4 ms·

> on long pole masts that placed them some 2.65 m (8.69 ft) forward of the leading edges. At cruise speed, that's enough to give the system a tenth of a second'

> on long pole masts that placed them some 2.65 m (8.69 ft) forward of the leading edges. At cruise speed, that's enough to give the system a tenth of a second's worth of advance warning before turbulence hits 2.65m */ 0.1 seconds = 60 mph. Airliners fly about 500 mph, so something about this math is far off...

JoshTriplett 3y ago
I would guess that it gives them enough advance notice to predict turbulence, based on the delta between forces on the plane and forces on the poles. If there's a sharp gradient in forces, that gradient seems likely to increase, in a partially predictable direction.
sgc 3y ago
> The company says it'll have a system commercially available for light aircraft in 2024. It's looking into a version for eVTOL air taxis by 2026, and hoping to have a system relevant to commercial airliners by 2030. Godspeed, team, the world's airline passengers – not to mention cleaning crews – need you to succeed. They are not targeting airliners for the current generation.
- FirmwareBurner 3y ago
  >They are not targeting airliners for the current generation. Like someone else said in the comments, (if true) this tech seems to have already been used in military bombers for a long time now, so to me it's weird it hasn't made it to civilian aircrafts already from the civilian arms of military contractors, and instead needs to be reinvented by a start-up.
post_break 3y ago
So it has to be 72 feet long by your math.
- Ekaros 3y ago
  So start making holes in front of gates? That would be cool, but maybe slightly impractical...
  - sp332 3y ago
    The distance is measured from the leading edge of the wing. The nose of an Airbus A330 is almost far enough away already.
- dylan604 3y ago
  I hope it's retractable!
  - deleted 3y ago
    [deleted]
wongarsu 3y ago
Maybe they meant the cruise speed of the test aircraft. Some quick googling reveals it as a Colomban MC-30 Luciole [1], which according to Wikipedia [2] has a cruise speed of 110 mph and a maximum speed of 120 mph. Mounting the long instrument arm to the tiny aircraft probably doesn't do it any favors (seriously, the aircraft looks tiny next to a Cessna), so cruising at 60mph sounds reasonable. [1] https://www.wildbergair.com/registrations/C/OE-CRG_1_01.htm https://www.wildbergair.com/registrations/C/OE-CRG_1_01.htm [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colomban_MC-30_Luciole https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colomban_MC-30_Luciole
deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
mathgenius 3y ago
Yeah I'm guessing these poles just get out in front of the wing aerodynamics enough that they can sense whats going on with the air so that air pockets/turbulence can be predicted. Either that or we are missing a decimal place, maybe they mean 10 milliseconds?
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
- viewtransform 3y ago
  For stability, the poles should be in the left half of the plane.
Tadpole9181 3y ago
The pole is on the nose, the time available to react would be before reaching the leading edge of the wing. You'll need to include the length of the front of the plane in question. At least as I understand it.
- hinkley 3y ago
  There are real time industrial sorting systems that use sensors and air puffers to sort items off a conveyor belt 30 ms after they pass by the sensor array. So the class of technology they need to make this works already exists in production. So the real problems will be how they’re sensing, and can they make them survive hundreds of thousands of air miles.
  - MBCook 3y ago
    I’ve seen videos of those. It’s honestly mind bending. A shower of something like nuts or cherries halls a few feed past a bright area and the bad ones just magically sort themselves out into a different stream away from the main flow. I’d love to see one in person.
    - hinkley 3y ago
      The last one I saw was using X-rays to sort aluminum. Apparently there’s a lead alloy out there. You don’t want to make window frames out of those. But making more of that alloy is fine.
hinkley 3y ago
Lot of guessing going on in the replies. One test aircraft used 2.65m poles extending off the front of the wing. One test aircraft used a boom extending off the nose. The model airplane used a big rig sticking out front and teeing off to the sides.

JoshTriplett 3y ago

I would guess that it gives them enough advance notice to predict turbulence, based on the delta between forces on the plane and forces on the poles. If there's a sharp gradient in forces, that gradient seems likely to increase, in a partially predictable direction.

sgc 3y ago

> The company says it'll have a system commercially available for light aircraft in 2024. It's looking into a version for eVTOL air taxis by 2026, and hoping to have a system relevant to commercial airliners by 2030. Godspeed, team, the world's airline passengers – not to mention cleaning crews – need you to succeed. They are not targeting airliners for the current generation.

FirmwareBurner 3y ago
>They are not targeting airliners for the current generation. Like someone else said in the comments, (if true) this tech seems to have already been used in military bombers for a long time now, so to me it's weird it hasn't made it to civilian aircrafts already from the civilian arms of military contractors, and instead needs to be reinvented by a start-up.

post_break 3y ago

So it has to be 72 feet long by your math.

Ekaros 3y ago
So start making holes in front of gates? That would be cool, but maybe slightly impractical...
- sp332 3y ago
  The distance is measured from the leading edge of the wing. The nose of an Airbus A330 is almost far enough away already.
dylan604 3y ago
I hope it's retractable!
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]

wongarsu 3y ago

Maybe they meant the cruise speed of the test aircraft. Some quick googling reveals it as a Colomban MC-30 Luciole [1], which according to Wikipedia [2] has a cruise speed of 110 mph and a maximum speed of 120 mph. Mounting the long instrument arm to the tiny aircraft probably doesn't do it any favors (seriously, the aircraft looks tiny next to a Cessna), so cruising at 60mph sounds reasonable. [1] https://www.wildbergair.com/registrations/C/OE-CRG_1_01.htm https://www.wildbergair.com/registrations/C/OE-CRG_1_01.htm [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colomban_MC-30_Luciole https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colomban_MC-30_Luciole

deleted 3y ago

[deleted]

mathgenius 3y ago

Yeah I'm guessing these poles just get out in front of the wing aerodynamics enough that they can sense whats going on with the air so that air pockets/turbulence can be predicted. Either that or we are missing a decimal place, maybe they mean 10 milliseconds?

deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
viewtransform 3y ago
For stability, the poles should be in the left half of the plane.

Tadpole9181 3y ago

The pole is on the nose, the time available to react would be before reaching the leading edge of the wing. You'll need to include the length of the front of the plane in question. At least as I understand it.

hinkley 3y ago
There are real time industrial sorting systems that use sensors and air puffers to sort items off a conveyor belt 30 ms after they pass by the sensor array. So the class of technology they need to make this works already exists in production. So the real problems will be how they’re sensing, and can they make them survive hundreds of thousands of air miles.
- MBCook 3y ago
  I’ve seen videos of those. It’s honestly mind bending. A shower of something like nuts or cherries halls a few feed past a bright area and the bad ones just magically sort themselves out into a different stream away from the main flow. I’d love to see one in person.
  - hinkley 3y ago
    The last one I saw was using X-rays to sort aluminum. Apparently there’s a lead alloy out there. You don’t want to make window frames out of those. But making more of that alloy is fine.

hinkley 3y ago

Lot of guessing going on in the replies. One test aircraft used 2.65m poles extending off the front of the wing. One test aircraft used a boom extending off the nose. The model airplane used a big rig sticking out front and teeing off to the sides.