Concorde Flight Characteristics

While commercial jets take eight hours to fly from New York to Paris, the average supersonic flight time on the transatlantic routes was just under 3.5 hours. In transatlantic flight, Concorde traveled more than twice as fast as other aircraft.

In regular service, Concorde employed an efficient cruise-climb flight profile. As aircraft lose weight from consuming fuel, they can fly at progressively higher altitudes. This is (generally) more efficient, so conventional airliners employ a stepped climb profile, where air traffic control will approve a change to a higher flight level as the flight progresses.

During a landing approach Concorde was on the "back side" of the drag force curve, where raising the nose would increase the sink rate. The delta-shaped wings allowed Concorde to attain a higher angle of attack than conventional aircraft, as it allowed the formation of large low pressure vortices over the entire upper wing surface, maintaining lift. This low pressure caused Concorde to disappear into a self-induced bank of fog on humid days. These vortices formed only at low air speeds, meaning that during the initial climb and throughout the approach Concorde experienced light turbulence and buffeting. Interestingly, the vortex lift created by Concorde’s wing just prior to touchdown supplied its own mild turbulence.

With no other civil traffic operating at its cruising altitude of about 56,000 ft (17,000 m), dedicated oceanic airways or "tracks" were used by Concorde to cross the Atlantic. These SST ("Super-Sonic Transport") tracks were designated:

1. Track Sierra Mike (SM); a uni-directional track used by westbound flights of both Air France and British Airways.
2. Track Sierra November (SN); a uni-directional track used by eastbound flights of both Air France and British Airways.
3. Track Sierra Oscar (SO); a bi-directional track used by westbound Air France flights which might conflict with westbound British Airways flights routing simultaneously on Track SM, and by eastbound Air France flights which might conflict with eastbound British Airways flights routing simultaneously on Track SN.
4. Track Sierra Papa (SP); a uni-directional seasonal track used by westbound British Airways flights routing from London Heathrow to Barbados.

Due to the nature of high altitude winds, these SST tracks were fixed in terms of their co-ordinates, unlike the North Atlantic Tracks at lower altitudes whose co-ordinates alter daily according to forecast weather patterns. Concorde would also be cleared in a 15,000-foot (4,600 m) block, allowing for a slow climb from 45,000 to 60,000 ft (18,000 m) during the oceanic crossing as the fuel load gradually decreased.

BA flights flown by Concorde added "Concorde" in addition to the standard "Speedbird" callsign to notify Air Traffic Control of the aircraft’s unique abilities and restrictions. The flight numbers of BA’s Concorde flights to/from the USA were 001–004; these BA Concordes therefore used callsigns "Speedbird Concorde 1" through to "Speedbird Concorde 4". The service to/from Barbados, special charter flights, and test flights prior to a return to service following maintenance used the prefix "Speedbird Concorde" followed by the relevant four-digit flight number. Air France Concordes used the standard "Airfrans" callsign.

Source: Wikipedia