March 2009 Archives

US researchers say they have discovered a new technique for provoking unusual crazing behaviour in epoxy composites.

So what, you may ask?

Well, it seems that crazing, which causes the composite to deform into a network of nanoscale pillar-like fibres that bridge together both sides of a crack and slow its growth and basically lead to tougher, more durable aircraft.

Increasingly incorporated into the design of new jets, composite material frames are extremely lightweight, helping to lower the overall weight and boost fuel efficiency. The downside is that epoxy composites can be brittle, which isn't great for structural integrity.

Read more about the technique that incorporates chemically treated carbon nanotubes into an epoxy composite resulting in a five-fold reduction in crack growth rate as compared to a frame infused with untreated nanotubes, and a 20-fold reduction when compared to a composite frame made without nanotubes.

Passengers already have to pay for a sandwich, a cup of tea and check in luggage ...and now Ryanair want its clientele to pay £1 to spend a penny.
While many travellers consider using the on-board facilities as an occasional necessity rather than an extra, it seems the Irish budget airline's chief views it as a convenient way of raising revenue.
But surely he's the one who should be paying his cherished passengers to dump their excess intestinal baggage before getting on his aircraft ....
Let's put it this way then, passengers who are lighter in their shoes are going to save on fuel, aren't they? Any accountant could work that one out, eh, Mr O'Leary...?

Consider this ....the future of air travel may well include passenger weigh-ins
according to Luggage Forward, those nice people who ship your luggage from doorstep to destination, reckon that not only are baggage and carry-on fees here to stay but also that you could soon be charged for your total weight, that's baggage and your good self.

"It is the model used by virtually every company who profitably uses airplanes for transport - except airlines," it points out.

Fair point but does regarding people as human cargo infringe their basic human rights? Could there be grounds for a case of discrimination, hurt feelings at least?

Jonathan Counsell (100-105kg, I reckon, with his socks on) who heads British Airways's sustainability efforts recently told a London conference that when he was working for Air New Zealand, the airline launched an initiative to weigh Pacific Islanders.

Now, Pacific Islanders are officially among the fattest people in the world - especially the fairer sex - and not even the suave charms of Master Counsell could persuade them to step on the scales.

It's a sure fire way of losing friends among your esteemed clientele who, as Counsell notes, may suffer from unfortunate metabolisms rather than an addiction to greasy chicken wings.

You may recall the Canadian Transportation Agency ruling early last year that gave Air Canada, Air Canada Jazz and WestJet one year to bring in a "one-person, one-fare" policy.

The ruling applies to disabled people, including the severely obese, who require two seats to, something which was then estimated to cost Air Canada a cool $6.93 million a year, and WestJet about $1.48 million a year. That amounted to about 77 Canadian cents a ticket for Air Canada and 44 Canadian cents for WestJet.

Thin profits pickings, indeed.

China, too, is witnessing expanding bottoms generating their own shrinking bottom line with China Eastern Airlines reputed to have needed to remove 20 seats from their A321s because passengers were getting too large for the current configuration.

But there is a serious safety issue here too. Overweight people can threaten flight safety.

SAS Scandinavian Airlines complained some years ago that excessive passenger weight threatened flight safety after carrying out selective weigh-ins. Those revealed that the average passenger exceeded accepted industry estimates by three kilograms (6.6 lbs), bringing the total aircraft weight to one metric ton (2,200 lbs) over the limit.

That's not funny when you consider that an overloaded aircraft requires extra fuel and a longer runway to ensure safety.

SAS said at the time that European flight safety requirements set 10 years ago, putting the average weight of a male passenger at 88 kg (194 lbs) and 70 kg (154.3 lbs) for females, were dangerously outdated.

The airline wanted to selectively weigh 20,000 of its passengers last year but held off the random weigh-in when the European Commission released new rules back in July in which they said that they would soon come back with updated standards. "We are still awaiting these figures," SAS tells me.

Cramming every square inch of your aircraft cabin certainly has its benefits. It optimises payload capacity, reduces the carbon footprint of the human cargo - and it could even provide passenger with the best ride of their lives, so to speak, providing they are ... in a total state of blissful ignorance.

The idea which hails from the Out of the Box European think tank is this: passengers take a drug which induces gentle and harmless sleep for all or most of the flight.

"The drug would need to be non-addictive, harmless, with rapid or predictable sleep following its administration and allow for rapid, anxiety-free and alert waking on administration of a signal or injection," say the think tank boffins.

Of course, this would break just a few of the current rules but think of the benefits...a less stressful experience for the majority especially on those gruelling long haul flights as well as a pretty useful reduction of inflight services, and therefore weight.

"With suitable cabin designs, passengers might be able to use full horizontal beds in tiers. These would prevent probelms with deep vein thrombosis and permit comfortable and relaxed sleep," they say.

The boffins add that combined with a modular passenger pod concept, passengers could board even before reaching the airport and pass through boarding formalities already in a state of oblivion.

And it's not so from becoming a reality, either Airbus recently flagged the possibility of creating an A380 interior with premium economy bunk beds in an effort to use the full volume of the cabin.

Air New Zealand also flagged the idea of ditching economy seats in favour of sleeping pods in its next generation fleet of Boeing 787-9 and 777-300ER aircraft. The airline said at the time it was looking at ways to make the concept work for when it takes delivery of the new aircraft in 2010.

For more on Out of The Box, visit the Flight Gallery of Future Concepts.

US aerospace engineer Leik Myrabo reckons lasers are the future of flight, and pretty confident that ground-based lasers called LightPorts will be powering aircraft flying at hypersonic speed within 20 years.

That would mean a New York to Tokyo journey of around 45 minutes.

Mad or just misguided?

In an interview with Wired.com, Myrabo's states his credentials - which are impeccable. A professor at New York's Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, he has spent the last two decades developing laser propulsion technology, which he laid out during the recent Expanding the Vision of Sustainable Mobility conference.

Wired.com reports how Myrabo first got the idea in 1988 while working on the Star Wars anti-missile shield. The funnel-shaped craft with a parabolic reflector that channels heat generated by a laser into its centre, heating the air to about 30,000 degrees and causing it to explode, generating thrust while jets of pressurized nitrogen spin the LightCraft at 6,000 RPM to maintain stability.

But here's the problem. Even the most powerful laser remains capable of only a modest test flight although Myrabo is confident that problem will be solved before long. In his forthcoming book, The LightCraft Handbook, he says the problem has evolved from a scientific one to essentially an engineering one.

Myrabo is amazed that more aren't excited by the prospect of laser-propelled flight, but admits that it won't become viable until the cost of jet fuel becomes so prohibitive the aviation industry embraces an alternative.