161–170 of 189 posts
I’d always assumed the lack of innovation in aircraft design had to do with safety. A long tube that’s not too wide makes for easy egress of passengers in an emergency. A blended wing design does not. I would imagine it very difficult to get something like that past the FAA unless there is some exotic form of emergency escape that’s part of it.
No they aren’t. Airplanes like boats are certified in such a way that the regulations assume that all future airplanes will look like past airplanes. As such any deviation from that standard form is super expensive because you need to have the regular create an updated set of rules. That takes years and years and tons of money/risk It may make sense from a physics point of view but not from a business view.
Same thing happens with construction planning - very hard to get anything “unusual” through planning departments if it doesn’t just conform to existing methodologies, design, and often even size. Hence why movements like the tiny house movement have such a hard time - the rules were designed when building was affordable - now it’s not.
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How about... more rudder? Of course, more control surface area means more drag and less fuel efficiency. Wonder if a flying wing style craft that has enough rudder to match traditional cylinder fuselages bank-and-yank capabilities is still more efficient.
Lateral acceleration is less pleasant for passengers. You don’t want peoples drinks to fall off their tray tables for example. That said there is a fair about of wiggle room so I doubt it’s a significant issue in practice.
I even have a cool name word to describe it: "lid"!
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Lateral acceleration is less pleasant for passengers. You don’t want peoples drinks to fall off their tray tables for example. That said there is a fair about of wiggle room so I doubt it’s a significant issue in practice.
Maybe they could try inventing a way of keeping drinks from spilling when the container is tipped over... I even have a cool name word to describe it: "lid"!
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Lateral acceleration is less pleasant for passengers. You don’t want peoples drinks to fall off their tray tables for example. That said there is a fair about of wiggle room so I doubt it’s a significant issue in practice.
Maybe they could try inventing a way of keeping drinks from spilling when the container is tipped over... I even have a cool name word to describe it: "lid"!
But even beyond that feeling like you’re falling out of your seat is unpleasant.
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Bank accelerations must be limited, not angles. You could do a full roll without noticing if the acceleration vector pointed mostly through the plane’s floor.
Would this likely become a dangerous "recovery" scenario with the plane spinning around on the center axis and accelerating directly towards the ground? This sounds dangerous for any passenger aircraft.
Pilots don’t tend to roll passenger aircraft. But given enough altitude and skill they probably could without spilling a tomato juice on a seat back tray table.
"New" designs. Ok. Pretty sure variations on most of these have existed for decades. There have been tons of radical looking aircraft designed and even in limited production (in private aviation), but just because it's radical doesn't mean it's really new.
Interesting historical note on the blended wing design: One of the main arguments against it was that designers weren't sure if people would be ok with sitting towards the center of the plane. The thought was that passengers wouldn't be comfortable without being able to at least see outside (even a little, looking at you 3/4/3 widebody planes). I mention this b/c there is a quote in Mary Roach's Flying to Mars. She m…
Anecdotally, I hate flying if I can't see out the window. Like, really really hate it.
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Maybe they could try inventing a way of keeping drinks from spilling when the container is tipped over... I even have a cool name word to describe it: "lid"!
Lid or no lid, it’s still a problem if your drink falls off the tray table. Which is one of the reasons they say to put your tray tables in upright an locked position. But even beyond that feeling like you’re falling out of your seat is unpleasant.
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Lid or no lid, it’s still a problem if your drink falls off the tray table. Which is one of the reasons they say to put your tray tables in upright an locked position. But even beyond that feeling like you’re falling out of your seat is unpleasant.
Automakers solved this problem many years ago, by making cupholders that are deeply recessed instead of thinking that cups wills somehow magically stay in place with a very minimal indentation (see the "cup holders" on the backsides of glove compartments in 1970s American cars).
You do sometimes see cup holders on private airplanes, but in commercial aviation the efficient solution is to avoid needing them.