WEBVTT - How the Concorde Worked 0:00:01.120 --> 0:00:04.560 Welcome to Stuff you should know from how Stuff Works 0:00:04.600 --> 0:00:13.840 dot com. Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark. 0:00:14.080 --> 0:00:17.560 There's Charles W Chuck Bryant, There's Jerry over there, Frank 0:00:17.640 --> 0:00:23.120 the chairs in here, my thick tongue, Chuck's haircut, Chuck's beard, 0:00:23.760 --> 0:00:29.360 Chuck's hat, Jerry's glasses, Jerry's on the phone, not knowing 0:00:29.400 --> 0:00:34.959 what's going on. Everybody's right with the world. Oh, I've 0:00:34.960 --> 0:00:37.160 been spelling this wrong all these years, by the way, 0:00:37.280 --> 0:00:40.680 we've been spelling out like Flight of the Concords between 0:00:40.720 --> 0:00:45.600 that and Concord with no E and all my writings 0:00:45.600 --> 0:00:51.240 on the Concorde. Well you have that blog Concorde days. Yeah, 0:00:51.280 --> 0:00:53.319 but yeah, and I noticed there's no E on it, 0:00:53.960 --> 0:00:57.440 and I spelled days day z as you did. Chuck. 0:00:57.480 --> 0:01:00.480 We share a mind sometimes because I was about too 0:01:00.520 --> 0:01:02.560 had I not been taking a sip of coffee, I 0:01:02.600 --> 0:01:05.679 would have said that at the same time d a Z. Yeah. Well, 0:01:06.000 --> 0:01:07.760 I was waiting on you to take a sip so 0:01:07.800 --> 0:01:11.000 I could steal that thanks to uh. In fact, I 0:01:11.040 --> 0:01:13.360 tried to get a And we're gonna talk a little 0:01:13.360 --> 0:01:16.520 bit later about the experience of flying on the the 0:01:16.600 --> 0:01:20.200 famed and fabled Concord Jet airliner. That's what we're talking about. 0:01:20.600 --> 0:01:22.399 But I tried to get in touch. I know a 0:01:22.480 --> 0:01:27.120 person who made that trip. Uh, Justin's mom. I don't 0:01:27.120 --> 0:01:34.560 know Justin, Well, imagine Justin but mother. Ok. Yeah, Justin's 0:01:34.560 --> 0:01:38.920 mom carry from England, and she made a like since 0:01:38.959 --> 0:01:41.520 I've known her, so I guess one of the one 0:01:41.520 --> 0:01:44.840 of the last trips early two thousand's. Yeah, that would 0:01:44.840 --> 0:01:47.160 have been I think it's two thousand three, October two 0:01:47.160 --> 0:01:49.280 thousand three when it was decommissioned. Yeah. So I hit 0:01:49.320 --> 0:01:51.400 her up on Facebook and it was like, Carrie, you know, 0:01:51.560 --> 0:01:53.640 let me know what it was like. But she's in 0:01:53.800 --> 0:01:57.720 a hurricane ravage North Carolina, so she's probably like buzz off, chuck, 0:01:57.840 --> 0:02:00.080 everything all right with her. Yeah, Yeah, they're good. They 0:02:00.320 --> 0:02:03.120 went inland. Shout out to all of our peeps who 0:02:03.200 --> 0:02:05.800 were who had to go through Florence. Yeah, my sister 0:02:05.880 --> 0:02:08.280 was there right in the middle of it. She okay, yeah, 0:02:08.360 --> 0:02:12.040 she's good. Trees down in the area, but like minimal 0:02:12.200 --> 0:02:16.280 house damage and they're high on you know, they sit 0:02:16.400 --> 0:02:20.200 higher up, so it's not like they're not flooded. That's 0:02:20.240 --> 0:02:23.480 good because a lot of the area is yeah, and 0:02:23.520 --> 0:02:25.400 she was also I mean, she said it's bad, but 0:02:25.480 --> 0:02:29.760 she said the news is always just so sensationalized. She's like, 0:02:29.800 --> 0:02:32.280 this is not like Hurricane Katrina or anything. Did you 0:02:32.320 --> 0:02:35.800 see that UM clip of the Weather Channel? Dude? No, 0:02:35.960 --> 0:02:38.400 I didn't, So what was he just like making stuff 0:02:38.440 --> 0:02:41.200 like no, leaning into the wind like he was about 0:02:41.240 --> 0:02:43.240 to be blown over? And then in the background, two 0:02:43.280 --> 0:02:46.120 guys just strolled by and like shorts and flip flops, 0:02:46.160 --> 0:02:47.960 not even I mean, like I don't even think their 0:02:48.000 --> 0:02:50.880 hair was blowing. That's shameful. It is shameful, and I'm 0:02:50.960 --> 0:02:54.240 so glad that that made the round because that's ridiculous. 0:02:54.520 --> 0:02:57.160 It is, you know, especially for a weather event where 0:02:57.200 --> 0:03:00.680 there's genuine fear and like you could incite panic. Like 0:03:01.440 --> 0:03:03.320 I think that there's a lot of a lot wrong 0:03:03.360 --> 0:03:08.799 with that. So let's shake on it. Okay, alright, So concords. 0:03:09.880 --> 0:03:12.839 So we're talking concords today. I never got to fly 0:03:12.919 --> 0:03:16.160 on one. You didn't, because go ahead and assume Jerry 0:03:16.200 --> 0:03:20.120 didn't UM, And I don't know anybody who did, but 0:03:20.200 --> 0:03:23.000 I would have loved to have. And I think I've 0:03:23.080 --> 0:03:26.960 stepped on board one. There's one at the Smithsonian Air 0:03:27.000 --> 0:03:29.919 and Space Museum by Dullus. I thought you met you 0:03:29.960 --> 0:03:31.480 boarded a flight and they're like, sir, you're on the 0:03:31.480 --> 0:03:33.799 wrong plane. Back when you could do that, Sir, you're 0:03:33.800 --> 0:03:38.000 asleep right now. This is a drink. UM. I can't 0:03:38.040 --> 0:03:42.360 remember if they actually let you step on it or not. Um. 0:03:42.360 --> 0:03:45.720 Where was this Dulless Dullis Airport that the Smithsonian Air 0:03:45.760 --> 0:03:49.920 and Space Museum? Is there one still there? Yes, it's um. 0:03:49.960 --> 0:03:56.280 It's called the Stephen f Udvar Hazy Center. I just 0:03:56.320 --> 0:03:59.000 call it the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum at Dulless. 0:03:59.760 --> 0:04:03.800 It really nice. They have like a a stealth Um 0:04:03.960 --> 0:04:08.080 black Hawk, No, not black Hawk, Blackbird SR. Seventy one Blackbird. 0:04:08.960 --> 0:04:11.560 Did you know that those things are built so that 0:04:11.680 --> 0:04:15.800 when they're on the ground, the plates that hold them 0:04:15.840 --> 0:04:19.800 like that make up the plane, they have gaps in 0:04:19.839 --> 0:04:22.760 between them. The reason is because that thing flies so 0:04:22.839 --> 0:04:26.320 fast and gets so hot that the plates expand and 0:04:26.400 --> 0:04:29.239 it becomes solid when it really counts. But on the ground, 0:04:29.240 --> 0:04:32.080 apparently when it's taking off, it would just leak fuel 0:04:32.160 --> 0:04:35.159 everywhere because it doesn't have like a solid plate to 0:04:35.160 --> 0:04:38.280 to speak of. That's like us basically becomes solid when 0:04:38.320 --> 0:04:41.040 it counts anyway. At the Seran Space Museum at Dullus, 0:04:41.080 --> 0:04:43.480 which is frankly worth flying to Dullus just to go 0:04:43.600 --> 0:04:47.160 to it's that good. Is a concorde I think it's 0:04:47.160 --> 0:04:50.599 an Air France concorde Um, one of the last ones 0:04:50.680 --> 0:04:52.800 that was ever flown. Yeah, I'm a fan of air 0:04:52.839 --> 0:04:55.840 and space museums. You you would love this one, man. 0:04:55.960 --> 0:04:59.560 I wouldn't. I wouldn't say I'm like an aviation uh 0:04:59.720 --> 0:05:03.039 how owned, But I know people that are, well you 0:05:03.040 --> 0:05:05.039 you don't have to be to appreciate this. Yeah, sure 0:05:05.080 --> 0:05:07.920 for everybody. And there's a space shuttle there too. Yeah, 0:05:08.040 --> 0:05:09.680 I'm gonna have to check that out. Yeah for sure. 0:05:09.680 --> 0:05:11.760 I used to go to the one in Pennsyl Pensacola, 0:05:12.040 --> 0:05:14.400 the Naval Air Museum. They're growing up, and I just 0:05:14.400 --> 0:05:16.520 thought it was cool, you know, walk around looking at planes. 0:05:16.680 --> 0:05:19.960 You're gonna love this. Well, all right, so let's go 0:05:20.040 --> 0:05:26.360 back in time to uh the swinging sixties in England. Yeah, 0:05:26.680 --> 0:05:29.520 which was pretty swinging. It was, in fact very quickly. 0:05:29.560 --> 0:05:32.400 I want to recommend that Michael Caine documentary my generation. 0:05:33.040 --> 0:05:35.360 I haven't seen it. It's not just about Michael Caine. 0:05:35.400 --> 0:05:37.839 He's sort of like the host of what London was 0:05:37.920 --> 0:05:40.680 like in like the late sixties, so pretty cool, the 0:05:40.720 --> 0:05:44.320 whole Alfie thing, Alfie and the Rolling Stones and Marry 0:05:44.360 --> 0:05:46.600 and Faithful and he and Albert Finney and just like 0:05:47.480 --> 0:05:52.559 saying to the class establishment, yeah, we're young and also 0:05:52.600 --> 0:05:58.000 super rich. Well eventually sure, but anyway, in the sixties, 0:05:58.279 --> 0:06:00.320 this is the early sixties, so and quite as winging. 0:06:00.320 --> 0:06:04.479 Then the British and the French government's got together and 0:06:04.480 --> 0:06:08.119 they say, hey, let's uh, let's build a really fast 0:06:08.160 --> 0:06:12.080 plane together. Yeah, because it turned out that the British 0:06:12.120 --> 0:06:15.760 and the French, we're both building what's called the supersonic 0:06:15.880 --> 0:06:18.839 transport plane s s t S. And they weren't the 0:06:18.839 --> 0:06:22.159 only ones doing it either. It was the Soviets and 0:06:22.200 --> 0:06:25.320 the Americans, the British and the French were all working 0:06:25.400 --> 0:06:29.120 on their own supersonic transport plane at the same time, 0:06:29.480 --> 0:06:34.720 which is weird until you think about jet. Jet airliners 0:06:35.040 --> 0:06:38.920 were really really new, and so everybody was all about 0:06:39.040 --> 0:06:42.880 jet airliners, which made them think, well, what goes even 0:06:42.920 --> 0:06:46.479 faster than that? Supersonic planes that travel faster than the 0:06:46.480 --> 0:06:48.760 speed of sound. So everybody was working on them at 0:06:48.760 --> 0:06:51.040 the time. Yeah, I'm surprised that it was that early 0:06:51.400 --> 0:06:55.200 in airline travel when they thought, hey, maybe we can 0:06:55.240 --> 0:06:57.800 go really fast. That seemed like it would be like 0:06:57.839 --> 0:07:00.880 a thirty years on developed it. I think there was 0:07:00.920 --> 0:07:06.159 a lot more like inspiration and ent, let's shoot for 0:07:06.240 --> 0:07:10.880 the stars to burn. Sure, um, who cares about the 0:07:11.000 --> 0:07:14.200 environment kind of thing. Yeah, but I I really get 0:07:14.240 --> 0:07:16.960 that that sentiment because I think about it, four different 0:07:17.040 --> 0:07:19.880 nations working on the same kind of pie in the 0:07:19.920 --> 0:07:25.760 sky project. That's impressive. So they built a couple of prototypes, um, 0:07:25.840 --> 0:07:30.880 and then the very first flight of the Concorde was nine. 0:07:31.760 --> 0:07:34.880 Together they made about twenty or they made twenty not 0:07:35.000 --> 0:07:37.440 about this is actually something where they know the number. 0:07:38.000 --> 0:07:42.000 Although I did see sixteen and fourteen production models, but 0:07:42.080 --> 0:07:45.320 every place I've seen sixteen sixteen was in more places, 0:07:46.200 --> 0:07:50.480 so not no production models. So like I guess prototypes 0:07:50.520 --> 0:07:54.760 and stuff don't count, like sixteen that actually flew commercially. Gosh, 0:07:54.760 --> 0:07:56.920 what did they do with the prototypes and his trash 0:07:57.000 --> 0:07:59.440 them or something? I don't know. Maybe that's the dullest 0:07:59.520 --> 0:08:01.480 or No, that was probably a production model. Yeah, it 0:08:01.520 --> 0:08:04.320 definitely was, because you got you want seat stains on 0:08:04.440 --> 0:08:07.679 display and all their glory. This one smells like Gerard Depard. 0:08:08.240 --> 0:08:12.840 Oh God, not that guy. Uh. Alright, so you talked 0:08:12.840 --> 0:08:17.040 about the Soviets they built and this is hysterical. But 0:08:17.080 --> 0:08:20.960 they built something called the t U one, the tupa left, 0:08:21.560 --> 0:08:26.600 and they nicknamed it with a K, the Concorde Ski. Right. 0:08:26.760 --> 0:08:28.800 That seems like a joke, I think, well, I think 0:08:28.840 --> 0:08:32.200 the Brits and the French nicknamed it, and kind of 0:08:32.240 --> 0:08:36.040 derisively too, because the Soviet what the Soviets came up 0:08:36.080 --> 0:08:38.880 with looks an awful lot like what the Brits and 0:08:38.920 --> 0:08:42.280 the French came up with. And it makes you wonder 0:08:42.679 --> 0:08:46.160 one of two things was there, like espionage going on 0:08:46.160 --> 0:08:48.360 on one side or the other one one group was 0:08:48.400 --> 0:08:50.400 spying on the other group. I would say, yes, probably, 0:08:50.600 --> 0:08:54.679 Or is it just that the Concorde follows these aerospace 0:08:54.720 --> 0:08:59.760 principles that any highly skilled, well trained aerospace engineer would 0:08:59.760 --> 0:09:01.880 fall low and come up with on their own. Probably 0:09:01.960 --> 0:09:05.160 that too. I wonder that makes more sense though, because 0:09:05.160 --> 0:09:09.359 Concorde Ski was so hysterical. It seems like something from 0:09:09.400 --> 0:09:12.000 like the Benny Hill Shower or something. Right, So, so 0:09:12.080 --> 0:09:15.840 by this time I can laugh just hearing Benny Hill 0:09:15.920 --> 0:09:18.640 Shaw Yeah. By this time, the French and the British 0:09:19.200 --> 0:09:21.320 are coming up with their own concord, the Soviets have 0:09:21.400 --> 0:09:23.800 come up with their own, and the Americans are like 0:09:23.840 --> 0:09:28.120 war out. I think Congress funded a report just saying 0:09:28.160 --> 0:09:30.560 like how much is this singing and cost? By the way, 0:09:30.760 --> 0:09:33.040 and um got back the bill and we're like, no, 0:09:33.440 --> 0:09:35.760 we're not doing this anymore. And they scrapped the boeing, 0:09:36.200 --> 0:09:39.080 which is the oh seven Oh is that what it 0:09:39.120 --> 0:09:42.280 was going to be? And I think they made hey 0:09:42.320 --> 0:09:45.000 about the sound and the noise of the sonic boom. 0:09:45.200 --> 0:09:49.840 That's supposedly why there aren't super sonic planes anymore. They're 0:09:49.840 --> 0:09:51.720 going to be that their kin though, I think, well, 0:09:51.760 --> 0:09:53.720 we would have to repeal a law in the United 0:09:53.720 --> 0:09:58.360 States that you can't have overland sonic booms from commercial airlines, 0:09:58.880 --> 0:10:00.960 and you got the same law in Europe. So there's 0:10:01.080 --> 0:10:05.280 two huge continental markets that are just you can't service 0:10:05.320 --> 0:10:08.240 anymore because it's illegal to fly over I'm in a 0:10:08.240 --> 0:10:10.920 supersonic plane. And that, from what I understand, is the 0:10:10.960 --> 0:10:14.760 true reason why there's not concords any longer. Really just 0:10:14.840 --> 0:10:17.360 the boom, not just the boom they're really expensive in 0:10:18.360 --> 0:10:21.760 but the boom killed it and it's kept it from 0:10:21.800 --> 0:10:26.160 coming back. Have you ever heard of sonic boom? Yeah? 0:10:26.640 --> 0:10:28.960 I don't think it's that bad. It depends on the 0:10:29.000 --> 0:10:31.240 sonic boom, right, I guess it depends on how big. 0:10:31.440 --> 0:10:33.400 I guess you wouldn't want one, you know, eight times 0:10:33.400 --> 0:10:37.080 a day over your neighborhood. Well that's the thing is like, Yeah, 0:10:37.120 --> 0:10:40.280 you know, if if everybody was flying supersonic, think about 0:10:40.280 --> 0:10:43.520 how many planes fly overhead of you know a place 0:10:43.600 --> 0:10:46.000 that's a place where you live by the airport. Imagine 0:10:46.000 --> 0:10:48.240 each one having a sonic boom. No, that would get old. 0:10:48.280 --> 0:10:50.240 But I'm saying, like, if I'm at the beach and 0:10:50.280 --> 0:10:52.320 there's like an F sixteen I hear the boom, I'm 0:10:52.360 --> 0:10:54.920 kind of like, oh that's awesome. Yeah, you like toast 0:10:54.960 --> 0:10:58.280 him with your beer. I love it when those guys 0:10:58.280 --> 0:11:01.920 buzz the beach like sending reything tumbling. It's fun stuff. 0:11:02.600 --> 0:11:06.720 Uh boy, should we take a break already? Sure? All right, 0:11:06.800 --> 0:11:08.920 let's do it. We'll describe what these things were. I 0:11:09.000 --> 0:11:37.760 right after this, sorry, Chuck, before we describe the concorde, 0:11:38.080 --> 0:11:40.320 I'm kind of excited about. We should say what happened 0:11:40.320 --> 0:11:46.719 to the Soviets Um Concorde SKI, so it very publicly 0:11:47.480 --> 0:11:50.120 um flamed out and crashed at a play's air show, 0:11:50.320 --> 0:11:53.240 killed everybody on board and killed several I think eight 0:11:53.240 --> 0:11:55.920 people on the ground at this air show, which air 0:11:55.920 --> 0:11:59.240 shows are super dangerous to begin with, but apparently, and 0:11:59.240 --> 0:12:01.959 I saw footage of it, the Soviet pilot was basically 0:12:02.040 --> 0:12:05.400 flying a concorde like a stunt plane and overstressed it 0:12:05.440 --> 0:12:08.080 and it came apart in the air and just crashed. Yeah, 0:12:08.120 --> 0:12:10.120 that's not a good idea, No, it's not. It seems 0:12:10.160 --> 0:12:13.920 like I mean, these things were definitely agile, but they 0:12:13.920 --> 0:12:17.079 seemed the best use was to fly straight and fast 0:12:17.120 --> 0:12:20.360 and high right, and their their performance at the air 0:12:20.400 --> 0:12:23.520 show followed the either air I guess the air France 0:12:23.520 --> 0:12:27.960 concorde um, which just took off, did its thing and 0:12:27.960 --> 0:12:30.600 then came back down like a normal flight, and the 0:12:30.640 --> 0:12:32.760 Soviets were trying to one up it because again it's 0:12:32.800 --> 0:12:36.440 the Cold War and France was friends with the US. 0:12:37.040 --> 0:12:40.079 This would get back to the Americans. Well, maybe we 0:12:40.080 --> 0:12:42.240 should talk about the other famous crash too, because that 0:12:42.280 --> 0:12:45.640 had a lot to do with its ultimate demise, Like 0:12:45.679 --> 0:12:47.720 combined with many other factors that will get to like 0:12:47.760 --> 0:12:50.160 you're saying the expense in the boom. But had it 0:12:50.240 --> 0:12:54.280 not been for the crash on July thud of an 0:12:54.280 --> 0:12:58.480 Air France concord flight from Paris to New York, it 0:12:58.679 --> 0:13:03.280 may not have been killed all as quickly. So this one, 0:13:03.480 --> 0:13:07.560 it was flight ninety. It was a charter that I 0:13:07.600 --> 0:13:10.360 think had a bunch of mainly German tourists headed to 0:13:10.360 --> 0:13:15.360 a cruise to depart from New York. And about five 0:13:15.400 --> 0:13:17.280 minutes before this thing hit the runway, there was a 0:13:17.320 --> 0:13:20.400 Continental jet that took off left behind a piece of 0:13:20.440 --> 0:13:24.040 metal that was about sixteen inches long and about three 0:13:24.040 --> 0:13:27.800 inches wide, very small. No one caught it. Uh. And 0:13:27.840 --> 0:13:32.000 then this concord runs over this thing at like three 0:13:32.040 --> 0:13:34.840 hundred and seventy miles an hour or something, yeah, which 0:13:34.880 --> 0:13:36.400 I mean, we'll get to that. But those things were 0:13:36.480 --> 0:13:39.440 fast when they were taken off. Yeah, so who knows 0:13:39.480 --> 0:13:41.959 if it would have happened on on a regular flight. Uh. 0:13:42.000 --> 0:13:45.199 And this thing popped up and it blew out of 0:13:45.280 --> 0:13:49.280 tire and disturbed the fuel tank. Yeah. Well the tire 0:13:49.400 --> 0:13:53.040 blew the debris into the engine and blew out one 0:13:53.080 --> 0:13:56.680 of the engines. Yeah, and it ruptured the fuel tank. Too, 0:13:56.720 --> 0:14:00.280 so fuel just comes spewing out of it, Okay, And 0:14:00.280 --> 0:14:03.880 there's a very famous picture of that concorde taking off 0:14:03.880 --> 0:14:06.520 with just a trail of flames coming out of it, 0:14:06.880 --> 0:14:08.600 and you see it and you're like, wow, the concorde 0:14:08.720 --> 0:14:11.480 was cool looking, and then you realize it's not supposed 0:14:11.480 --> 0:14:13.959 to look like that at all. Yeah, two hundred feet 0:14:14.000 --> 0:14:18.640 of flames. So we'll talk in a minute here about 0:14:18.720 --> 0:14:22.760 the the weird fuel distribution in this thing. But uh, 0:14:22.880 --> 0:14:25.920 it was about eighteen hundred pounds overweight at time of takeoff, 0:14:26.440 --> 0:14:28.440 and they said that didn't necessarily have anything to do 0:14:28.480 --> 0:14:31.720 with the wreck, but because it was overweight, they had 0:14:31.880 --> 0:14:36.160 one of the fuel tanks full, where otherwise it might 0:14:36.160 --> 0:14:39.840 have been a little redistributed, So that was most of 0:14:39.880 --> 0:14:43.520 the fuel at the time. Again, it probably wouldn't have mattered, 0:14:43.640 --> 0:14:46.240 like any fuel on fire is not good. But what 0:14:46.320 --> 0:14:48.360 struck me was that it was on fire before they 0:14:48.360 --> 0:14:51.960 took off, Like they told them, you're on fire and 0:14:52.000 --> 0:14:54.840 you're still on the ground. But apparently they were going 0:14:54.960 --> 0:14:58.520 so fast that it was too dangerous, like you couldn't 0:14:58.560 --> 0:15:01.000 stop the plane. Well, the reason that I saw that 0:15:01.040 --> 0:15:04.320 the pilot um tried to take off even though he 0:15:04.400 --> 0:15:06.480 knew he was on fire. Was because he figured he 0:15:06.520 --> 0:15:09.240 could put the fire out just from the thrust up 0:15:09.280 --> 0:15:12.480 in the air, starving it of oxygen and basically blowing 0:15:12.520 --> 0:15:15.080 the fire out from the engine. See. I saw that 0:15:15.160 --> 0:15:17.760 he couldn't stop because he was going almost four miles 0:15:17.800 --> 0:15:21.840 an hour and they had to go somewhere. Um. I 0:15:21.880 --> 0:15:25.040 also saw that had they not had more fuel than 0:15:25.120 --> 0:15:27.479 what they should have had, had they not been overweight, 0:15:27.960 --> 0:15:32.680 they probably could have gotten aloft right, And I think 0:15:32.720 --> 0:15:36.359 the flight engineer also shut down one of the engines inexplicably, 0:15:36.800 --> 0:15:39.480 So now they were down two of their four engines, 0:15:40.000 --> 0:15:43.840 and they just crashed into a hotel, right, which is 0:15:43.880 --> 0:15:47.080 remarkable that more people in a hotel didn't die, but 0:15:47.120 --> 0:15:50.480 I think only one person in the hotel was critically injured, 0:15:50.920 --> 0:15:54.320 and then everybody on board died the plane. Yeah, which 0:15:54.320 --> 0:15:56.200 I mean, did it blow up into a fireball or 0:15:56.200 --> 0:15:59.720 something like that. I don't think they're just going that fast. No, 0:16:00.040 --> 0:16:02.440 think they just crashed. I mean I'm sure there was 0:16:02.480 --> 0:16:07.120 a lot of fire involved. Uh, clearly from that photo. Yeah. 0:16:07.520 --> 0:16:11.720 So Continental and one of Continental's mechanics were actually found 0:16:11.760 --> 0:16:17.720 guilty of manslaughter. But then it was later overturned. The Yeah, interesting, 0:16:17.960 --> 0:16:21.120 um with the get they were exonerated in two thousand ten. 0:16:21.200 --> 0:16:25.600 That really that that, yes, that piece of metal did 0:16:25.640 --> 0:16:28.000 start the series of events. But had it just been 0:16:28.000 --> 0:16:32.600 the piece of metal and nothing else, they probably would 0:16:32.640 --> 0:16:34.640 have survived. They would have taken off and then been 0:16:34.680 --> 0:16:36.120 able to come back in for a control. I wonder 0:16:36.120 --> 0:16:39.080 if the airport was sued. I don't know, because it's 0:16:39.120 --> 0:16:42.560 not the continental planes fault necessarily. From what I understand, 0:16:42.680 --> 0:16:46.040 France sues everybody when there's a plane crash that has 0:16:46.080 --> 0:16:50.000 to do with France. They might sue us maybe about this, right, 0:16:51.160 --> 0:16:53.080 all right, so you want to talk about all right, 0:16:53.120 --> 0:16:57.120 that was a tragedy. Well that so that that, combined 0:16:57.120 --> 0:16:59.480 with the memory of what happened to the Soviet concourse, 0:17:00.040 --> 0:17:03.320 really shook people's faith. But as we'll see later on, 0:17:04.240 --> 0:17:06.960 there were a lot of people who were involved in 0:17:07.000 --> 0:17:10.520 this project who if they canceled it would lose a 0:17:10.560 --> 0:17:14.040 lot of face that I think hopped on the opportunity 0:17:14.200 --> 0:17:17.360 to be like, yep, concords aren't safe. We tried, We'll 0:17:17.440 --> 0:17:20.480 just scrap it. How about that? Interesting? Yeah, this is 0:17:20.480 --> 0:17:26.760 a movie totally for the movie with any alright, so 0:17:26.840 --> 0:17:29.359 let's let's just talk about the plane and what made 0:17:29.359 --> 0:17:34.400 it different and special. A normal seven forty seven Boeing 0:17:34.440 --> 0:17:38.000 seven forty seven goes about five D sixty miles an 0:17:38.040 --> 0:17:41.080 hour at just cruising speed at about thirty five thousand 0:17:41.160 --> 0:17:45.879 feet the concord, it's cruising speed was about hundred and 0:17:45.920 --> 0:17:49.760 fifty miles an hour at almost twice the altitude between 0:17:49.760 --> 0:17:53.800 sixty and seventy thousand feet, which is faster than the 0:17:53.840 --> 0:17:57.320 speed of sound. Yeah, by a long shot. I think 0:17:57.440 --> 0:17:59.760 Mack one is the speed of sound. This thing would 0:17:59.800 --> 0:18:04.520 fly mocked two cruising cruising speed and sixty feet. That's 0:18:04.560 --> 0:18:09.880 eighteen thousand three D above sea level. Yeah, that's ridiculously high. 0:18:09.920 --> 0:18:12.440 You're basically kissing the edge of space right there. Yeah, 0:18:12.440 --> 0:18:15.280 it's not quite suborbital, but you're flirting with it. Right. 0:18:15.400 --> 0:18:17.359 So I was like, gosh, I guess it's about where 0:18:17.359 --> 0:18:21.639 Felix bomb Gardner jumped for that one stratosphere jump. Remember 0:18:21.640 --> 0:18:24.760 when he did that. He jumped at twice that height 0:18:25.480 --> 0:18:29.720 and I think twenty eight thousand feet. Yeah, that's insane. 0:18:29.800 --> 0:18:34.200 That guy jumped out of a platform skydive from that height. Yeah, 0:18:34.200 --> 0:18:36.440 that's almost so high. That it's like, what's the difference 0:18:36.800 --> 0:18:41.400 between that and yeah, maybe you know, I don't know. 0:18:42.080 --> 0:18:44.440 And he lived, He did live, and he really pulled 0:18:44.480 --> 0:18:47.280 out because remember he started to spin and they were worried. 0:18:47.320 --> 0:18:49.239 He blacked out and he was done for I bet 0:18:49.320 --> 0:18:53.240 he's not finished. No, I'm surprised he hasn't done anything recently. 0:18:53.600 --> 0:18:56.080 It's been long enough. Yeah, all right, so let's talk 0:18:56.119 --> 0:18:59.560 about the design of this thing, because you can't just 0:19:00.480 --> 0:19:04.199 like soup up an engine on a seven seven and 0:19:04.320 --> 0:19:06.879 say all right, now you can fly faster and higher, 0:19:07.280 --> 0:19:11.359 like this plane had to be completely designed for this purpose. Yeah, 0:19:11.400 --> 0:19:15.760 because again seven, which flies pretty fast, we just totally 0:19:15.840 --> 0:19:19.320 break up if you could somehow get it to the 0:19:19.359 --> 0:19:22.080 speed of sound, because the speed of sound itself is 0:19:22.200 --> 0:19:24.560 really really fast, and it's a different type of flying 0:19:24.960 --> 0:19:27.399 just from the friction and everything in the air. But 0:19:27.480 --> 0:19:32.240 also to get to the speed of sound requires um 0:19:32.280 --> 0:19:36.119 a lot of effort on your planes part. Do you 0:19:36.160 --> 0:19:39.239 ever read the right stuff? Now? I never read that. 0:19:39.400 --> 0:19:42.880 The Tumbults did a great explanation of Chuck Yeager being 0:19:42.920 --> 0:19:45.840 the first person to break the sound barrier, like no 0:19:45.880 --> 0:19:49.360 one knew what happened beyond this wall. Of sound that 0:19:49.440 --> 0:19:53.040 forms or wall of air that forms that the nose 0:19:53.080 --> 0:19:55.840 of the plane, and Yeager was like, it's gonna like 0:19:55.840 --> 0:19:57.960 it felt like the plane was just gonna break the pieces. 0:19:58.200 --> 0:20:00.639 But he just knew, just knew that if he just 0:20:00.680 --> 0:20:04.640 got on the other side of it would be smooth sailing, right, absolutely, right. Yeah, 0:20:04.760 --> 0:20:10.080 supersonic sailing or supersonic flight is smoother than subsonic flight. Um, 0:20:10.119 --> 0:20:13.000 and it's definitely smoother than flying just below the speed 0:20:13.000 --> 0:20:15.960 of sound. But it's just this beautiful description of what 0:20:16.119 --> 0:20:19.320 you're doing it that's awesome. Yeah, But the point is 0:20:19.320 --> 0:20:24.320 is to fly at super sonic faster than sound speeds, 0:20:24.560 --> 0:20:26.480 you have to have a specialized plane, I think, is 0:20:26.520 --> 0:20:29.000 what you're trying to say, like five minutes ago. Sure, 0:20:29.240 --> 0:20:31.680 So we're gonna go through each one of these sort 0:20:31.680 --> 0:20:36.000 of design features and uh, one by one, starting with 0:20:36.640 --> 0:20:38.879 the fact that it was streamlined to begin with, and 0:20:38.880 --> 0:20:41.400 it's designed so like you were talking about that wall 0:20:41.440 --> 0:20:44.560 of air. Uh, in order to help punch through that, 0:20:45.200 --> 0:20:48.080 you have to streamline your plane. And the Concorde had 0:20:48.320 --> 0:20:51.320 very famously it just looked cool, but it had a 0:20:51.400 --> 0:20:54.879 very specific purpose. That needle like nose on the front 0:20:55.160 --> 0:20:57.000 that's to punch through that wall of air. Yeah, it 0:20:57.000 --> 0:20:59.280 wasn't to look cool, no, but it did look pretty cool, 0:20:59.280 --> 0:21:03.480 that's just aside beside benefit. And the plane itself was 0:21:03.920 --> 0:21:07.840 very sleek and in um needle like too. Yeah, for sure. 0:21:09.160 --> 0:21:13.280 The the wings it had a uh what's called a 0:21:13.320 --> 0:21:18.280 sweatback delta wings, so the wings were triangular and connected 0:21:18.280 --> 0:21:21.119 to the fuselage all all along. So it wasn't just 0:21:21.160 --> 0:21:24.880 like a rectangular wing coming off you know, you've seen pictures. 0:21:24.880 --> 0:21:28.160 It's just like a big folded napkin, like a big triangle, yeah, 0:21:28.280 --> 0:21:30.480 kind of. And and for those of you not in 0:21:30.560 --> 0:21:33.000 the know, a fuselage is like the main body of 0:21:33.040 --> 0:21:36.600 the plane where the passengers go, that's right, and not 0:21:36.720 --> 0:21:38.359 many of them in the case of the Concorde, no, 0:21:38.480 --> 0:21:42.320 because it was much smaller um width wise than a 0:21:42.400 --> 0:21:46.160 seven forty seven seven sevens like twenty ft across. This 0:21:46.240 --> 0:21:49.600 is half that, and so it would fit about a 0:21:49.720 --> 0:21:53.600 hundred passengers in two rows of two with an aisle 0:21:53.640 --> 0:21:56.560 going down the middle. It was not a big plane. 0:21:56.560 --> 0:21:59.440 It was small, no, And apparently there was a bathroom 0:21:59.480 --> 0:22:02.160 in the middle, so it sort of divided into two sections, 0:22:02.240 --> 0:22:04.920 but they weren't different like one wasn't first class and 0:22:04.960 --> 0:22:07.440 one was business. They were all identical. But I have 0:22:07.920 --> 0:22:09.920 pulled some quotes from writers and one of the guys 0:22:10.000 --> 0:22:12.880 was like, but you still felt better if you were 0:22:12.920 --> 0:22:16.240 in the front, like you were a better person, I guess, 0:22:16.280 --> 0:22:20.800 which is crazy because you will die sooner. Um, did 0:22:20.840 --> 0:22:23.680 we determine that at one point you're slightly more likely 0:22:23.720 --> 0:22:27.639 to survive in the rearver plane crash in the middle 0:22:27.119 --> 0:22:31.800 of the two really not the front though, to take 0:22:31.840 --> 0:22:35.480 that first class snobs. Uh, yeah, so not in a 0:22:35.480 --> 0:22:39.520 half feet wide, um two and two feet long, So 0:22:39.560 --> 0:22:42.280 it's a little shorter than a seven forty seven, but 0:22:42.320 --> 0:22:46.200 not much, not much. So it's just it's just narrower 0:22:46.480 --> 0:22:49.000 and more streamlined, like a little dark just punch him 0:22:49.080 --> 0:22:52.639 right through the air. Yeah. Uh. The other thing is 0:22:52.680 --> 0:22:55.879 the fuselage, like you said, the body. Uh, in the 0:22:55.920 --> 0:22:58.280 wing there was there was no space, like I mentioned, 0:22:58.280 --> 0:23:01.120 It was all just attacked in the and the engine 0:23:01.160 --> 0:23:04.320 mounted not on struts but directly to the wing. So 0:23:04.359 --> 0:23:06.919