Engines
The Concorde has four jet engines that propel it to
supersonic speeds. Each
engine has about 180 kilo Newtons (18.7 tons) of thrust.
But these engines
produce more than just power. They are LOUD, making
the Concorde the
noisiest passenger-carrying airplane ever built.
Fuel
The Concorde carries about 119,500 liters (31,569 gallons)
of fuel and
burns about 25,629liters (6,771 gallons) per hour in
the air. But fuel
isn't just for flying. It's also used to balance the
plane.As the Concorde
flies at supersonic speeds, the center of lift shifts
towards the back of
the plane, making the nose heavy and the plane unbalanced.
To keep the
plane balanced as it accelerates during flight, fuel
is moved from the
front to the rear. Transferring the fuel shifts the
center of gravity. By
adjusting the center of gravity at the same time as
the center of lift
shifts, the plane remains balanced. When the Concorde
slows down, the
center of lift moves forward and fuel is transferred
again--this time from
back to front--to maintain balance.
1.During supersonic flight,
center of lift
shifts back.
2.Fuel is transferred back
to shift the center
of gravity and balance the aircraft.
3.During deceleration,
center of lift shifts
forward.
4.Fuel is transferred forward
to shift the
center of gravity and balance the aircraft.
Nose
Then taking off and landing, the Concorde flies at a
steep angle, which
makes it difficult for the pilot to see. To increase
visibility during take
off and landing, the pilot tilts the whole nose down
by 12.5 degrees.
During flight, the pilot straightens the nose and raises
a heat-resistant
visor to create a streamlined shape. This reduces drag
and improves fuel
efficiency.
1.Take-off and Subsonic
Cruising (tilt 12.5
degrees, visor down)
2.Supersonic Flight (tilt
0 degrees, visor up)
3.Subsonic Cruising (tilt
0 degrees, visor
down)
4.Landing (tilt 12.5 degrees,
visor down)
Speed
The Concorde cruises at Mach 2, or twice the speed of
sound*. That means
you can get to places in a Concorde faster than in a
regular airplane. In
fact, you can "arrive before you leave!" How?
Well, it's a matter of
timing. For example, if you flew from London to New
York,it would take you
3.5 hours. You could leave London at 5 PM and arrive
in New York at 3:30PM
-- 1.5 hours before time of take-off! Why? Because you
crossed 5 time zones
(setting the clock back 5 hours) in just 3.5 hours.
Concorde Speed Facts
Take-off: 402 kph (250 mph)
Cruising: 2,150 kph (1,336 mph/Mach 2) at 16,765 m (55,000
ft.)
Landing: 300 kph (187 mph)
* The generally accepted speed of sound in air is 344
m/sec (1,130 ft/sec
or 758 mi/hr) at 20(inf)C (68(inf)F).
Wings
Modified Delta Wing
The Concorde's wings are thin and swept back at an angle.
Thin wings reduce
drag and help delay the formation of shock waves. But
wings can be made
only so thin. The angling back of the wings, which further
reduces drag,
makes them act as if they are thinner in the airstream.
From the PREZ
Prez Sez, by Walter Pierzchala
At our August meeting the club will be accepting nominations
for new BOG
members. A total of 11 new BOG members will be elected
at the October
general meeting. I would like to see more of our younger
club members
involved in making club policy. We need new blood and
new ideas. Please
consider running for the BOG.
As you fly your airplanes this summer at the field,
have you noticed how
manicured the field and surrounding areas are?
Thanks to Dennis
DiBoneventura who comes out early each morning
The August meeting
August 8 will be held at the field at
7 PM
. In case of rain, meet at the Church
at 8 PM.
At the August club meeting we will have a member of
the Valley Forge Park
Staff as guest speaker.
A REMINDER
There is a federal law forbidding any financial
transactions in the
National Park.
RAFFLE NEWS
Due to the change of meeting location to the park the
raffle is temporarily
suspended till the September
general meeting Please don't let this deter you from
attending our monthly
meetings. Bring out a chair
and enjoy the cool evening weather.
July Club Meeting Notes at the field
7/11/00 7PM
52 members present
1. members who ordered hats, pick them up at the field storage barrel #2
2. newsletter will be delivered late because mail service
took 11 days to
deliver mailing labels
3. New club directories should be available before next meeting
4. VFSS has been designated a GOLD LEADER CLUB by AMA.
We have received a
plaque which we hope will be displayed in the park
visitor's center.
5. The sound check program is working out very well.
6. Flying over route 252 could result in a $75.00 fine
from the park
authority and will have a negative impact on our
club. CHECK YOUR
PERSONAL FLIGHT LIMITS.
7. At the August meeting we will be looking for 11 new
BOG members to
replace those members now serving whose term expires
in 2001. Step up
and volunteer, see how our club operates.
8. A park history speaker will be guest speaker at our
next meeting in the
park on August 8th at 7PM
9. Once again: be aware of spectators
approaching the flight path from across the
field.
Fun Flys 2000
Chaired by Mike Estock
Saturday September 23rd
rain date
Sunday September 24
The following article was first printed in the January
1994 issue of
Hearye. The author was John Powell. I am reprinting
it at the request of
instructor Joe Pasquini who feels that good advice never
grows old. At the
end of this piece John mentions that the experts say,
"battery lifetimes
are unreliable after two years" A Battery Cycler
is the ideal way of
monitoring battery condition. Expanded scale voltmeters
only cost @ $15 and
should be part of everyone's field equipment. This was
a good article.
NICAD NOTE
John Powell
Last month I had a problem with several of
my older receiver NiCad
battery packs on gliders. This made me decide to take
the trouble to check
the actual charging current that I was getting
from my two standard
Airtronics battery chargers, just to make sure they
were doing their thing.
What I found was that while both chargers were
providing a reasonable
current to the transmitter packs of about 54 milliamps
into the 600ma
batteries, (60ma would be nominal) THE RECEIVER
PACKS WERE ONLY GETTING
HALF THE RECOMMENDED CHARGE CURRENT for the battery
packs I use. This will
certainly lead to nasty surprises at the field. I
measured one charger at
31ma and the other at 34ma into various 4.8v battery
packs instead of the
expected 55 to 60ma. These reading were consistent
across batteries at
different states of charge. So was this flukey or what?
I then borrowed two
more Airtronics chargers from Marty Albion and
found the same thing.
Charger output to the receiver battery was 32 and
34ma.On these chargers
the transmitter outputs were a bit lower at 52 and
51ma. (Chargers tested
were models 95030 and 95033.) In practice this
means that the receiver
chargers were suitable for 300 or 350mah packs and the
transmitter chargers
for 500mah packs. If I recharged my 600ma packs
for the NORMAL TIME of,
say, 12 hours, the receiver batteries would be about
half charged and the
transmitter about 85%. Of course, usually the
packs don't need a full
charge so I could "get away with it" for quite
a while. However if I CYCLED
the batteries (discharged them to 1.1v per cell, before
recharging) then I
would need to keep the receiver packs cooking for about
28-30 hours and the
transmitters for about 18 hours. Just to get a sanitary
check, I measured
the charge from my World Engines World Engines "Expert"
system and found
the receiver 52ma and the transmitter 65ma about
right for the batteries
supplied with that system. My home made constant charger
measured 60ma and
60ma. I wrote to Jack Albrecht at Airtronics to ask
him what was happening
here. He replied that these older chargers were intended
for 500ma battery
packs and also were of very simple (cheap) design
? so I shouldn't expect
them to produce an accurate charge current. Looking
back at my most recent
Owners Manual (a last resort), I noticed that they
were recommending that
you sometimes give your batteries A 24-HOUR RECHARGE.
I think that this is
an indirect admission that the standard chargers
are supplying less than
the nominal current. This experience has made me a
believer in using good
3rd party charger units such as from ACE RC, or building
your own if you
like electronic projects. I would strongly recommend
that you find a way to
confirm the charge currents on your own systems.
(Do this carefully to
avoid accidentally short circuiting a battery). If
the actual currents are
significantly above or below the C/10 rate for
your batteries then you
should adjust the charge time down or up to compensate.
Finally, I want to
pass on a suggestion from a reprint that Jack sent me
("NICAD LIFE") or why
is down so steep? By Red Scholefield, a battery industry
engineer and RC
flyer. He writes that the best way to keep nicad
batteries fully charged
during STANDBY periods like between flying sessions
is to first give all
packs a full charge and keep them plugged in o your
regular C/10 charger
BUT USE A SECURITY LAMP TIMER TO TURN THE CHARGER
ON FOR ONLY ONE HOUR A
DAY. He says that this would be much better for
the cell chemistry than
either continuos trickle charging at the C/100 rate,
or just letting the
packs run down with no intermittent charging. The
batteries will be ready
to take to the field anytime and should be in good condition.
PS the experts recommend that no NICAD pack is likely
to be reliable
after about 2 years, no matter how well you treat it.
Hmmm I'm living on
borrowed time.
IT IS NOT OVER YOUR HEAD
Ernie McGauley
The article by John Powell that was reprinted on the
previous page is full
of technical terms that many of our members may not
understand. The things
that are mentioned are not difficult to understand.
If you are among the
many who are not technically inclined, I urge you
to talk to your fellow
flyers about it. You will have little difficulty
grasping the subject
matter. You owe it to yourself to get the picture
when talking about such
an important subject as batteries.
Start Your Engines
Harold J. Harrison
If you are on an aspirin a day, you bleed easier
and a lot longer. The
good news is, there is a safer way to start your engine.
So why not make an
elegant starting stand and reduce the risk of a propeller
strike?
Look around and observe the engine starting procedure
on the
field.Arms reaching around the propeller to hold the
airplane while
engaging the starter. Arms over the prop to adjust the
needle valve or
remove glo starters.Body parts and face usually right
over the propeller
arc. If that propeller ever breaks or the engine misfires
it is anyones
guess where it might go.
Why make a starting stand?
You don't have to dodge propellers from a misfired
engine that are
whizzing past your face
You have a firm grip on your airplane at all times.
You are standing behind your airplane so it is
not going to jump out
and bite you if the engine goes full bore for some reason.
It happens, like
when the transmitter falls over onto the throttle lever.
Your body and face are not in the propeller arc.
All adjustments are made from behind a turning propeller.
If you do come in contact with the prop it might
skin or your knuckles
but not not that painful cut to the bone thing that
you get from in front
of the prop. The contour of the back of the blade actually
pushes your
fingers away.
Even 18lb airplanes, but not limited to, once
engaged in the starter
cone, can be handled easily with one hand and
steadied against your
leg.This leaves your other hand free to hold over the
exhaust to prime your
engine while the engine is being turned over by the
starter.
A must for cowled in engines. There is no fumbling to unfasten a tide down.
Use of the power panel and a remote control connection
to energize the
glo-plug is also much safer than reaching over to disconnect
a glo-starter.
Simple use of telescoping brass tubing, cy-a, wood and
a little ingenuity
accomplishes this and is also a plus with cowled engines.
A wire soldered
to a small wheel collar will fit nicely on the glob-plug.
A small "o" ring
insulator sliced from silicone fuel tubing goes on first.
Ground the other
wire to the crankcase.
This is a great hobby, stay alert and don't set yourself
up for an
accident.
Let's hear those oohs and aahs as you show up at
the field with your
beautifully designed elegant starting stand and a much
more graceful you as
you start your engine.
WHAT AN EXPERIENCE
Ernie McGauley
While looking for airplane rides on the internet,
I found a place that
offers glider rides as well as trips in a Stearman or
a Great Lakes. This
past year I did all three. Most recently my friends
and I did aerobatics in
a Great Lakes and the Stearman. Being in an open cockpit,
fabric covered
biplane and performing spins, loops, rolls, and hammerheads
is dramatically
different from standing on the flight line watching
your model do it. Yes!
The instructor in the rear cockpit let me do the maneuver
after we got up
to 3000 feet. If anyone is interested in having this
experience, call me.
I'll fill you in. Don't think that you can do the aerobatics
as pretty as
you do them with your model. The instructor corrected
my moves EVERY time.
Maybe he was just holding on for dear life.
NEWSLETTERS
Ernie McGauley
It has come to my attention that everyone did
not receive their copy
of the July newsletter. The July issue was a bit of
a problem which began
with the postal service taking more than ten days
to deliver the mailing
labels to the printer. Why some of you didn't receive
your copy is beyond
me. In the future there will be a few copies placed
in the #2 barrel at the
field. If you don't receive your copy in the future,
please call me at the
phone number on the back page. This is the only
way that we can tell if
there is a problem.
FOR SALE
TAMECAT
SUPERTIGER 45
Futaba 4ch radio
READY to FLY
call
Owen Conlon
FOR SALE
Hangar 9
J3 Piper Cub ARF Kit
80" Wing Span
Call George Ray
Feedback or comments to:
Ernie McGauley , HearYe editor
Michael Myers, Webmaster
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