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If you've got a bigger plane, you also need a bigger runway. This thing should increase the number of usable airfields. That could be interesting for avoiding
by regularfry 1y ago
If you've got a bigger plane, you also need a bigger runway. This thing should increase the number of usable airfields. That could be interesting for avoiding more expensive routes.
- rkomorn 1y agoIf your plane+cargo glider weight is the same as your larger cargo plane weight, won't you need the same amount of runway? Your towing plane is going to have to accelerate the same mass to takeoff speed before it can get off the ground, no?
- regularfry 1y agoIt is, but that only happens at one end of the trip. It can still drop cargo on a smaller airfield at the other because the braking can be done independently by both. Plus there's an interesting wrinkle here: a lot of the media on the site show the tow plane as one with engines, and not a glider. I'm sure that's because those are the aircraft they could get their hands on, so that's what they made it work with, but the option is there to have the towed plane powered on takeoff. Doing that safely, with the two aircraft tethered... that sounds like a mess. But it's an option!
- rkomorn 1y ago> but that only happens at one end of the trip Ah, I get what you mean.