Re:Why airlines make flights longer on purpose
by ses1984 on Tuesday April 09, 2019 @09:17AM
(#19614246)
Sure, aircraft can be more efficient at higher speeds, but then when speeds pass a certain threshold, drag starts to dominate and efficiency drops like a rock. There's a sweet spot, and it's certainly less than the plane's top speed.
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Re:Why airlines make flights longer on purpose
by FiddlyPack on Tuesday April 09, 2019 @09:44AM
(#19614512)
...this is exactly what the commenter you’re replying to said, except also with nice charts/graphs showing the sweet-spot for various aircraft...
Re:Why airlines make flights longer on purpose
by SilasX on Tuesday April 09, 2019 @10:34AM
(#19615053)
Except the comment was making a point that was irrelevant for the domain in consideration (typical aircraft speeds for commercial flight).
It's like if someone said, "going a little slower on the highway [typically ~60 mph+] saves on fuel" and someone pedantically ButAkshully'd that cars are more efficient at 40 mph than 30 mph because of engine performance.
Edit: Ironically, I'm the one normally promoting my "Scylla-Charybdis heuristic", that you should be able to identify when tweaking a parameter goes too far. But here I think the context of the tweak was clear enough that this caveat was a distraction from the core point.