Pre production vs production cockpit differences

[pierre]

You should know that certain differences exist between the pre-series Concordes and the series Concordes whether they are from Air France or British Airways.

The first that comes to mind concerns the fight engineer's Panel and more specifically the DC Electrical Panel.

On the pre-series, there are only 2 battery switches.

OFF position (Down), the associated battery (A or B) is disconnected from the ESSENTIAL bus.

ON position (Middle), the battery is connected to the ESSENTIAL and MAIN buses and after 5 minutes, the automatic charge control connect or disconnect the battery to maintain the maximal charge.

ESS/MAIN SPLIT position (Up), the automatic charging system is overridden and the battery is constantly charged.

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On the series, there are 3 battery switches.

The battery switches also have 3 positions but their functions are slightly different:

ON position (Down), the battery is connected to the ESSENTIAL bus and the automatic charging system is overridden and the battery is constantly charged.

OFF position (Middle), as for the pre-series, disconnects the battery from the ESSENTIAL bus.

NORM position (Up), the battery is connected to ESSENTIAL bus. After 5 minutes, the charge automatic control connect or disconnect the battery to maintain the maximal charge. The automatic charge control can be overriden and the battery constantly charged if the DC SPLIT/NORM switch is set to SPLIT.

The central switch has 2 positions:

SPLIT position (Down), the 2 batteries are connected to the MAIN bus, the automatic charging system is overridden and the 2 batteries are constantly charged. 

NORM position (up), the batteries are connected to the ESSENTIAL and MAIN buses and isolates the ESSENTIAL bus in case of voltage drop in MAIN bus or 4 AC bus loss.

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