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The Concorde’s Rolls-Royce/SNECMA Olympus 593 afterburning turbojet engines— a turbine-driven compressor that thrusts heated, compressed air through a propelling nozzle—were atypical. During the time of the Concorde’s operation, the Olympus engines were the only afterburning turbojets to power a commercial airliner; typically, these types of engines were installed in high-performance military aircraft. The Olympus 593 was developed jointly by Rolls-Royce of England and SNECMA (Société Nationale d'Études et de Construction de Moteurs d'Aviation) of France. The engine featured low- and high-pressure compressors, which comprised seven stages driven by a single-stage turbine. For effective operation over Mach 1, they required a special intake ramp system to slow incoming supersonic air to subsonic speeds. Because of the heat caused by friction of incoming air at Mach 2 speeds, which could reach 250 degrees Fahrenheit, titanium was used to produce the compressor drums and blades, except for the last four high-pressure stages, which were made of a nickel alloy. See “Supersonic Transport: The First Generation” on display, pre-security, in the Aviation Museum and Library and online at: https://bit.ly/SSTFirstGeneration
This image was posted on January 19, 2023.
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