So, how do the passengers on the actual airliners get to their destinations? Are they lowered in buckets on the ends of really long ropes?
The "flying aircraft carrier" surfaces every decade or so, usually as an answer to a question nobody asked. Up to now, the most extravagant version was in Marvel's "Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D." comic. (I think it show up in the new "Avengers" movie- which unfortunately has nothing to do with Steed or Mrs. Peel.)
But even the Marvel version didn't try to launch or recover anything bigger than an F/A-18.
There's a certain level of unreality about a flying airport that can handle even medium-sized airliners.
In fact, the whole idea's as loony as Daffy Duck circa 1940.
Yes, the logistics are a bit confusing. You get in a plane to fly to the airport where you get on a plane? Or does the ginormous airport-plane land once a day to take on and discharge a million or so passengers, then go aloft to launch them on planes to their destinations? But then you need a ground airport that can handle ginormous airport-planes, so why not just use that for the passenger planes?
This is so mindfuckingly stupid I expect President Obama will make it the centerpiece of his next Green Jobs plan.
I suspect the "designers" logic was something along the lines of a purely transfer terminal - passengers fly in on one plane, and switch to another one.
In order to make this work (and I'm using the phrase in its loosest possible sense), you'd need a network of these acting as hubs, with large widebodies flying between them; whilst the passengers actually travel to and from their terrestrial airports in smaller shuttle planes.
The big question is how the widebodies are refuelled - in this model, they'd only land at a terrestrial airport for maintenance that couldn't be performed on one of these flying airfields. Presumably, fuel is flown up to these "airstrips in the sky", but unless the tanker aircraft are also nuclear powered, that's going to get real expensive, real quick.
However, the thing I find funniest about this particular illustration of the type is the fact that the "designer" doesn't appear to have a) a clue about aerodynamics, or b) ever looked at a picture of any of the previous proposals. That glass canopy behind the... cockpit/terminal area? is going to cause a massive low pressure zone behind it, leading to a) huge amounts of drag, which even nuclear power would struggle to overcome, and b) a case of wake turbulence so bad that approaching closer than about 10 miles would push any airframe to the fatigue limit within 2 minutes - good luck landing on it.
Oh, and @eon - The skybase in the "New Captain Scarlet" was able to launch and recover a small business jet, dubbed the "Swift Passenger Jet" - at a rough estimate, about 2 times the size of an F/A-18E
I have a Skybase model, and used to have the Imai kit of the Spectrum Jet. (I traded it for a Crusher Joe Galleon APC kit.) In scale, it's actually about the size of an F-4E; just slightly smaller than a Super Hornet. ;-)
Original series, when the Angel was about the size of a Hunter. It's only about 6" long, and was designed for a windup motor to scoot it across the floor. I still have the box, too; it's about the size of an Airfix Series 2 box circa 1980.
I bought it through the mail when it was still relatively new, from the old John F. Green Co. in CA. $30 then; probably would cost a lot more unassembled now.
6 comments:
So, how do the passengers on the actual airliners get to their destinations? Are they lowered in buckets on the ends of really long ropes?
The "flying aircraft carrier" surfaces every decade or so, usually as an answer to a question nobody asked. Up to now, the most extravagant version was in Marvel's "Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D." comic. (I think it show up in the new "Avengers" movie- which unfortunately has nothing to do with Steed or Mrs. Peel.)
But even the Marvel version didn't try to launch or recover anything bigger than an F/A-18.
There's a certain level of unreality about a flying airport that can handle even medium-sized airliners.
In fact, the whole idea's as loony as Daffy Duck circa 1940.
cheers
eon
Yes, the logistics are a bit confusing. You get in a plane to fly to the airport where you get on a plane? Or does the ginormous airport-plane land once a day to take on and discharge a million or so passengers, then go aloft to launch them on planes to their destinations? But then you need a ground airport that can handle ginormous airport-planes, so why not just use that for the passenger planes?
This is so mindfuckingly stupid I expect President Obama will make it the centerpiece of his next Green Jobs plan.
I suspect the "designers" logic was something along the lines of a purely transfer terminal - passengers fly in on one plane, and switch to another one.
In order to make this work (and I'm using the phrase in its loosest possible sense), you'd need a network of these acting as hubs, with large widebodies flying between them; whilst the passengers actually travel to and from their terrestrial airports in smaller shuttle planes.
The big question is how the widebodies are refuelled - in this model, they'd only land at a terrestrial airport for maintenance that couldn't be performed on one of these flying airfields. Presumably, fuel is flown up to these "airstrips in the sky", but unless the tanker aircraft are also nuclear powered, that's going to get real expensive, real quick.
However, the thing I find funniest about this particular illustration of the type is the fact that the "designer" doesn't appear to have
a) a clue about aerodynamics, or
b) ever looked at a picture of any of the previous proposals. That glass canopy behind the... cockpit/terminal area? is going to cause a massive low pressure zone behind it, leading to
a) huge amounts of drag, which even nuclear power would struggle to overcome, and
b) a case of wake turbulence so bad that approaching closer than about 10 miles would push any airframe to the fatigue limit within 2 minutes - good luck landing on it.
Oh, and @eon - The skybase in the "New Captain Scarlet" was able to launch and recover a small business jet, dubbed the "Swift Passenger Jet" - at a rough estimate, about 2 times the size of an F/A-18E
Cthel;
I have a Skybase model, and used to have the Imai kit of the Spectrum Jet. (I traded it for a Crusher Joe Galleon APC kit.) In scale, it's actually about the size of an F-4E; just slightly smaller than a Super Hornet. ;-)
cheers
eon
Eon;
Original series Skybase, or the one from the early 2000s CGI reboot?
Cthel;
Original series, when the Angel was about the size of a Hunter. It's only about 6" long, and was designed for a windup motor to scoot it across the floor. I still have the box, too; it's about the size of an Airfix Series 2 box circa 1980.
I bought it through the mail when it was still relatively new, from the old John F. Green Co. in CA. $30 then; probably would cost a lot more unassembled now.
cheers
eon
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