October 14th I got in an afternoon build to wrap up Thanksgiving long weekend. I assembled three more bags, the first on this day making up the left engine, which once attached my plane had all engines. These engines powering the Concorde allowed the aircraft to cruise at 2,146 km/h (1,334 mph), allowing passengers to see the same sunset twice!
Bag 16 transitioned to the front of the aircraft, assembling the front of the aircraft with the the assembly below. I’m not 100% sure, but this sits behind the cockpit and would be where the door to the aircraft would reside as well as the transition point between the cockpit and the rest of the plane. A total of 135 pilots and 57 flight engineers were training to operate the unique aircraft.
Bag 17 involved creating the assembly that allows for the cockpit/nose of the aircraft so pilots could see during takeoff and landings. For the nose cone and visor assembly to look beautiful and functional for this aircraft two brand new LEGO elements were developed exclusively for this model, the nose cone and the visor. Concorde’s retractable visor folds down with the nose to reveal the cockpit windshield hidden behind. Very cool and definitely adds to this LEGO set!
The iconic Droop Snoot was a clever solution to allow pilots to see the runway during the high angle of attack on take-off and landing where the length of the nose cone made it difficult for pilots to see the runway. A necessary concession as this long nose configuration with the delta wing were crucial for achieving supersonic speed.
In the last image you can see the one static port panel, as they are on each side. The static ports on the Concorde are part of the aircraft’s static pitot system. They measure the static pressure, which is crucial for calculating the altitude and airspeed by comparing it to the total pressure from another pitot tube. Additionally, these ports also serve as air intakes for cooling the equipment bay.
