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Re:I Sing the Airplane Electric by bencoder on Wednesday April 29, 2020 @04:08PM (#23023571)
That's a cool idea. Though I see no need to make it VTOL. A simple tug plane, like a glider tug but for passenger aircraft. Really nice thought!
Re:I Sing the Airplane Electric by Leherenn on Wednesday April 29, 2020 @04:30PM (#23023870)
The issue is that if you cannot take off yourself, you cannot abort a landing.

So if you have to keep it, you're trading a bit of efficiency for a lot of complexity.

Re:I Sing the Airplane Electric by _Microft on Wednesday April 29, 2020 @04:57PM (#23024203)
The tug could be more like a powerbank. It would not physically pull the aircraft up but assist by providing power. The aircraft could launch on its own but it is advantageous to use a tug because this increases the range or energy reserves that the aircraft itself has.

(outline of a launch: aircraft and tug are connected by cable before launch, both lift-off, gain altitude, cable is detached, aircraft moves on and tug returns to launch site)

Re:I Sing the Airplane Electric by Leherenn on Thursday April 30, 2020 @06:08AM (#23029260)
Except you probably have another aircraft already landing, the slots are tight. Maybe you could have another shorter landing strip just for the tug, but again, that seems like a lot of complexity (i.e risk) for maybe a 20% increase in efficiency at best.
Re:I Sing the Airplane Electric by _Microft on Friday May 01, 2020 @08:13AM (#23041239)
Like in the other comment in this subthread, I had vertical take-off and landing vehicles in mind.
Re:I Sing the Airplane Electric by clueless123 on Wednesday April 29, 2020 @06:15PM (#23025125)
You can even ground tow to altitude then go flying.. Glider have been doing that for ages..