic boom in 1969 earlier than the concord. Travels 2 1/2 the speed of sound. Does that makes sense? It was pretty technical. Anyway, they took the plane apart to ship it to the museum and rebuilt it over there.

[Jesse Joe]

Makes a lot of sense, thanks Kerstin. In the meantime here is a video of the one on fire.

YouTube - Concorde Flight 4590: Final Moments...

[Kerstin]

Originally Posted by Jesse Joe

That was maybe one darn good reason ?

Hi Jesse,

that would have been a very good reason, indeed. Would have been even better to be aware of the dangers and stopped using them before any tragedies occured, but maybe that's asking too much....

[Jesse Joe]

Originally Posted by Kerstin

Hi Jesse,

that would have been a very good reason, indeed. Would have been even better to be aware of the dangers and stopped using them before any tragedies occured, but maybe that's asking too much....

Your absolutely right Kerstin, the wonders of the world... what can you do, c'est la vie...


http://www.satellite-sightseer.com/i...useum_Sinsheim

[Jesse Joe]

JU-52



http://www.ju52-3m.ch/about.htm

YouTube - Junkers JU 52 takeoff, landing at...

[Kerstin]

Hi Jesse,
seems like there are still more of the Ju s around than I thought. The one we had flying in Hamburg was a civilian air craft, of course, with none of the old markings on it.

[johnfowles]

The Russians stopped when they found that having beaten Concord (which they obviously heavily copied (the result of much espionage no doubt)) into the air they could not make it pay and their own verry public Paris crash was due to over zealous showing off by the Russian pilot acording to a video I have
The Air France 2001 Paris crash was basically because it scooped up something deposited on the runway by an American airliner
Neither were by a long way the first aeroplanes to exceed the speed of sound and creating a sonic boom that honour belongs to the USAF in and their test pilot Chuck Yeager in the Bell X1 in 1947

Yeager in front of the Bell X-1, which, as with all of the aircraft assigned to him, he named Glamorous Glennis (or some variation thereof), after his wife.
that is a great wiki. well worth reading
I never before read
"finishing the war with 11.5 official victories, including one of the first air-to-air victories over a jet fighter (a German Me-262). Two of his "ace in a day" kills were scored without firing a single shot; he flew into firing position against an Me-109 and the pilot of the aircraft panicked, breaking to starboard and colliding with his wingman; Yeager later reported both pilots bailed out."
I did however know that
"Two nights before the scheduled date for the flight, he broke two ribs while riding a horse"
Quite a man. he will be 85 on Februay 13th it seems

[Kerstin]

Hi john,
that's interesting. I thought that they said on the video that the Russian was the first. I'll watch it again. Maybe they just said they made it sooner than the Concord.
I'm still not sure how all that sonic boom business works. Maybe Wikipedia can tell me. They have not let me down so far.

[johnfowles]

Originally Posted by Kerstin

Hi john,
that's interesting. I thought that they said on the video that the Russian was the first. I'll watch it again. Maybe they just said they made it sooner than the Concord.
I'm still not sure how all that sonic boom business works. Maybe Wikipedia can tell me. They have not let me down so far.

TIP two years ago I noticed that my nephew in doing a google always added "wiki" to his search term.

Not to be outdone by the hard working chappie from Moncton
here is the other SST crash

YouTube - Tupolev 144 www.avijacija.com.mk

silent film
and a better one showing a landing

YouTube - TUPOLEV TU-144 tribute to CCCP-77102

and a definitive crash video:-

YouTube - Tupolev Tu-144

IMHO the 144 had absolutely none of the sublime grace and beauty of the Concorde though

[Jesse Joe]

Amazing videos John, a smooth landing on the second video at the end.

[Jesse Joe]

Originally Posted by Kerstin

Hi Jesse,
seems like there are still more of the Ju s around than I thought. The one we had flying in Hamburg was a civilian air craft, of course, with none of the old markings on it.

Here is another pic of a JU-52, Just for U Kerstin