The Legend of the Flight Engineer's Hat

[@RobSchofield]

My son and I were lucky enough to be able to do a complete tour of BOAG while it was in the hanger being serviced. There was a Fl.E's hat stuck in the gap, and it was apparently a regular gag for cockpit visitors during flight. An achingly beautiful craft, the likes of which won't be seen again in our skies for a long time.

[@EmpyreanLightASMR]

Fascinating. I love museums when they're not at their busiest. With so few people on certain days, I suppose if one were intent on doing so, you could film an entire movie (or short) on the Concorde :)

[@AliHazimeh-h5t]

Keep going 👍👍👍

[@lincolnengland5005]

I'm afraid I'll have to call BS on that story.....I've no doubt the plane gets hot in flight and no doubt that Aluminium has a high alpha (coefficient of linear expansion) BUT the expansion occurs evenly throughout the aircraft unless the nose get absurdly hot so the expansion isn't restricted to one place..... Think about it if the gap went from say 5mm to 100mm in flight the whole plane would be 20 times longer in operation. AS always, happy to be proven wrong.....

[@Thumblegudget]

The hot fuselage expands and the cool cabin doesn't, over the length of the aircraft. The cabin structure is continuous and is anchored at one end, which means the difference over the length of the whole cabin manifests in one place. Such expansion joints aren't unusual in engineering.

[@lincolnengland5005]

@@Thumblegudget I'm not an aerostructure guy; engines are my thing.....A not unreasonable theory that I'm not sure I buy, but using that logic the cabin windows (and everything else) would have a fist's width band obscured toward the front of the aircraft which seems as unacceptable as it is unlikely. It's difficult to imagine the interior telescoping backwards and forwards with respect to the fuselage......

[@bradley772]

Thanks.