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Posted for JIMRHER@aol.com:
Sorry for the off topic story, but thought some of you would want to hear it.
I just returned form a round trip to the UK via the Concorde. I know that seems strange to park my L4P for three weeks but there is a little Lancair story in there also.
The SST is old but very impressive. The acceleration is very smart but it is very heavy at take off (408,000 lbs.) and lifts off at 250 mph and lands a 190 mph. Yes, all the info. is in MPH and Mach. You can feel the lighting of the afterburners, two sets of two, but most folks don't notice. About 1min and 7 sec. after take off they come out of burner for noise control. After they clear out of the noise area they relight the burners and climb / accelerate to Mach 1.7 at about 38,000 ft. where they come out of burner and are in what they now call Supercruise. Then they accelerated and climb to Mach 2.0 at about 50,000 ft. and 1290 mph. I understand that they couple the autopilot to the Mach at 2.0 and the aircraft continues to climb for the rest of the flight. As fuel is burned it climbed to a max. of 57,000 ft. and 1390 mph. Other than the noise of the air going by it is pretty normal. The cabin is pressurized to 6000 ft. at 50,000 ft. but you really notice the noise after they slow down from Mach 2 to Mach 1, I was surprised at the sound difference. I guess that is why the window (4X6) is 200* on the outside and I guess 95* on the inside. The other interesting thing is when they back the power out for decent, you feel as if the nose is pitching down but the altitude is staying the same until about Mach 1.4 then they start down. I think your inter-ear is fooled at the reducing of power and then you also know how much the engines were pushing to maintain Mach 2.
Our flight from NY to Lon was 3:17 hrs and the return was 3:22 hrs. Interesting that we departed London at 6:30 PM and we arrived in San Jose, CA at 9:50 PM the same evening with a 2 hr flight connection in NY. On our bus trip around the UK I met another L4 owner builder Scott Williams from Grandview, WA. and we had a great time talking Lancair's. A very small world, wouldn't you say?
This was a trip of a lifetime and the only way I could go Mach 2 and fly at 57,000 ft.
Hope you found this interesting,
Supersonic Jim Hergert
N6XE, "An Sex Y" L4P
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