Hypersonic plane

[WRT]

Anyone seen the article (http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/1/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10491035) in today's herald about the spondolious new "hypersonic" plane that will be so fast, that it will take only 5 hours from Auckland to London? They reckon, that if you have brekkie in Auckland, you can be in London in time for lunch.

By my reckoning, that's more like a 17 hour flight (give or take an hour or two, depending on the time of year). A five hour flight after brekkie in Auckland would surely put you in London in time for a midnight snack?

[Steam]

I'm very excited about this low-level ground-effect plane, scientists say it should be ready for service in the mid 1970's.
Can't wait!

[ManDownUnder]

Antyihg doing 6 times the speed of the current things gets my vote. I've wasted enough of my life in the f'n things and trust me - the excitement wears off soon enough!

[Finn]

Why on earth would anyone be in that much of a hurry to get to London? The place makes me sick.

[WRT]

I wouldn't stress, by the time it gets here there will be new "security checks" in place to counter terrorism (and Tame Iti), and coupled with how bad Auckland's gridlock has got, the trip will still wind up being longer than it is now.

Kinda like how our "broadband" has been such a let down.

[Harry33]

Yeah I wish they could hurry up as I'm coming home on the 17th from Vancouver. I think 13hours direct. I hate flying it fuckin sucks sitting in a little seat with no leg room. Thank god people are getting fatter so soon they'll give us bigger seats thanks to the fatties. Yay fatties.

[RantyDave]

Anyone seen the article (http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/1/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10491035) in today's herald about the spondolious new "hypersonic" plane that will be so fast, that it will take only 5 hours from Auckland to London?
They were on the radio this morning. 200 tonnes of liquid hydrogen, apparently. Yeah, right. Next!

Dave

[Finn]

Yeah I wish they could hurry up as I'm coming home on the 17th from Vancouver. I think 13hours direct.

Dude, 13 hours is a luxury. I just came back from Nice - 36 hours including stop overs and what's more, First Class ran out of caviar. Fucking disaster!

[Steam]

For more absurd planes, motorcycles, and helicopters that will never be made, have a look here http://www.darkroastedblend.com/2008/01/retro-future-mind-boggling.html

[xwhatsit]

Yeah, it's a bit shit. It's the 21st century -- where's my feckin' flying car? Why aren't I living in a pink and silver streamlined skyscraper, 3km from the surface?

Particularly, why isn't every flight I catch less than the price of a steak dinner, and supersonic speed? We had the Concorde -- they kept it for only one or two routes and charged an arm and a leg -- then they decommissioned it. Now we're back to subsonic pootling.

[Steam]

where's my feckin' flying car?
You're so behind the times Xerxes, my dad got one in 1957. Now it's gathering dust in his garage, he got it free when he subscribed to Popular Mechanics.
It's a bit crap, though, it's only powered by The Friendly Atom, not Fusion, The Promise Of Tomorrow.

[James Deuce]

When you arrive depends on the direction you travel. Against or with the rotation of the Earth. Makes a big difference at those kinds of speeds.

[sAsLEX]

I'm very excited about this low-level ground-effect plane, scientists say it should be ready for service in the mid 1970's.
Can't wait!

They did make this
<img src=http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/26/Ekranoplan_of_1980s.jpg>

[Ixion]

You're so behind the times Xerxes, my dad got one in 1957. Now it's gathering dust in his garage, he got it free when he subscribed to Popular Mechanics.
It's a bit crap, though, it's only powered by The Friendly Atom, not Fusion, The Promise Of Tomorrow.

Sucky blowy hover things. You just wait till Mr Motu sees this.

[Mikkel]

They did make this

Indeed - the ekranoplans (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ekranoplan) are rather unusual machines.

[EJK]

I bet it'll end up like the Conchord. Take a few thousand lives and retire it's service :bye:

Edit: oops, wrong info lol

[Steam]

I bet it'll end up like the Conchord. Take a few thousand lives and retire it's service :bye:

Thousand? .

[EJK]

How many concords have crashed during its service? Ummm... I don't know.

I was just guessing...

200 each plane, 5 crash = 1000 people write-offs ?


Just guessin'

Edit: oops, I was way wrong lol There was only one concord bin

[James Deuce]

It's Concord.

One crashed because another plane left debris on the runway which was flicked up by a tyre and punctured a fuel tank and spread debris about, some going into the engines.

The Concord's safety record is unbelievably good, given the technology it was built with and it's operating envelope. A Concord carries around 120 passengers and crew. It wasn't retired because of safety, it was retired because it was always a loss leader and it was getting long in the tooth. 120 people in 40 years is better than just about any other form of public transport you can think of in terms of deaths vs time.

Boeing aircraft have killed 1000s of people, even excluding the ones that drop bombs.

[Mental Trousers]

Must be a really slow news day if they're dragging this sort of story out again.


200 tonnes of liquid hydrogen, apparently. Yeah, right. Next!

An A380 has a maximum fuel capacity of 310,000 litres. Don't know what a litre of Kero weighs but I'm betting it isn't light. Besides, the maximum take off weight of an A380 is 560 tonnes. It's a big bitch.

http://www.airbus.com/en/aircraftfamilies/a380/a380/specifications.html

[Swoop]

It's Concord.

A Concord carries around 120 passengers and crew. It wasn't retired because of safety, it was retired because it was always a loss leader...
It's actually Concorde.
Carried 100 passengers maximum (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concorde), and is really bloody small inside (I can attest to that)!
They were actually making a nice little profit for BA in the latter years. All the knobs wanted to get over the Atlantic for business, business, getting an award, more business or pleasure.

Bloody DC-10, dropping crap on the runway!:angry2:

[RantyDave]

n A380 has a maximum fuel capacity of 310,000 litres. Don't know what a litre of Kero weighs but I'm betting it isn't light.
810 grammes. So, a 251 tonnes of Kerosene. A lot, in other words.

I had no idea it was that much. No wonder they get so obsessive about fuel efficiency.

Dave

[EJK]

An A380 has a maximum fuel capacity of 310,000 litres. Don't know what a litre of Kero weighs but I'm betting it isn't light. Besides, the maximum take off weight of an A380 is 560 tonnes. It's a big bitch.

http://www.airbus.com/en/aircraftfamilies/a380/a380/specifications.html

Translation: Boom!

lol

[MisterD]

Anyone remember HOTOL (http://www.astronautix.com/lvs/hotol.htm)? Development ditched twenty years ago...

[Flatcap]

it will take only 5 hours from Auckland to London

Plus check-in 3 hours before take off, with your baggage arriving two days later in Moscow

[Swoop]

Anyone remember HOTOL (http://www.astronautix.com/lvs/hotol.htm)? Development ditched twenty years ago...
Most definately! I still have some of the info from back then.

Unfortunately the HOTOL followed the trend of brilliant inventions developed in England...
Project CANCELLED by the British gubbinment. Just like TSR2...

I guess this new proposal will follow in the same way.



BTW, Does anyone else look at the new proposal and think of the "Swallow" designed by Barnes Wallace?
A lot of similarities between the two, especially with the engines mounted at the end of the wings.

[Scouse]

Must be a really slow news day if they're dragging this sort of story out again.



An A380 has a maximum fuel capacity of 310,000 litres. Don't know what a litre of Kero weighs but I'm betting it isn't light. Besides, the maximum take off weight of an A380 is 560 tonnes. It's a big bitch.

http://www.airbus.com/en/aircraftfamilies/a380/a380/specifications.html1,000 liters of water is a metric ton or tonne so the fuel weight of an A380 would be somewhere around 250 tonnes

[hazard02]

The idea seems great to me. Its about time someone got on to making a proper successor to the concorde.

:salute:

[El Dopa]

I'm very excited about this low-level ground-effect plane, scientists say it should be ready for service in the mid 1970's.
Can't wait!


Must be a really slow news day if they're dragging this sort of story out again.

Exactly. If you're of a geeky, techy frame of mind like me, you tend to notice the tech stories in the press. And then you notice the same bullshit getting recycled every couple of years.

Stories written by gullible new journos, with the ink still drying on their liberal arts degrees, who have barely managed to work out that gravity pulls things downwards, who swallow any old bullshit that a PR company feeds them.

Just before the Segway was released, there were a whole bunch of carefully planted stories in the press about an amazing new transportation device.
Some over-exitable journos swallowed the whole thing hook line and sinker, and started banging on about anti-gravity and teleportation. Was a bit of a disappointment when the sinclair C5 mk 2 was finally released....


An A380 has a maximum fuel capacity of 310,000 litres. Don't know what a litre of Kero weighs but I'm betting it isn't light. Besides, the maximum take off weight of an A380 is 560 tonnes. It's a big bitch.

Worked on the 380 in my old life. Still have a promo CD-ROM somewhere. Gym and swimming pool in the hold, cocktail lounge on the top deck, shopping mall in the tail (ok I made the last one up).