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A comment on The Weird-Looking, Fuel-Efficient Planes You Could Be Flying in One Day. Parent comment

Re:The Weird-Looking, Fuel-Efficient Planes You Could Be Fly... by rootusrootus on Thursday November 10, 2022 @05:28PM (#33554484)
I think that would be tough. Out in relatively empty airspace, sure, the pilot can make pretty slow turns. But major airports with multiple runways, other airports in the vicinity, military bases, etc, all put hard requirements on the flight corridor. Sometimes the pilot has no choice but to make pretty sharp turns, and that means a pretty fast roll acceleration.
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Re:The Weird-Looking, Fuel-Efficient Planes You Could Be Fly... by hnuser123456 on Thursday November 10, 2022 @07:20PM (#33555704)
How about... more rudder? Of course, more control surface area means more drag and less fuel efficiency. Wonder if a flying wing style craft that has enough rudder to match traditional cylinder fuselages bank-and-yank capabilities is still more efficient.
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Re:The Weird-Looking, Fuel-Efficient Planes You Could Be Fly... by Retric on Thursday November 10, 2022 @07:27PM (#33555774)
Lateral acceleration is less pleasant for passengers. You don’t want peoples drinks to fall off their tray tables for example.

That said there is a fair about of wiggle room so I doubt it’s a significant issue in practice.

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Re:The Weird-Looking, Fuel-Efficient Planes You Could Be Fly... by midoridensha on Thursday November 10, 2022 @11:36PM (#33557344)
Maybe they could try inventing a way of keeping drinks from spilling when the container is tipped over...

I even have a cool name word to describe it: "lid"!

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Re:The Weird-Looking, Fuel-Efficient Planes You Could Be Fly... by tagami on Thursday November 10, 2022 @11:59PM (#33557456)
μg coffee cup https://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2013/1...
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Re:The Weird-Looking, Fuel-Efficient Planes You Could Be Fly... by Retric on Friday November 11, 2022 @12:02AM (#33557475)
Lid or no lid, it’s still a problem if your drink falls off the tray table. Which is one of the reasons they say to put your tray tables in upright an locked position.

But even beyond that feeling like you’re falling out of your seat is unpleasant.

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Re:The Weird-Looking, Fuel-Efficient Planes You Could Be Fly... by midoridensha on Friday November 11, 2022 @12:43AM (#33557668)
Automakers solved this problem many years ago, by making cupholders that are deeply recessed instead of thinking that cups wills somehow magically stay in place with a very minimal indentation (see the "cup holders" on the backsides of glove compartments in 1970s American cars).
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Re:The Weird-Looking, Fuel-Efficient Planes You Could Be Fly... by Retric on Friday November 11, 2022 @12:55AM (#33557725)
Airlines would rather have more people in economy than to include cup holders.

You do sometimes see cup holders on private airplanes, but in commercial aviation the efficient solution is to avoid needing them.

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Re:The Weird-Looking, Fuel-Efficient Planes You Could Be Fly... by midoridensha on Sunday November 13, 2022 @07:26PM (#33588869)
Adding decent cupholders to cars didn't make cars bigger.

Similarly, adding decent cupholders to airplanes is not going to reduce passenger space.

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Re:The Weird-Looking, Fuel-Efficient Planes You Could Be Fly... by Retric on Monday November 14, 2022 @08:51AM (#33593836)
Commercial aviation could stick as many as 850 passengers on an A380-800 in it’s maximum configuration, but the most an airline actually gets is 538 because of business and first class passengers having more room. Increasing passenger space by even 1 inch or just a pound of weight per seat makes a real difference.
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Re:The Weird-Looking, Fuel-Efficient Planes You Could Be Fly... by midoridensha on Monday November 14, 2022 @09:49PM (#33604632)
Better cupholders do not decrease space at all. Some (better) airlines even have them: they flip down from the seatback. They literally take no space at all. This is ridiculous.
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Re:The Weird-Looking, Fuel-Efficient Planes You Could Be Fly... by drewmol on Friday November 11, 2022 @05:39AM (#33559093)
Try really should just cut a sized a hole in the back edge of the tray tables.
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Re:The Weird-Looking, Fuel-Efficient Planes You Could Be Fly... by Retric on Friday November 11, 2022 @06:08AM (#33559304)
People falling over is more of a concern, it would take significant lateral acceleration before drinks fell it’s just easy to visualize.

As to why no cup holders, people aren’t going to use them most of the time and they don’t even help that much in turbulence.

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Re:The Weird-Looking, Fuel-Efficient Planes You Could Be Fly... by Retric on Thursday November 10, 2022 @07:24PM (#33555743)
The issue isn’t the bank angle but pitch acceleration felt by the passengers when they pilot wants to bank for a turn. Which opens up several methods to compensate.

You could for example more slowly enter a higher bank angle to have an equally fast turn though passengers would feel more pressed into their seats etc.

Turbulence causing roll upsets seems like it could be a larger issue.

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