Motorcycle Ban on public roads?

Onder said:
BBC is just a political operation at this point. Sad because we NEED a neutral reporting out fit. There aren't ANY!
One point about the Concorde or rather two points would be that when it was retired it had a lot of airframe time and that is not something that is cheap or easy to fix especially as that is a pretty bleeding edge aircraft. The second thing is that engine design has made huge progress in efficiency and noise reduction. I grew up on the flight path of an USAF base and jets were a LOT louder than the fans they use now for transport work. Sure, fighters on climb out are still rather noticeable!
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Turbofans work by blending huge amounts of cold air from the front fan with the small, hot gases which have been through the core. This gives an increase in thrust and cools the exhaust, reducing the noise considerably. The engine bay and access doors are also designed to contain more noise than on the early jets - you may recall the requirement for "hush kits" to be fitted to older passenger jets to allow them to continue operating. Military jets tend to be less concerned about noise generally (look at the problems in many places where F16s are to be replaced with the F35 for example), and anything high speed is going to using a turbojet, since the turbofan has too much drag at high speed. Then there is the vast increase in noise (and thrust and fuel burn!) when reheat is used - see the previous comments regarding Concorde on takeoff.
 
Onder said:
The Soviet copy of the Concorde flew on reheat all the time!
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Ah, yes. That was one of the many _very_ clever things about Concorde, the worlds first supercruise...

There's a lovely story told of an SR-71 doing a run over the Caribbean, 60 000 ft and Mach 2+ something. Gets a call from air traffic control. asking them to change altitude "because of a conflict with civil traffic" What? This cannot be.... Anyway they oblige, go up to 65000 or so, and there, 5000 ft below them comes an Air France Concorde, Caracas to Paris. The 2 intrepid birdmen in the SR71 are dressed in spacesuits, squeezed in a very uncomfortable cockpit, drinking though a straw etc. while on board Concorde, there are 100 passengers in shirtsleeves & summer dresses, sipping champagne and trying to decide which meal to order before they arrive in Paris in just over 2 hours time.....
Told by former Concorde engineer Christian Julius
 
BritTwit said:
I wasn't sure whether the story was BS or not, just curious.
Speaking of the Concorde...

Back in 2002 I was at a Honda dealership near JFK airport to picking up my RC51 after service.
The end of the JFK runway is about half a mile east of the shop.

I was in the dealership, when the whole place literally started vibrating like crazy, and that is no exaggeration.
That was followed by a deafening jet engine whine.
I ran out of the dealership to look up into the sky in time to see the Concorde turn south, and point its engine exhaust in my direction.
The sound was excruciating loud, and it felt like needles piercing my ear drum, and that was with my hands over my ears.
Incredible! I'll never forget it.
But Concorde was the most beautiful, and graceful thing I have ever seen in the air.
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The TSR2 that the government scrapped was a beautiful plane too, and surprise, surprise it was these engines that they took to fit on Concorde.
 
Acoustic cameras are being trailed roadside in UK on A32 at Farnham, I'm surprised it's taken them so long to clock on to this. In the past a vehicle fitted with a noisy silencer would have failed its MOT.
 

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