probably not.campbell wrote:Now here's a thing...do you think, crash apart, that engine technology 30-odd years could have provided more efficient and/or quieter engines to enable Concorde to keep flying whilst upsetting fewer residents and becoming more commercial viable through reduced fuel usage?
More efficent & or quieter engine needs a high bypass fan(like on a normal airliner) where as concorde uses a turbojet like a fast jet. This has a small fan.
The noise making part of the engine is the turbine core - and the large flow of cool fan air (80% fan 20% turbine core on a normal high bypass fan) shrouds the noise of the core.
Also, the bigger the fan, the more thrust can be produced and therefore the same core engine can be much more efficent with a large fan than without.
With a turbofan engine though, there's too much frontal area for supersonic speeds amongst other issues (think harrier compared to F16). No doubt there are far better engines of the same type as the olympus out there now (with boltless turbines, powder metal tech and 3D turbine aero section & more efficent combustors) but the noise fuel issues still stand pretty much unaltered.
have a look here for the latest in gas turbine tech
Hoping to get out to the states in a few months to work on these before they go into service on the new boeing. If not we'll have one over here early next year.
arrival in April '04 across the fields.
