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12/11/2003
Wingless Flight
Virtually every magazine and newspaper has weighed in with
articles on next week’s 100th anniversary of the Wright brothers
taking to the air on December 17, 1903. Rumor has it that
President Bush will mark the occasion with a call to once again
visit the moon or to embark on some other major initiative. I
was born in 1927, the year of the first solo flight across the
Atlantic by Charles Lindbergh, still making news with the recent
DNA confirmation of his romantic liaison with a German
woman. Listening to Buck Rogers on the radio prepared me for
the manned landing on the moon on July 20, 1969. But the long
distance flight record must be held by our unmanned Voyager 1
spacecraft, which has been flying for 26 years and is now about
8.4 billion miles from Earth and still sending data. Some
scientists say the data show that Voyager 1 has reached the outer
boundary of our solar system. Others dispute this. No matter,
it’s been one long, productive flight.
What’s the future of flight technology? The December National
Geographic has an article by Michael Klesius concerning both
imminent and speculative future flying machines. For example,
a hundred orders have been placed for the Airbus A380, a
double-decker, truly jumbo jet slated to carry 555 passengers!
The A380 is scheduled for flight in 2006. I hope the designers
have included multiple exit facilities to handle the crush of those
impatient passengers who ignore lit seat belt signs and unfasten
their belts the second the plane touches down on landing.
Vertical takeoff aircraft (not the helicopter) already exist that
make the need for runways obsolete. One such military aircraft,
the V-22 Osprey has been redesigned after a couple of fatal
crashes and is back in flight-testing. Unmanned aircraft provide
an alternative to risking the lives of our military. In Afghanistan
and Iraq, unmanned planes provide surveillance and can even
bomb enemy targets.
I learned from the article that one model of a single engine
propeller plane comes equipped with a parachute. A fellow by
the name of Morrison was flying over the outskirts of Dallas
when he encountered a problem that made landing the plane
impossible. He deployed the parachute and landed on a golf
course. A passing golfer was totally blown away by the event
and asked if Morrison was OK. When Morrison replied in the
affirmative, naturally, the golfer played on. Incidentally, the
golfer was blown away by the fact that the whole plane, a Cirrus
SR22 with Morrison inside, had parachuted to Earth!
Space tourism has already occurred, witness the millions of
dollars given by that fellow Tito to the Russians for his trip to the
International Space Station. Some entrepreneurs are thinking of
less expensive touristy jaunts, say in a vehicle that will take you
to an altitude of a hundred or so miles, giving you limited space
time, but a spectacular view of the Earth and the heavens before
heading back to earth.
With the Concord’s demise, it would seem that hypersonic
planes are dead. However, some still search for a new, more
economical alternative. One futuristic plane is not a speedster.
When in Florida, I’ve written about the ability of certain shore
birds to skim just inches above the waters of the Gulf of Mexico.
Airplane designers have noticed that as well and are dreaming
about the Pelican, a transoceanic cargo plane that would fly just
20 feet or so above the water. This plane would utilize the
pelican’s secret, the so-called “ground effect”. It seems that
flying close to the ground, or water, decreases drag and increases
wing efficiency. Radar and computer savvy would steer the
Pelican clear of ocean liners, icebergs or the occasional oil
derrick. The size of this highly theoretical cargo plane could be
pretty impressive, possibly 400 feet long with a wingspan of 500
feet. Not so impressive is the expected speed of around 150
miles an hour.
However, a speed record was set in a test flight of another kind
of flying machine in Japan within the past week or so. A
December 2 AP dispatch posted on the AOL News site reports
this baby zipping along at 361 miles an hour. Not impressed?
Hey, this aircraft has no wings, no landing gear and no engine!
It’s a train - Central Japan Railway’s Maglev train. The Maglev
can legitimately be called a flying machine. It is suspended by
magnetic levitation as it speeds along less than an inch above its
track. By synchronizing the activation of the electromagnets
embedded in the track, the magnetic fields of the track interact
with the magnetic fields of magnets in the train to both propel
and stabilize the Maglev as it floats on its journey.
The AP article mentioned that both Germany and Japan have
developed Maglev trains but did not mention China, which really
took the technological ball and ran with it. In a collaborative
effort involving Chinese and German scientists and engineers
and an expenditure of 1.2 billion dollars (10 billion yuan), the
Chinese constructed a 40-mile S-shaped roundtrip link between
Shanghai and its new Pudong International Airport. According
to a Peoples Daily report from December 31, 2002, German
Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji
celebrated New Year’s Eve last year by taking part in the first
“VIP” test run. Zhu was justly proud, describing the completion
of the joint project in only two and a half years as a “miracle”.
I’ve seen highway repair projects here that have taken longer!
The idea that magnetic levitation could be used to fly a train has
been around for over half a century. According to journalist Ron
Gluckman’s Web site, the Germans patented the idea back before
World War II and even built a test track 20 years ago. Gluckman
took a ride on the Shanghai Maglev earlier this year and raves
about its frictionless smooth and quiet ride. Well might he rave.
Without an engine or wheels, the noise level is very low and the
vibration is reportedly undetectable. At low speeds, the energy
to run a Maglev is about the same as for a conventional high-
speed train. However, as the speed increases, the Maglev’s
energy consumption approaches half that of the other train.
Safety features include the lack of a fuel tank to ignite in case of
a crash, use of noncombustible material in its construction and
battery backup in case of power failure on the track. Collisions
between trains are ruled out by the synchronous propulsion
system – all trains are moving in sync, controlled by the
magnetic fields on the track. Wear and tear should be vastly
reduced, thanks to the lack of an engine and moving parts (I’m
guessing you still have to open and close the doors). The Maglev
also emits no pollutants.
What is the outlook for Maglev? The factor most limiting any
significant Maglev penetration of the transportation market is
money. Here in the U.S., there is talk of a Maglev line between
Baltimore and Washington or a line in the Pittsburgh area. For
Europe, with its superb railway systems, it would probably be the
height of economic stupidity to attempt a major Maglev
revamping. Judging from the cost of the Shanghai Maglev
project, any significant introduction of Maglev technology in the
U.S. would require a huge expenditure of government funds.
Who could have imagined in 1903 what strange flight forms
would follow that fragile flying machine that took to the air at
Kitty Hawk? Of all the forms we’ve discussed here, the image
that sticks in my mind is that of a single engine prop plane
parachuting to Earth with its pilot inside. My wife and I were
last in such a plane some years ago when on a cruise to Alaska.
A housewife who did this as a side job piloted us back to our
ship from a day tour to Skagway in her 3-passenger plane. She
insisted on giving us our money’s worth by detouring off the
straight-line path over various glaciers. That little plane was
bouncing up and down like a roller coaster and when we landed
at Juneau at dusk, I swear I couldn’t see anything but white. I’ll
never go in another small plane unless it has a plane-size
parachute! To tell the truth, even then I probably would forego
the experience.
Allen F. Bortrum
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