The Rolls-Royce/Snecma Olympus 593 was the turbojet powerplant of Concorde. Four engines powered each aircraft, combining normal jet operation with reheat for take-off and acceleration into supersonic flight. British Airways gives approximately 38,000 lbf of thrust per engine with reheat, a rating that should not be confused with unaugmented cruise thrust.[1]
Development programme
The powerplant was developed in close association with Concorde's supersonic flight programme. A 1971 technical paper by P. H. Calder describes the two prototype aircraft already flying regularly at Mach 2 over substantial distances. The work reviewed engine performance, intake controls, exhaust systems and compatibility between engine and intake, demonstrating that propulsion development extended beyond the engine core alone.[2]
Ground and flight testing both contributed to that programme. Safran's historical account includes an Olympus 593 on a noise-test stand at Istres in 1968. That surviving record documents Snecma's involvement in evaluating the engine during development, before Concorde began carrying fare-paying passengers.[3]
Reheat and aircraft performance
Reheat adds fuel downstream in the engine's exhaust system to obtain additional thrust. British Airways identifies take-off and the transition to supersonic flight as its uses on Concorde. The aircraft subsequently operated at roughly twice the speed of sound, making the propulsion installation's requirements markedly different from those of an ordinary subsonic airliner.[1]
The engine, intake and exhaust controls were consequently important parts of the overall powerplant. Calder's contemporary paper treats their compatibility as a specific development subject, alongside bench and flight testing. This is why the Olympus 593 is best understood as part of Concorde's integrated propulsion installation rather than as an isolated thrust-producing component.[2]
Service and preservation
British Airways began commercial Concorde service to Bahrain on 21 January 1976 and withdrew its scheduled Concorde operation on 24 October 2003. Its history therefore places the Olympus installation within a passenger-service career lasting more than a quarter of a century.[1]
A preserved Olympus 593 Mark 3B at the Science Museum came from Concorde 002, the British prototype. The museum identifies it as serial number 59351, made around 1969. That provenance is important: a development engine from a prototype illustrates the programme's history, but should not automatically be assigned the specifications of a later production-aircraft engine.[4]