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"Perhaps the most important factor, though, is that because WIGs are not classed as aircraft the regulations that govern them are far less onerous. That means t
by nicgrev103 4y ago
"Perhaps the most important factor, though, is that because WIGs are not classed as aircraft the regulations that govern them are far less onerous. That means that they don’t need to carry the kind of backup power that an aircraft would need for emergency landings, and they don’t need to be flown by trained airline pilots."
Just what every passenger wants to hear haha
They say this is a solution for the fact electric airplanes are going to only be able to hop between cities and then says how this can only go 180 miles with 12 passengers, hardly a long distance, oh and it has to be across a body of water... and the water can't be too rough... sounds like a great solution!
- ch4s3 4y agoMight be nice in Sweden?
- ElevenLathe 4y agoPotentially between Great Lakes cities (Milwaukee-Chicago-Detroit, though probably not Detroit as its a long detour through the Straight of Mackinac) or as fast riverboats.
- uxp100 4y agoYeah, that dumb Milwaukee to Chicago flight. The Hiawatha doesn’t go to Ohare (an existing right of way, would add time a little bit of time to the main downtown to downtown trip, but it’s so dumb it doesn’t have at least a glenview to ohare connection), just the Milwaukee airport, and anyway I suppose airlines would rather you be in their system as soon as possible. But such a dumb flight. Take off, then land, hope you don’t spend more time taxiing than in the air.
- ElevenLathe 4y agoI've needed to go to Kalamazoo several times, connecting through O'hare. On the return trip, because of the timezone change and the extremely short flight (~15m IIRC), the arrival time printed on your ticket is earlier than your departure time.
- euroderf 4y agoBuffalo NY (via Lewiston NY) <=> Toronto had a fast hovercraft service for some years. This might work there with a speedy transfer between Lewiston and Buffalo. Toronto to Rochester NY too. Erie PA.
- moffkalast 4y agoIt's just an ekranoplan with a lower range, lower speed and less capacity than a traditional jet powered one. And even those didn't catch on because of the calm seas requirement and because it's easier and more practical to just fly.
- deepsun 4y agoIt's also easier and more practical to just float. With hydrofoils. But someone already doing that commercially, bummer.
- gonzo41 4y agoSo what I'm hearing is we need to just invest in more trains.
- dzhiurgis 4y agoSingle missed rogue wave and everyone is dead… Trialing with cargo might work tho.
- z9znz 4y agoYou wouldn't be flying this over bodies of water which could have rogue waves. Those are generally open sea scenarios, and this is really only practical for hops between relatively close bodies of land, over water. There are a lot of such places around the world, even some where the water is technically connected to an ocean. In terms of risk of life, it's probably less risk than taking a 180 mile bus ride... even if it were crossing water which could conceivably have a rogue wave appear.
- AustinDev 4y agoYeah Miami to Nassau seems like a decent candidate.
- spoonjim 4y agoThat's why the Soviet Union is the country that consistently invested in ground effect vehicles... because they have the Caspian Sea and Black Sea (which does have waves but usually <3 ft)