rightrudder From United States of America, joined Aug 2008, 128 posts, RR: 0 Posted (2 years 10 months 3 weeks 2 days 21 hours ago) and read 3000 times:
Just curious why there has never been (of my own knowledge) an aircraft that has a cargo bay like the Space Shuttle? Have all the passengers ready in the cylinder shaped compartment and the mechanical arm would load and unload the pod into the aircraft. I am not an engineer but wouldn't it make things seamless during boarding and deplaning.
"Time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like a banana".
BMI727 From United States of America, joined Feb 2009, 14352 posts, RR: 26 Reply 1, posted (2 years 10 months 3 weeks 2 days 21 hours ago) and read 2990 times:
Quoting rightrudder (Thread starter): Have all the passengers ready in the cylinder shaped compartment and the mechanical arm would load and unload the pod into the aircraft.
First, there is a reason that passengers are referred to as self loading cargo. There is no reason to add the cost, weight, and complexity when people can simply walk down a jetway.
Even for cargo, such a system makes no sense. If you look at cargo loading equipment, it is quite large and heavy, making it the sort of thing you would rather leave on the ground. I think I saw some snippets about the military looking at a loader that could be carried onboard the aircraft, but such a contraption would only be useful is specific circumstances where such equipment is unavailable at the destination.
Why do Aerospace Engineering students have to turn things in on time?
FlyASAGuy2005 From United States of America, joined Sep 2007, 6520 posts, RR: 11 Reply 2, posted (2 years 10 months 3 weeks 2 days 20 hours ago) and read 2938 times:
BMI has it running.
And what are we truly saving. Time? Not much. Mainline boarding time in the US is rought 30 minutes for anything from a Mad Dog to a 757. About 5 minutes is added for widebodies. I've seen DL push a 763 with all seats occupied in about 30 minutes.
CAM2:"Lightning coming out of that one." CAM1: "What?"
EDICHC From , joined Dec 1969, posts, RR: Reply 3, posted (2 years 10 months 3 weeks 2 days 20 hours ago) and read 2920 times:
What would really save time at boarding is a device to extract passengers out of the duty free shops, coffee shops or bars and get them all to the gate on time.
Decromin From United Kingdom, joined Feb 2008, 80 posts, RR: 0 Reply 4, posted (2 years 10 months 3 weeks 2 days 20 hours ago) and read 2897 times:
You still have all the normal boarding issues you have now, just that they take place whilst you are getting onto the passenger cylinder instead of the aircraft itself. Next, you are adding a whole new layer of complexity and possible problem areas with the docking/undocking of the compartment. It seems an awful lot of trouble to go to to save a little time from the boarding process.
That said, I kind of like the idea from a cargo point of view. Rather than a pod, some sort of self supporting interlocked version of the LD3 pallets might have some use. If you could build a block of LD3's together on the ground, prebalanced, then simply push the whole thing onto a plane with nose or tail access, then that may shorten turnaround for a cargo carrier, but I'm sure I'm missing something there, and somehow I doubt it would translate to passengers.
rightrudder From United States of America, joined Aug 2008, 128 posts, RR: 0 Reply 5, posted (2 years 10 months 3 weeks 2 days 20 hours ago) and read 2872 times:
Not just that but I would say security. Why not load them off campus in the parking lots and transport them in pre-screened and secure. By an engineering standpoint, can something like this fly?
"Time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like a banana".
FlyASAGuy2005 From United States of America, joined Sep 2007, 6520 posts, RR: 11 Reply 6, posted (2 years 10 months 3 weeks 2 days 20 hours ago) and read 2841 times:
Setting $$$ aside, sure, i think it's possibe. I mean, almost anything is in this day and age. You just have to find the right people to do it.
Take take the engineless taxi concept for example. That idea has been around for quite some time now. Problem was money and making it practical. I don't know where they are at now but last I heard, they were trying to figure out ways to reduce its weight.
CAM2:"Lightning coming out of that one." CAM1: "What?"
JBirdAV8r From United States of America, joined Jun 2001, 4459 posts, RR: 22 Reply 7, posted (2 years 10 months 3 weeks 2 days 20 hours ago) and read 2794 times:
Quoting rightrudder (Reply 5): Why not load them off campus in the parking lots and transport them in pre-screened and secure. By an engineering standpoint, can something like this fly?
Now you're on to something I've wondered might be feasible.
Scratch the "people pod" idea. I think it would be a novel idea to offer a prescreen of passengers at some central location, say in a city center, and transport them in a "sterile" environment directly to the aircraft--or at least the secure area of the terminal. Even this way, there are probably just too many variables/added costs/etc to make it economically viable.
DeltaMD90 From United States of America, joined Apr 2008, 5318 posts, RR: 47 Reply 8, posted (2 years 10 months 3 weeks 2 days 20 hours ago) and read 2782 times:
Kind of related, but will we ever see wide spread use of double jetways? Load from the front and back? I think it's ingenious, but the fact that it's hardly ever used probably means it's not as ingenious as I thought
rightrudder From United States of America, joined Aug 2008, 128 posts, RR: 0 Reply 9, posted (2 years 10 months 3 weeks 2 days 19 hours ago) and read 2722 times:
Quoting DeltaMD90 (Reply 8): Kind of related, but will we ever see wide spread use of double jetways? Load from the front and back? I think it's ingenious, but the fact that it's hardly ever used probably means it's not as ingenious as I thought
Probably because of the caterers and other logistics. Also, the safety issues with not only the wing but the tail. Doubling chances of a mechanical with an aft passenger loading bridge.
"Time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like a banana".
homsar From United States of America, joined Jan 2010, 804 posts, RR: 0 Reply 10, posted (2 years 10 months 3 weeks 2 days 19 hours ago) and read 2717 times:
Quoting JBirdAV8r (Reply 7): Scratch the "people pod" idea. I think it would be a novel idea to offer a prescreen of passengers at some central location, say in a city center, and transport them in a "sterile" environment directly to the aircraft--or at least the secure area of the terminal. Even this way, there are probably just too many variables/added costs/etc to make it economically viable.
What do you gain by doing that?
You still have security screening, but now, instead of being able to focus your security resources in one spot, you have to have security facilities all over the place, miles away from the airport, and a way to transport people in a secure manner over those many miles.
sw733 From United States of America, joined Feb 2004, 6072 posts, RR: 10 Reply 11, posted (2 years 10 months 3 weeks 2 days 18 hours ago) and read 2617 times:
Quoting rightrudder (Reply 5): By an engineering standpoint, can something like this fly?
Here is the engineer in me: Anything can fly...it's a matter of doing it safely, effectively and efficiently. Anything that adds more possible fault areas than necessary can impact all three of those areas negatively.
BMI727 From United States of America, joined Feb 2009, 14352 posts, RR: 26 Reply 12, posted (2 years 10 months 3 weeks 2 days 18 hours ago) and read 2525 times:
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