The Concorde could have become the fastest commercial aircraft ever to take flight, thanks to its sleek fuselage design, delta wings, and powerful engines.
The Concorde passenger jet set a record for flying between New York and London in just 2 hours, 52 minutes, and 59 seconds. This supersonic aircraft could fly at twice the speed of sound. During its operational period from 1976 to 2003, the Concorde had a takeoff speed of 402 km/h and an average cruising speed of 2,173 km/h. In comparison, the Boeing 737-700, one of the most popular aircraft today, has a takeoff speed of 278 km/h and a cruising speed of 828 km/h.
The Concorde was retired in 2003 partly due to fuel costs. (Photo: travelview).
To achieve such high speeds, Concorde engineers needed to design an aircraft capable of handling both low-speed takeoff and landing as well as supersonic cruising speeds, according to Tony Farina, an associate professor of aerospace engineering at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Florida.
“Wings designed for efficient operation at supersonic speeds are often very poor at providing the necessary lift at slower speeds during takeoff and landing,” Farina explains. To reduce drag, supersonic wings are typically thinner and more rearward-swept, while standard wing designs are thicker to provide easier lift. Providing lift is especially crucial because the faster an aircraft flies, the greater the drag it experiences, according to Bob van der Linden, a curator at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C. Faster aircraft encounter more drag than lift.
One way the Concorde engineers addressed this issue was by designing the aircraft with a more streamlined fuselage, including a narrow passenger cabin and a long conical tail. They also used delta wings, a shape commonly reserved for fighter jets. “Delta wings have good characteristics at both high and low speeds,” van der Linden noted.
The delta wing design effectively reduces drag on the aircraft. Due to its fuselage shape, the Concorde jet needed to land with its nose angled higher than that of traditional commercial airliners. This made it challenging for pilots to see ahead. Ultimately, the engineers had to devise a mechanical means to lower the aircraft’s nose. Today’s supersonic aircraft overcome this issue with technology that the Concorde could not access in the 1960s. For example, Boom Supersonic’s XB-1 uses an enhanced vision system (cameras and displays) to avoid the downward tilt of the nose.
In addition to its sleek design, the Concorde was equipped with four turbojet engines, each providing 18.7 tons of thrust and consuming nearly 26,000 liters of fuel per hour. In contrast, the Boeing 737-800 consumes about 3,200 liters of jet fuel per hour. The Concorde also increased thrust from its engines with a device called afterburners, which pushed the aircraft forward more rapidly but also significantly increased fuel consumption.
Ultimately, fuel costs were one of the reasons the Concorde was commercially unsuccessful, alongside the crash of Air France Flight 4590 in 2000.
