Earlier quoted context omitted.
Not the ones protecting expensive commerical planes.
And here I was thinking it was to protect the passengers.
No need to protect the passengers if there aren't any other people on your flight!
The potentially revolutionary Celera 500L aircraft
201–210 of 252 posts
Re: The potentially revolutionary Celera 500L aircraft
#202Earlier quoted context omitted.
>Please cite any specific V12 aircraft engine that can have one bank of cylinders shut down. The RED A03 Engine[0], which is what this sub-thread is about. >Two cylinder-bank redundancy concept for high safety. >Robustness and safety are incorporated into the engine design. The two 6-cylinder banks are capable of independent operation. All critical engine sub-systems are mutually-independent. [0] https://red-aircraft…
Except the crankshaft... Oh, and any mechanical issues with pistons or valves in one side will jam the crankshaft, therefore stop the other half working... And that crankshaft needs some kind of oil... And a pump to pressurize that oil. And if a leak forms anywhere the oil drains out and the crankshaft seizes. Pretty hard to lube one crankshaft with two redundant and isolated oil systems... Overall, I'd call the engi…
Agreed. Based on the documents, I also don't see any protection against metorites or the sudden loss of oxygen in the planet's atmosphere. That's not even 1x redundancy really.
Re: The potentially revolutionary Celera 500L aircraft
#203Earlier quoted context omitted.
Single engine aircraft with a range of around 800 miles are regularly ferried across the Atlantic. Now, I'm not for a minute suggesting that this is an everyday pleasure flight, it's something which takes planning, preparation and additional equipment. However, all I'm pointing out is that range would be the least of your problems if any of the claims prove true. If you are interested this site gives a good overview…
Ferrying is not a paying passenger flight, correct? How would single-engine craft comply with ETOPS - the relevant standard for passenger flights, or equivalent? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ETOPS https://aerosavvy.com/etops/
The short answer is they don't and it's pointless to ask about it since these flights are conducted under part 91 for private aviation. There is almost no charter or scheduled flights allowed on single engine aircraft in Europe and the few that do exist are using single engine turbines on an exemption (the exemption is based on the fact turbines have a demonstrated order of magnitude better reliability).
Re: The potentially revolutionary Celera 500L aircraft
#204Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is optimized for really long distance flight, thousands of miles. That’s the whole point. Cruise height of 30,000ft, I think. Why would you be shocked by flying at heights comparable to typical jet aircraft flying similar distances?
I wouldn't be surprised by a long-range cruise altitude around FL300, but if it was FL450 I'd be extremely surprised. If the plane achieves the advertised 20mpg on a hypothetical 4500-mile flight at FL500, but only makes a small fraction of that on a more realistic 400-mile regional hop at FL210, it's not really a practical success. (Aside: the advertised range seems like drastic overkill for something designed to of…
The whole business case for this vehicle is that it enables extremely low cost granular travel between distant city pairs. The short regional hop is not its target market. It’s designed to be competitive with commercial air travel.
Re: The potentially revolutionary Celera 500L aircraft
#205It's still a GA aircraft though... so you still have to deal with all the BS. If you don't own it yourself then you need to pay a pilot (though with the recent downturn there's no shortage of pilots). There is absolutely no way many people will try and get their pilot's license. The FAA written test for a PPL may be easy compared to IR but it's still not a walk in the park. The checkrides are very strict nowadays too…
Is there automated flying on the horizon? Seems to me that it should be a lot simpler than for cars and would make operating so much simpler and more cost effective.
Unlikely. The automatable parts are basically all automated already (autopilot, take-off, landing). Making an aerial robot take off from runway X and land at Y in clear skies with a well-maintained machine is solved.
Human pilots, in addition to piloting, do a bazillion small things which add up to a safe flight, such as tons of systems checks. Often, e.g. under autopilot, their job is to act as fallback when the automated systems fail. When the automated checks fail to catch issues in other automated systems, the buck stops with the captain. Or maybe it's an important radio call. Even if you patch the uav into a pilot in a sim, there's so much situational awareness lost.
I don't see it happening any time soon in the commercial space.
Re: The potentially revolutionary Celera 500L aircraft
#206Earlier quoted context omitted.
Wow, this is a literal nightmare for flight anxiety sufferers.
Only if they don't replace them with even larger digital "windows." There's also been work towards electronic windows in aircraft.
I could see airlines charging more for "thrill" planes that have 360 immersion "windows" wrapped all around you.
Wonder Woman eat your heart out! (Her flying in that invisible jet in the cartoons always freaked me out when I was a kid)
Re: The potentially revolutionary Celera 500L aircraft
#207Earlier quoted context omitted.
Ferrying is not a paying passenger flight, correct? How would single-engine craft comply with ETOPS - the relevant standard for passenger flights, or equivalent? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ETOPS https://aerosavvy.com/etops/
The short answer is they don't and it's pointless to ask about it since these flights are conducted under part 91 for private aviation. There is almost no charter or scheduled flights allowed on single engine aircraft in Europe and the few that do exist are using single engine turbines on an exemption (the exemption is based on the fact turbines have a demonstrated order of magnitude better reliability).
> There is almost no charter or scheduled flights allowed on single engine aircraft in Europe
So, without new regulation, this aircraft will not carry out "charter or scheduled flights in Europe" ?
Re: The potentially revolutionary Celera 500L aircraft
#208Earlier quoted context omitted.
Why do you think that?
Because COVID has completely rejiggered the economy. Airlines legally are not allowed to pack hundreds of people into a cramped cabin. They're selling fewer tickets at lower prices, and they were already losing money on poor passengers to begin with. Plus, the oil crash is still coming. Fracking has delayed it for a short time, and the covid lockdowns also have slowed consumption, but it is still inevitable. Before f…
Peak Oil? Banging that drum again? This must be at least the 7th major iteration of it.
For all that expense with fracking it still beats the snot out of solar and wind. Until we get over the hysteria around nuclear fossil fuels are going nowhere.
A real game changer could be a discovery in electrical energy storage. Even out the peaks from solar/wind. Solid chemical batteries aren't doing it - there's some cool stuff going on with liquid electrolyte batteries in Australia but I don't think the capacities or efficiencies of them can still beat out fossil fuels.
Re: The potentially revolutionary Celera 500L aircraft
#209Earlier quoted context omitted.
Well, from London to New York is apparently about 3500 miles, and a 15 hour journey for that sounds reasonable.
A single engine plane is most likely not going to be used for ocean crossings regularly, for safety reasons, even if it is technically capable of it. Additionally, I'm not sure it has enough spare fuel reserves to make the trip with enough margin for error or unforeseen circumstances.
This airplane has a "2 in 1" engine. Two separate engines running on one physical engine block. So there is some engine redundancy.
Re: The potentially revolutionary Celera 500L aircraft
#210Hmmm, a complex V-12 turbocharged piston single - sign me up, as long as I don't have to fly over water or mountains.