3 ms·

I wonder if this technology will ever be viable for commercial flights in the future. What the safety procedures would look like at that speed.

by bibyte 8y ago

short_sells_poo 8y ago
I'd imagine the cockpit would need to be fully shielded? Just as a fun exercise, let's calculate the kinetic energy of a 3kg goose impacting the airplane at 5000 kmh: The formula is (m*v^2)/2. Plugging in the figures, we get 2.9 MJ, or the equivalent of a little more than half a kg of TNT. Not bad :D
- m-i-l 8y ago
  It doesn't reach 5000kmh until 26km altitude[0], but the highest geese have been reported is 9km altitude[1], so I would assume it would only be in danger of encountering geese at speeds lower than 5000kmh. (Still likely to be at pretty fast speeds though.) [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skylon_(spacecraft) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skylon_(spacecraft) [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canada_goose https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canada_goose
- Hendrikto 8y ago
  Geese don’t fly at the height where this speed is reached.
  - ethbro 8y ago
    My 90s childhood education based on pirated floppies was apparently deficient in the flight habits of geese, then: https://www.myabandonware.com/game/star-goose-ix https://www.myabandonware.com/game/star-goose-ix Thanks for the correction, HN!
  - umeshunni 8y ago
    Out of curiosity, how do conventional rockets deal with bird impacts?
- danielmg 8y ago
  Is the goose laden or unladen?
7952 8y ago
IMHO it will be more challenging than just building an orbital class rocket. You have most of the challenges of space flight in terms of exotic fuels etc. But you spend the entire flight in a hypersonic airflow, where any problem could escalate instantly. At least in orbit you have time to fix things. And the vehicle needs to work at completely different altitudes and velocities. This could be very challenging in terms of structures, landing gear, braking etc. Particularly if the mass of the vehicle is constrained. Many component will need to be lighter and have orders of magntitude better performance than a traditional airliner.

I wonder if this technology will ever be viable for commercial flights in the future. What the safety procedures would look like at that speed.

by bibyte 8y ago

I wonder if this technology will ever be viable for commercial flights in the future. What the safety procedures would look like at that speed.

short_sells_poo 8y ago

I'd imagine the cockpit would need to be fully shielded? Just as a fun exercise, let's calculate the kinetic energy of a 3kg goose impacting the airplane at 5000 kmh: The formula is (m*v^2)/2. Plugging in the figures, we get 2.9 MJ, or the equivalent of a little more than half a kg of TNT. Not bad :D

m-i-l 8y ago
It doesn't reach 5000kmh until 26km altitude[0], but the highest geese have been reported is 9km altitude[1], so I would assume it would only be in danger of encountering geese at speeds lower than 5000kmh. (Still likely to be at pretty fast speeds though.) [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skylon_(spacecraft) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skylon_(spacecraft) [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canada_goose https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canada_goose
Hendrikto 8y ago
Geese don’t fly at the height where this speed is reached.
- ethbro 8y ago
  My 90s childhood education based on pirated floppies was apparently deficient in the flight habits of geese, then: https://www.myabandonware.com/game/star-goose-ix https://www.myabandonware.com/game/star-goose-ix Thanks for the correction, HN!
- umeshunni 8y ago
  Out of curiosity, how do conventional rockets deal with bird impacts?
danielmg 8y ago
Is the goose laden or unladen?

7952 8y ago

IMHO it will be more challenging than just building an orbital class rocket. You have most of the challenges of space flight in terms of exotic fuels etc. But you spend the entire flight in a hypersonic airflow, where any problem could escalate instantly. At least in orbit you have time to fix things. And the vehicle needs to work at completely different altitudes and velocities. This could be very challenging in terms of structures, landing gear, braking etc. Particularly if the mass of the vehicle is constrained. Many component will need to be lighter and have orders of magntitude better performance than a traditional airliner.