Date: 2024-04-29 Page is: DBtxt003.php txt00020325
Technology / Transport
BAC Concorde
QUORA ... Was Concorde ever photographed going Mach 2.0? If so, how?
Peter Burgess
QUORA ... Was Concorde ever photographed going Mach 2.0? If so, how?
from Andrei Kucharavy ... February 24. 2021 ... Works at Bioinformatics
--------------------------
No.
Concorde seems cute and familiar because it was used for transportation and designed in the 60s, but it was an absolute beast. Supercruising at Mach 2.0 for hours to traverse the Atlantic, it could effectively outrun a nuclear blast and catch up with the sun.
While operational, it was effectively impossible to intercept to all the jet fighters of its generation barring a stripped Electric Lightning pushed to the limit - including F-15, F-16 or F-104. Just to take the only known supersonic picture of Concorde, a completely stripped RAF Tornado had to be pushed to its limit to be able to rendez-vous with a super-cruising Concorde. And yet in the end Concorde had to slow down to Mach 1.5 to allow for a good picture to be taken.
Think about this picture. A state-of-the-art fighter jet, specialized interceptor, stripped to the bones and pushed to its maximum is rapidly running out of fuel, operational altitude and range. In the meantime, about a 100 people inside the aircraft it was trying to rendez-vous with are being served champagne, as it slowly climbed to its operational altitude and accelerated towards its cruising speed that it would maintain for the next couple of hours.
Even the F-22, developed almost 50 years after the Concorde and the reigning undisputed air supremacy fighter can only supercruise at Mach 1.8 and it’s top speed - Mach 2.2 - is the same as for a Tornado. If Concorde was still flying, it is unlikely it would be able to photograph it at Mach 2.0. Even if the Soviets back at the time were willing to lend the Mig-25/Mig-31, it is not entirely clear if it would be able to sustain the level flight with Concorde at Mach 2.0 for long enough to have a picture taken.