Live data from Hacker News

JetZero

jetzero.aero

211–220 of 277 posts

Re: JetZero

#211
post #174

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just stop subsidizing flying, maybe even tax the fuel a fraction of the value it’s destroying and I bet most of flying will suddenly turn out to actually be completely avoidable.

Insane take - this is just ensuring that the only people who get to enjoy travel are the rich. Nothing in our society is improved by taking a privilege that's widely enjoyed and restricting it to the wealthy or very wealthy.

I dont disagree, but that's just how capitalism works. And it does solve a problem, there will be less airtravel.

Re: JetZero

#212
how much the oil industry will loose if all aitcrafts in the world would tomorrow consume 50% less fuel?

yes, they would loose so much that few lives arent as valuable..

Re: JetZero

#213

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So, getting better at manipulating clouds will help prevent planetary heating. I assume there is a huge amount of public support for this scientific research?

No, you misunderstood what this is about

I thought this was about being able to fly without harm to the environment— which it sounds like we could do if we master clouds.

Re: JetZero

#214
post #203
post #35

Haven't heard of this company before. A good synopsis I dug up in their fundraising announcement: > JetZero, co-founded in 2020 by start-up veteran Tom O’Leary and aerospace legend Mark Page, is developing the world’s first commercial all-wing airplane. With up to 50% better fuel efficiency and lower carbon emissions compared to existing commercial airliners, JetZero's Z4 will offer the aviation industry a clear path…

Dumb question but if the all-wing design has major advantages (and basically no negatives?), why haven't we been pursuing this for a long time? You’re telling me that just recently a random startup thought they’d work on it? It’s not exactly startup territory…

The design has been in the works since at least the late 1980s which is when the B-2 stealth bomber was developed.

For an all-wing design to work the onboard flight control system needs to make thousands of microscopic surface adjustments every second to keep the flight stable. This is much more practical with today's computing power and technology, even if the concept may have been thought of long ago.

Mentour Now! has a great video discussing the aerodynamics of the B-2 which has a lot of relevancy to the JetZero design. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BLtzjP1_3nQ

Re: JetZero

#215
post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No passenger windows is the correct way to go. The screens can actually show anything, not just replace a window.

Hell why even travel when you can just see Venice on a screen.

This question is deeper than you think. Until the 20th century, most people didn't travel even a fraction of that many miles per year. The most prolific travelers, such as Mozart, did not travel nearly as much as a person who's commuting to work every day by car or train -- just to sit in a chair in the office instead of at home. When it comes to transportation, we burn fossil fuels and pollute the planet with CO2 for mostly needless reasons.

Our generation thinks we're so much "smarter", but we're living on an ecological credit card that our children will have to pay, not to mention many of the planet's ecosystems, just so we can all have "memories of actually being in Venice" rather than simply a picture of us in Venice, which in the end is the artifact we have. (If we are that insistent on "being everywhere" and checking off a bucket list, perhaps "Total Recall" was onto something LMAO.)

Re: JetZero

#216
post #29

Interesting choice to build in Greensboro. That's also where Boom chose to build a factory and it looks massive as you leave the airport. The plan for this company's factory looks like it will be significantly larger.

The reason that these companies are choosing Greensboro as a base is due to the fact that the GSO airport has a relatively-long 10,001-foot runway but comparatively little commercial air traffic. Additionally, the airport property is quite large compared to some "urban" airports, and is under a lot of active land development to make room for more manufacturing facilities.

The HondaJet HQ is here (and has been for some time), as well as a number of aircraft repair facilities inside the airport fence, and there are ~5mil people within a 90 minute drive of GSO, so it's becoming easier to source talent for aerospace as well.

Our long runways and the fact that we only have around ~7 flights arriving/departing per hour, and the proximity to Washington DC, is why GSO is used quite often for training operations for "Air Force One" - we see 28000 and 29000 do very low passes over our house around once a month as they do touch-and-go and go-around drills, so it's always funny to see the flurry of "did you guys see that?" posts on Nextdoor.

Re: JetZero

#217
post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A lot of us is avoiding more by choosing not to fly.

wandering is human nature, we can not avoid it. with tech, almost 99% reason to travel can be avoided, we human as a nature, we will not skip it.

homo sapiens could avoid wandering in the skies for 200k years, yes we can avoid it. Finding joy in life should not really be correlated with flying often to faraway places.

Re: JetZero

#218
post #180

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yup. Make the flyers pay the infrastructure costs based on the environmental effects. It's not too complicated.

It is a bit complicated as flying isn't much subsidised in cash terms and if you put large taxes on fuel, flights will divert to nearby countries with less tax. In the UK there is air passenger duty which is for example £102 per passenger on economy seats to the US. I think they are reluctant to raise it too much incase business shifts elsewhere.

We're afraid of the zillionaire tantrums, thus this should be a coordinated effort.

I'm seeing it from both sides of the isles that people are being fed up with the overlords.

But currently the zillionaire tantrums control the future so you're right.

Re: JetZero

#220
post #205

Earlier quoted context omitted.

IMHO you can remove the "good" and "except when". DB is 30% of the time a frustrating experience, which I've noticed makes me want to avoid it, even though I love trains. Trains in the rest of Western Europe are pretty great!

Boy what happened to DB since 2022? That was when I last travelled in Germany and I was never able to relate to everyone’s online complaints about them. Did Berlin to Nessau through small routes: wonderful. Berlin to Prague? Stellar, if long. Berlin to Munich? Amazing all 4-5 times, unless they forget to stock up on soft pretzels.

Insane delays and cancellations. I’ve taken them Amsterdam to Berlin, Utrecht to Frankfurt, etc and only one trip has managed not to be multiple hours late. In one case a train ended early and I had to run like hell with my folding bike to cram on to a packed bus for an hour ride to the next station.
Post reply on HN