Page 23 - Aviation News - September 2017

FLIGHT DECK Above: The fastest airliner ight deck in
the West. Note the white reheat ‘piano key’
The ight deck is accessed down a long switches immediately aft of the thrust levers.
tunnel, the port side occupied by a wall
of avionics and circuit breakers. Facing Bottom: Airspeed indicator with no redline
this is the ight engineer’s huge panel indicated. In the climb, indicated airspeeds
would eventually translate into a Mach number,
on the starboard side of the ight deck, displayed on the machmeter. Robin Evans
facilitating face-to-face discussion with
the captain on the port side. Supersonic two primaries and one secondary – green,
thermal expansion occurred throughout blue and yellow. An identical convention is
the fuselage (requiring telescopic hydraulic employed by Airbus today.
joints and electrical cabling slack) but Centre of gravity (CG) position is
the effects were only visible between the essential for weight and balance purposes.
ight engineer’s panel and the adjacent It is also necessary in airliners to optimise
bulkhead. efficiency, and critical in Concorde.
A standard 1970s panel of analogue Approaching Mach 1.0, the rearwards
Below: The machmeter – one of several instruments reveals a few subtleties, such movement of the centre of pressure (the
iconic instruments on Concorde. All photos as the machmeter and nose droop control point at which the lift is considered to act
Martyn Cartledge unless stated under the glareshield. The reheat switches through the wing) from the CG causes a
Below right: The nose-droop/visor selector are white ‘piano keys’ under the thrust levers nose-down pitch. Conventionally, a nose-
– detents for ‘up’ (nose and visor), the other which were engaged by the ight engineer. up order from the tail control surfaces or
three are all with the visor down ‘VIS/O°’ is The hydraulics use a convention lifted from trim-tabs would counteract this, but the
for the nose in the normal position (0°), then the de Havilland Comet to aid identi cation: subsequent drag would restrict supersonic
at 5° droop for taxi/take-off and ‘Down’ meant ight and push the controls towards the
lowered 12.5° for approach/landing.
edge of their authority. Instead, control

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