Boeing's futuristic aircraft - "Batwings and dragonflies"

Economist ^ | 07/25/2002 | Staff

[lds23]

A closer alliance between defense and market-driven technologies can only be helpful.

[lds23]

I really didn't have any insightful comment on the article, but I felt I had to post something. It was really just meant to be one of those light reading pieces for a summer Friday.

[Captainpaintball]

Possible "Dumb Question Of The Day"...

Would a big cargo plane with "mag-lev" inside walls suspending special, magnetized containers (therefore floating everything) weigh any more than just an empty plane?

Think about it: A plane suspending a full load of cargo in the inside of the cabin (I'm someone with NO physics background, BTW)would weigh just a little more than an empty one! right?

Please, someone, set me straight!

[biggerten]

Are you baiting people in order to start a long, useless thread, or are you from a state where there's medicinal marijuana?

[Registered]

question in here for you...bwhwhahahaha.

[jae471]

It would weigh the same -- equal and opposite reactions. The weight of the cargo would push down on the magnetic field and the thing generating the magnetic field with the same amount of force as it would on the floor.

Think of the magnetic field as water, and the cargo as small boats. Even though the cargo is floating and not toughing the floor of the plane, the crago is still pushing down on the water, which is pushing down on the plane.

No such thing as a free lunch.

[Mike-o-Matic]

No, because the 'maglev' units in the floor would still bear the weight of the cargo. All magnetic levitation is (for example, in maglev trains) is essentially a repulsive magnetic field, which produces force in the direction opposite of the repulsion.

Plus, there would probably be tremendous power requirements.

Unfortunately... with physics, as with most things, there is no free lunch.

[Mike-o-Matic]

   No such thing as a free lunch.

Get out of my brain ;-)

[Registered]

No such thing as a free lunch.

You both obviously worked out of the same textbook ;-)

[Captainpaintball]

I'm flattered that you thought my dumb question was the result of chronic marijuana use! So I'll admit to smoking the dope, rather than looking like one!

[macamadamia]

Or, think of it this way:

What if 200 passengers had each consumed 1 pound of bad fish and in mid-flight all 200 passengers vomited their fish upward simultaneously? Would the plane weigh 200 pounds less for perhaps 1 brief horrible second?

[Centurion2000]

Hope they have fun making new planes.... thanks to the B$ at the airport I'll never be back there.

[Shryke]

Yes. It would way exactly the same (although the maglev gear would add ALOT of weight to the plane). The suspended containers would be exerting the same amount of force downward on the levitator as it exerted upwards. The advantage of mag lev is not weight reduction; it's friction. If you would like to test it, get to magnets and attempt to press them together with both of the positively charged sies facing each other. You will feel both magnets pushing away from each other at the same time. Do that vertically, and you have "magnetic levitation".

[Captainpaintball]

So when 'they' say "for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction..." they aren't kidding!

[biggerten]

Doesn't matter, the responses are off and running.

Time for me to get my drug of choice, I'm going to the cabin and popping a cold one. Have a nice weekend.

[boris]

"What if 200 passengers had each consumed 1 pound of bad fish and in mid-flight all 200 passengers vomited their fish upward simultaneously? Would the plane weigh 200 pounds less for perhaps 1 brief horrible second?"

Do not neglect the downward thrust of upward-facing projectile vomit...

You're looking at a "C" in Freeper Physics here.

-Boris

[segis]

Bump for a later read.(where is the bookmark button?)

[Captainpaintball]

What if 200 passengers had each consumed 1 pound of bad fish and in mid-flight all 200 passengers vomited their fish upward simultaneously? Would the plane weigh 200 pounds less for perhaps 1 brief horrible second?

If you can somehow apply that scientific principle to air freight and make it work ...you are gonna be rich!!! Keep me in mind when you make it bg!!!

[RightWhale]

I'm someone with NO physics background

It was not necessary to mention that.