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April 8, 2013
Futuristic Aircraft Update
(proposed by French designer Jean-Marie Massaud), containing a restaurant, fitness facility, library and sun deck. Cruising at 80 mph with a top speed of 105 mph, the Manned Cloud could take 40 guests and 15 staff around the world in three days. -- Dark Roasted Blend:
Posted by gerardvanderleun at April 8, 2013 12:33 PM. This is an entry on the sideblog of American Digest: Check it out.
Your Say
I want my round the world trips to take 80 days, no more no less. TRADITION damn it!
Posted by: Fabio at April 8, 2013 1:23 PM
Top speed of 105 miles per hour, and the earth is what, 25, 000 miles around . .
That means it will take right at 10 days to go around the world not 3 days. I bet there are other design flaws with this design but I bet it would be fun!
Posted by: flyslow at April 8, 2013 4:18 PM
This is what comes of letting idle thoughts remain idle. I have had this same concept floating around in my head for years.
Shoulda' drawn a picture I guess...
JWM
Posted by: jwm at April 8, 2013 4:38 PM
flyshow, It is about 25,000 at the equator, if you fly closer to the poles it would take less time. Many transcontinental flights fly closer to the poles to save time.
Posted by: Fabio at April 8, 2013 6:45 PM
Jet stream +105
Posted by: Roger Drew Williams at April 8, 2013 7:53 PM
True, you can fly a great circle route that greatly reduces distance. (Take a globe; a flat map won't work without some complex calculations. Now, use a string and find the shortest route from, say, NYC to Tokyo. You'll see what Fabio is talking about). But I've flown a lot on those high-latitude routes, and it still takes 14 hours or so at 500 mph to go from the east coast of the US to Japan or Korea, or 6+ hours from the east coast to the UK. Distance also isn't the only consideration. Sometimes, a longer route will take less time because of winds aloft. A ferocious tailwind can make a longer route more economical and quicker than a shorter one that encounters strong headwinds. In any event, our French friend still needs to check his math.
Posted by: waltj at April 8, 2013 7:54 PM
flyshow, It is about 25,000 at the equator, if you fly closer to the poles it would take less time
But still more than 3 days. Try four-five days @ Canadian latitudes.
Posted by: Don Rodrigo at April 9, 2013 12:25 PM