An ADI * for the SA.
A beautiful day, certainly in the rain but greeted by this beautiful rainbow.
Because we have just received a package containing a very rare part, of pre-production standard therefore of the same type which was installed on the SA.
Pre-production obliges, there were fewer parts manufactured than for the production standard.
Mr. Thomas KNISPEL "Fan of Concorde" is at the origin of this acquisition, he spontaneously proposed to entrust it to our museum by a "Long-term loan agreement" to install the instrument where two identical specimens equipped the SA before it was disarmed when it arrived at Orly in 1976.
We do not have detailed information in our possession to know on which Concorde this ADI flew or if it flew well or only served on the ground during the tests in the laboratory or in a simulator.
We explained this situation to you in a series of articles that we wrote to show how the cockpit of the SA has evolved since its arrival at Orly.
The ADI is now installed in the SA on the co-pilot dashboard to be better visible to visitors. The standard ADI model (fully visually compliant and of SFENA origin) which was installed on the co-pilot side has been moved to the pilot side where a B727 ADI modified to look like a Concorde’s one was in place until now.
As soon as you enter the plane, from the door you immediately see in the center of the co-pilot dashboard this beautiful instrument that we will now be proud to show to our visitors.
The SA now has a configuration similar to its brother the DN** which is equipped with a pre-production ADI on the pilot side, and a production ADI on the co-pilot side.
In the photo at the top of this article, as expected the sphere moved during transport.
By carefully dancing the ADI, the sphere returned to its resting position.
As you can see in the photo below following its installation, the ADI has found the “ball” (from the French expression “losing the head”).
We present here all our gratitude for this wonderful gesture of Mr. Thomas KNISPEL.
And as always on the site of our friend François we can find a complete description.
We hope that other opportunities will arise again to replace some "non-Concorde" models or instruments, with pre-production instruments, and that other people will follow Thomas's initiative, so that new rainbows appear again. above SA…
*ADI
Horizon Flight Director (ADI) by S.F.E.N.A. Flight instrument also called artificial horizon, indicating the inclination of the aircraft relative to the horizon.
The ADI plays a key role for the AFCS ***, relaying information from the flight director by alerting the pilot in the event of an AFCS component malfunction.
It is one of the main flight instruments, it allows you to see:
- Defects that have increased,
- A malfunction of the flight director,
- A radio altimeter alert.
A switch is available to pilots to select who will perform the flight; the information is entered into ADI.
** CONCORDE 01 or 101 registered G-AXDN exhibited at Duxford.
*** See our previous article on the AFCS
