OP
Pilots will have to learn to "lead" the ship, just like shotgunners do with a bird.
Up, up and away in my beautiful...
- Thread starter oldbrownhat
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This thing sounds like a great way to travel short distances, as opposed to driving or taking ground mass transit. Its speed and range would make it a direct competitor to Amtrak for many interstate routes in the Eastern US -- Washington, D.C. to New York City, for instance.
And that view! I'd ride on it in a heartbeat just for that!
And that view! I'd ride on it in a heartbeat just for that!
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Well I'm sure if they can get space capsules and giant cargo ships to dock - an airship should be doable too. The main focus would be to get them going longer and faster. With today's tech. docking shouldn't be a major issue.
I was reading an article a while back in -- IIRC -- Air & Space Smithsonian, about pilotless airliners, operated remotely from the ground. The concept is well-established and safe, of course...our military has been flying drones for years...but the biggest problem, according to the article, was the lack of public acceptance: People don't want to get on an airliner that literally has no one at the controls.
Just about anything is possible...whether it's marketable is another question.
OP
"This is your captain speaking. I can see you overhead in the distance. When the pigeon gets off the camera, I'll be able to bring you down to the landing pad..."
The interior looks plush, but for some reason my first thought was of the scene where Indy throws the Nazi officer out the window. "No ticket!"
Faulkner
Member
I think I'll pass.
Very good. You remembered your high-school Latin
It's amazing what can stick in one's mind. I never studied Latin. I remembered "Mare Nostrum" as the title of a 1950s episode of "Victory at Sea" about Mussolini's attempt to control the Mediterranean during WW II. Now, if I could only remember Mrs. swsig's birthday...
OP
The power of association
I did study Latin at school, and still have my textbook. Every once in a while I'll see the rather massive tome sitting on the shelf and wonder, "How the heck did I learn that?" All I remember is "amo, amas, amat, amamus, amatis, amant" and something about "the ablative of means" and an example, "The soldier mounts the wall with a ladder" or something like that. Very useful language for understanding English, but grammatically challenging. No wonder the bloke in Life of Brian got his graffiti wrong!
Until a year or two ago, Finland's Radio 1 (YLE1) featured a Latin world news broadcast, "Nuntii Latini." After years of church Latin, it was odd to hear it with a Finnish accent, but of course, "back in the day" (ie pre-450 AD), it would have been pronounced differently (and with varying degrees of accuracy) throughout the Roman world.
.38SuperMan
Member
I've been a pilot for nearly thirty years and I'm not sure I'd want to fly in a remote controlled aircraft. Getting from point A to point B isn't the big issue, it's the landings. Absolutely it can be done but in my opinion and experience the sensory feedback from the aircraft is very important. That "feel" of the controls and the sensations of motion in three axis is very important.
The airports around here are subject to sudden shifts in wind. I've seen many times where the 3 windsocks near the runway are all going different directions and shifting and the AWOS ( automated weather data like wind, temp and pressure etc. ) info is contrary to the windsocks. These conditions require sensory feedback and instantaneous changes to the controls.
