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Concorde Airframe Wooden Mock-up’s
Below is a picture showing a full-size wooden Concorde mock-up, first displayed at the 27th Paris Air Show. Afterwards it was moved to Orly Airport where it could be visited by the public, until it was set alight and destroyed some years later by vandals.
The interfaces and relationships between the individual component parts of an assembly can often be better understood by seeing the items ‘in the flesh’, rather than on a drawing or sketch.
An overall impression of the finishes article can also be gained from observation and comparison with a scale replica.
In the days before computer-aided design and 3-d graphics, the construction of engineering models and mock-ups was commonplace.
The Concorde project was no exception; one of the first items to be produced was a full-scale wooden mock-up. This proved invaluable in the design and manufacturing process, the Filton mock-ups being available to engineers as it stood in the assemble hall where Concorde was built.
Other models and mock-ups of the whole or sections of the airframe were built for various purposes during the project, including one of the flight deck, this was used for instrument equipment layout arrangements. The input from the airline pilots and the Concorde test crews was important in the flight deck design where the layout of controls and instruments was crucial to the safe operation of the aircraft. The design philosophy of keeping flight deck procedures as near as possible to those used in a conventional aircraft had a major bearing on the flight deck layout, the complimentary comments received from airline pilots during the flight-testing phase proved that the designers’ aims had been met.
Mock-ups of cabin layouts were of particular importance to the sales team, enabling them to show prospective customers the interior layout of the passenger cabin furnishings, a full-sized wooden mock-up was exhibited at the Paris Air Show in 1967, giving the public its first glimpse of the airliner of the future. The dream was one step closer to reality at this point, but many challenges were still to be faced in the quest for a supersonic airliner.
Location of the Wooden Mock-Up’s today
The full-scale wooden mock-up that once stood in the assemble hall at Filton, where Concorde was built, still exists and is available for public viewing.
It now stands on display at the Flambards Village Theme Park, in Cornwall. It was transported there direct from BAC, Bristol, it is ‘peopled’ and equipped with original Concorde artifacts
Another Concorde engineering mock-up stands on display to the public (along with an Olympus 593 engine from Concorde), at the Bristol Industrial Museum, Located close to the Bristol Docks on the River Avon.
There is a wooden Concorde cabin mock-up walk-through exhibit, on display at The Bristol Aero Collection museum, at Kemble Airfield, Cirencester, Gloucestershire.
This shows what the passenger cabin would have been like in a Concorde in the 1960’s. It was part of a full size wooden mock-up once used by BAC at Filton to demonstrate the cabin to its potential customers. It retains its original 1960’s decor and fittings.
The Bristol Aero Collection also has on display several other Concorde artefacts, including a red flight suit worn by the test pilots during flight trials from Fairford.