51–60 of 104 posts
The aircraft is hanging from the ceiling at the Las Vegas airport along with displays of artifacts from the flight. One of those things people just walk past and don’t pay attention to, but worth a look if you’re there!
For me, it's crazy they were able to stay that long time with the engine noise. Also, there's no that much space to stretch and doing some exercise. As the article says, most likely there aren't more people who want to try to beat it.
It really likely is one of those "never will be beaten" records because anyone sane would do it in a B-52 bomber and have some room to stretch out - but everyone would immediately know it wasn't quite as "real" as being stuck in a plane the size of a Volkswagen bug for 2 months.
So I'd say this record is very unlikely to be beaten!
[1] https://www.damninteresting.com/the-unceasing-cessna-haciend...
Pilots are truly some of the craziest people around. Just last summer, a guy flew a Cessna 172 from California to Hawaii. https://flightaware.com/live/flight/N490NW/history/20220820/...
> Refuelling was handled by lowering a hook via a winch down to a fuel truck that would trail the plane on a straight stretch of road, usually twice a day. The winch would then pull up a fuel hose from the truck, which would be used to fill the belly tank in around three minutes. The same system was used to regularly pull up food, oil and other supplies like towels and water for shaving and bathing.
Midair refueling is the realm of air forces and these guys did it with a hook on a winch.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> 1,800 hours time-before-overhaul That’s surprising! Do you mean the entire life of the engine, or just one run? If the former, doesn’t that get expensive? I imagine that’s not very sustainable.
Entire life of the engine. After 1800 hours total operation, the engine should be overhauled: taken apart, cleaned, each part examined and replaced if necessary. Note that per FAA regulations in the USA, only actual flight time counts toward this limit, not time spent taxiing on the ground. It'll take a normal private pilot a few years to reach 1800h of operation, so it's more economical if you're not flying the plan…
(I work on another electric airplane which will take flight in 2023.)
Earlier quoted context omitted.
In a car running at 100 kph, that would be 180000 km (roughly 110 miles). Most cars would need at least some parts replaced by that time as well..
Yet only 54000 km at the more typical average speed of 30 km/h. Are aircraft engines typically under high load at cruising speeds? It would seem they are generally overbuilt to overcome the high demands of takeoff.
More importantly: if your car engine dies you gradually slow down and pull over. If your plane engine dies calmly pulling over isn't an option. It's much easier to justify spending the money ensuring a plane's engine is reliable.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think you have a typo at the start of your second paragraph. Fairly certain you're calling out the few planes that are inherently UNstable there :)
thanks, that made my whole comment hard to understand
I spent what felt like 64 days in a Cessna 172 one afternoon. Or maybe it was a 152 :)
I asked my dad what they did on a long (8+ hours) bombing mission in WW2 when nature calls (a subject never covered by documentaries). He said "we used empty ammo boxes". I asked what they then did with the ammo boxes. He said "extra bombs".