Concorde: The Inside Story [Hardcover]

Brian Turbshaw (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 2003

When the Air France Concorde crashed outside Paris in July 2000, it seemed as though the final and damning chapter had been written in the golden story of the world's most famous airliner. The chilling images beamed around the world of the aircraft in its final death throes have left an indelible stain on a hitherto untarnished safety record. As the former British chief test pilot, Brian Trubshaw's close association with Concorde has placed him in the unique position of being able to write the inside story of this world-famous supersonic passenger jet. Because of his detailed knowledge of Concorde, Brian has been closely involved in the exhaustive investigations into the recent tragedy. He piloted the world's first (and only) supersonic passenger transport aircraft on its maiden flight from Filton in 1969, and remained a key member of the Concorde programme after the aircraft entered airline service in 1976. In this new and updated edition of his best-selling book, Brian gives his unvarnished opinions about the causes of the Paris crash, the resulting court of enquiry and the hopes for Concorde returning to airline service this year. The author's close association with Concorde and the selection of 200 photographs and illustrations (c100 in colour) have made this the best-illustrated and most important book yet published on this aircraft.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Brian Trubshaw was chief test pilot of the Concorde during its development phase. His first book was BRIAN TRUBSHAW: TEST PILOT which Sutton published in 1998. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 203 pages
• Publisher: Sutton (October 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0750928115
• ISBN-13: 978-0750928113
• Product Dimensions: 10 x 8.3 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,738,410 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An insight into technical tribulations of Concorde project, June 12, 2001

By 

Claudio Bompadre - See all my reviews

This review is from: Concorde: The Inside Story (Hardcover)

"Concorde" provides an engrossing and objective assessment of the famous program by Cpt Trubshaw, notwithstanding his close association with the entire project. In fact he was the Chief Test Pilot for the british side on the first joint-venture (Aerospatiale & British Aeronautical Corp.) in the european aviation history. His drive, energy and enthusiasm are widely recognized since he remained a key member of the Flight Test programme during development phase and even after the aircraft entered airline service.

His professionality and objectivity in the book are backed by his opinions about the flawed concepts that affected commercial success of the whole programme. Some of them are strictly technical, in fact an instance is given by the avionic layout: to stay in touch with the 50-50 responsability of design and production shares, the inertial navigation system was totally new and prone to fail during alignment phase(it was actively discouraged aircraft entry during the phase), while airlines wanted off-the-shelf equipment because they already had them in planes and spares. Another example is the moving map display debate that was engaged between french and british counterparts. Trubshaw points out the entire matter was nosense since most of flights were planned over oceans (avoiding sonic booms over populated territories) and the task of keeping it uptodate(over a featureless area)would have been enormous. Another nightmare was the autopilot-autothrust system that were unable to cope with unexpected large temperature shear aloft, inducing almost uncontrollable climb/descent, this behavior required a long testing phase, being unacceptable for airline service. The complexity of design is well explained, showing the long experimental trials to get powerplant reliable since the engine-intake matching was a real challenge(nice descriptions are reported in Seddon&Goldsmith'"Intake aerodynamic" for aeronautical engineer students). One of the greatest factor affecting the project was the lack of a firm customer from the outset. Since no airline was a player from the beginning, Aerospatiale&Bac went on to start afresh with everything, not employing proven equipment(just the opposite of Skunk Works' policy of off-the-shelf apparatus when innovation was not required), so they lenghtened the development phase and they forced airlines to reinvent crew training, raising development&operating costs to unbearable levels. Despite tecnical details, the book is amusing for the great human touch of the author. His typical british sense of humor is always ready to induce some smiles at the authoritative content, delighting readers' attention to events. It was real fun when the author delivers the story of one of top manager of Bac effusively welcoming the first gentleman joining in at a reception for a demonstration flight, just to discover that the poor chap was the piano player hired for the evening. Another story is related to the rapturous welcome occurred at Sidney although the airport fire brigade got rather excited when the tailbumper threw off some sparks at touchdown. Its final outcome prompted a design modification, encouraging a small wheel on bumper in production aircraft to avoid fire tracks' pursuings on runway during landing roll.

"Concorde" is really a deep insight in the project history. Vivid memories are supported by a fascinating selection of photographs of the aircraft, many taken from the author personal collection. A highly recommended portrait of political&industrial aeronautical endeavor in aviation litterature!

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One Half of a Must Have Set, October 19, 2000

By 

Donald C. Buresh Jr. (Winter Springs, FL USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Concorde: The Inside Story (Hardcover)

If you could only have two books about the Concorde, this must be one of them, the other being The Concorde Story by Orlebar. This book fills any gaps left by the other and presents the politics, design/developement, crews and actual operations involved with this beautiful vision of Man's desire to fly. If you are a fan of this aircraft, you'll want to sit down in your favorite chair and absorb the wealth of text, illustrations and pictures this book has to offer.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Lots of political, organizational and technical detal, July 5, 2003

By 

Carl Seglem (United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Concorde: The Inside Story (Hardcover)

I was looking for a good introduction and foundation for understanding Concorde and I thought this book along with Orlebar's would do the trick.

I was very disappointed with this one, though. It devotes lots and lots of words to (from my point of view) arcane historical and political issues. After a couple chapters I just gave up and returned this book. I was very happy with the Orlebar and Calvert books.

If you're interested in the detailed very insider-oriented story of Concorde, this may be the book for you. (And it appears from a number of the reviewers that it was interesting for them.)