Living in the Age of Airplanes

[Cos]

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[BerserkerCatSplat]

Cool! I will totally check that out, even if it ends up being International Logistics: The Movie haha.

[revelations]

At first I thought NatGeo was paid off by Airbus to push their (faltering sales) A380.... but not too bad though! Will check it out.


One interesting note: the average cruising (not max) speed of the trans-oceanic airliner, has actually slightly DECREASED over the years as efficiency has supplanted time to destination. Eg. the 727 max cruise speed was M 0.92 and the Vickers VC10 (first flight 1962) STILL holds the SUBSONIC cruise record across the Atlantic for a commercial, passenger jet - at M 0.94.

Its really sad that even after 50 years of development, the time to fly to Australia from USA is roughly about the same as it was back then - and that no plans are in place for the near future to alleviate this.

[flipstah]

Oooo! I'd watch it.

[Tik-Tok]

Originally posted by revelations
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Its really sad that even after 50 years of development, the time to fly to Australia from USA is roughly about the same as it was back then - and that no plans are in place for the near future to alleviate this.

If aviation was more profitable they would do it. But 99% of the population would rather spend $1000 to fly 10 hours, rather than $2000 to fly 5 hours.

And you know how flight dynamics change at supersonic. Creating and maintaining an aircraft that can do both would cost far more than it's worth. Just look at the concorde.

[revelations]

Originally posted by Tik-Tok

And you know how flight dynamics change at supersonic. Creating and maintaining an aircraft that can do both would cost far more than it's worth. Just look at the concorde.

Thats the thing, there does exist technology to alleviate the critical Mach issue and other issues at speed. Supersonic booms should be a thing of the past.

Underwater torpedoes get around huge drag by using supercavitation - and can go +250kts, this was back in the 1970s :eek:

Therefore with air being just a less dense fluid, this should not have been an issue for the past 50 years.

Laminar flow (787-900), electrostatic fields - all these have the potential to do this as well but no one seems to be paying attention (in the civilian world anyways).

[KrisYYC]

I think the only Canadian venue that will show this movie is at the Telus World of Science in Edmonton.

[Maxx Mazda]

...or one of the northeast NIMBYs will broadcast it in their backyard and put some anti-aviation spin on it...