Re: Which was the bigger engineering challenge ? Concorde. Or Apollo ?
I don’t know if it was Ted Talbot or another Concorde engineer, but a story I heard was that a chap was invited over to look at the B1A, have dinner, give a speech, etc.
Unfortunately in his after dinner speech he commented that the B1A clearly was having intake problems, wasn’t going to get to M2 properly, all because the inlets were on the wrong way round.
This was unfortunate because, although correct and astutely deduced merely from having had a brief tour of the development factory and seeing the prototype airframe, what he’d blurted out was classified Top Secret at the time. And now everyone, spouses included, knew it. Oops.
Made quite an impression though!
Concorde wasn't as fast as the SR71 / A12, but most people on board could drink champagne in shirt sleeves whilst moving at M2. SR71 pilots / RSOs didn't get to do that...
Biting the hand that feeds IT
