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> The passenger experience would be: Hundred(s) of people per flight, on helicopters? High Gs? Perhaps something more like...? 1. Fly to coastal airport wit

> The passenger experience would be: Hundred(s) of people per flight, on helicopters? High Gs? Perhaps something more like...? 1. Fly to coastal airport with SpX marine terminal. Board high-speed passenger ferry. Security, immigration, and luggage processing on board. 3. Disembark. Board Starship. (Maybe motion-compensated gangways? [1] - fun tech) 4. Few Gs acceleration. 5. Fall to destination. A comfort challenge - limiting head motion helps a lot. 6. Brief couple of Gs. It's only ~100 m/s terminal velocity. 7. Disembark. Similar ferry. 9. Leave airport marine terminal. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=latTbgwdywo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=latTbgwdywo

pmontra 6y ago
Those gangways look nice. They could make them look like normal jet bridges with the nice side effect of not scaring people with the fear of falling into the sea, etc. About accelerations, many people scream when they are in a car braking or turning at some low 0.x G, so I wonder what a couple of Gs would be to them. Anyway, there will always be plenty of planes and they'll be much cheaper too.
- mncharity 6y ago
  > Those gangways look nice. They could make them look like normal jet bridges Nod. And given the difference in duty cycle from supply ships and oil rigs, they might be mounted on the rig rather than the boat. Removing the "it has to fit folded up on the ship" constraint. And with luggage perhaps containerized onboard the ship, the containers would need to be transferred too.
Ajedi32 6y ago
Maybe 1 and 2 could be combined by using Seaplanes?
- mncharity 6y ago
  Hydrofoils are sort of seaplanes? They just keep the wing in the water. And so don't have to deal with being not-so-great airplanes, so they can focus on being good boats. Starship might end up even more robust to weather than airliners. As are boats. But seaplanes combine the vulnerability of planes, with the those of poor boats. Taking off in a swell, is not a happy thing. I suppose SpX could hypothetically do JATO rocket-assisted seaplanes. :P But consider the number of passengers. And choices of flying formations of existing seaplanes for each launch, or "let's create a brand new large airliner, and make it a seaplane too!" (even without the seaplane bit, those can be 'bet the aerospace company' gambles), or... order some ferries. Maybe even rent them to start.

pmontra 6y ago

Those gangways look nice. They could make them look like normal jet bridges with the nice side effect of not scaring people with the fear of falling into the sea, etc. About accelerations, many people scream when they are in a car braking or turning at some low 0.x G, so I wonder what a couple of Gs would be to them. Anyway, there will always be plenty of planes and they'll be much cheaper too.

mncharity 6y ago
> Those gangways look nice. They could make them look like normal jet bridges Nod. And given the difference in duty cycle from supply ships and oil rigs, they might be mounted on the rig rather than the boat. Removing the "it has to fit folded up on the ship" constraint. And with luggage perhaps containerized onboard the ship, the containers would need to be transferred too.

Ajedi32 6y ago

Maybe 1 and 2 could be combined by using Seaplanes?

mncharity 6y ago
Hydrofoils are sort of seaplanes? They just keep the wing in the water. And so don't have to deal with being not-so-great airplanes, so they can focus on being good boats. Starship might end up even more robust to weather than airliners. As are boats. But seaplanes combine the vulnerability of planes, with the those of poor boats. Taking off in a swell, is not a happy thing. I suppose SpX could hypothetically do JATO rocket-assisted seaplanes. :P But consider the number of passengers. And choices of flying formations of existing seaplanes for each launch, or "let's create a brand new large airliner, and make it a seaplane too!" (even without the seaplane bit, those can be 'bet the aerospace company' gambles), or... order some ferries. Maybe even rent them to start.