Afterburners on Concorde

[lovejoy0120]

What were the afterburners used for on Concordes ?

[Loosehead]

to increase power output for take off or acceleration.

[Toureman]

As Concorde was designed to cruise at very high speed the wings did not generate enough lift for it to take off as easily as normal aircraft so it had to take off at a high angle of attack and at a high speed this needs very powerfull engines so afterburners were used.

The extra power was also needed for it to reach supersonic speeds.

Once it took off, reached the correct altitude and reached it's cruising speed the afterburners were not needed, just as Loosehead said!

[alvin100]

An afterburner is basically where extra fuel is squirted into the exhaust end of the jet engine and ignited , causing a huge boost in thrust, this is why you see the big jet of flame from the engine, you see it most clearly on fighter jets like tornados, F16 etc