Cool looking plane
Posted:
Mon Nov 06, 2006 8:01 pmby Baak
Check out this cool looking plane whose design supposedly makes it nearly silent.
Plus it's much more fuel efficient.
Sweet.
Re: Cool looking plane
Posted:
Tue Nov 07, 2006 6:15 amby vinylrake
I saw the plane (artist's conception) on the news this morning. I know it's still in artist's conception stage and a primary goal was to eliminate edges, but the design looks _so_ like it was designed in a low-end 3D cad program.
Other than that though it's a pretty sweet looking plane - and I really like the design hilights and focus on reducing noise/increasing fuel efficiency.
Posted:
Tue Nov 07, 2006 3:11 pmby Baak
Yeah, the sad thing is unless an airline gets major incentives to head towards this kind of design it's not really economically feasible until something like 25 years from now! Doh!
Would have to be to avoid environmental taxes, or if a gov't gave them other incentives, or if it was a company like Virgin Airlines, etc.
What's annoying to me is we could really use this kind of airplane *now* - imagine the fuel/noise/environmental difference if all the planes were switched? There's something like 10 MILLION flights per year in the USA along. Holy cow.
Posted:
Tue Nov 07, 2006 7:16 pmby Two Saks
You are right about getting major incentives! That can be tricky however. Good intentions absolutely - but those ecomomic levers can be very blunt when applied to large industries and other consequences unintended or unforseen can arise. Probably worth the gamble for the truly great ideas. It will be interesting to see if this idea is going to :: drum roll :: .... fly.
