Flying Again
Saturday, September 1st, 2007
Back to flying with the Luggage Glider.
A glider 8′ in diameter and about 50 feet long would hold about 800 pieces of luggage. It would be shaped like a bullet with small wings, a rudder and tail just like a regular plane. That would be for a big plane on a long flight, say LA to Tokyo. Other gliders would be sized to the plane and luggage needs of each flight.
The glider would be controlled by the copilot, flight engineer or a computer through the tow cable which could be reeled in and out to position the glider for best flight stability behind the plane. The glider could be controlled by wire, radio or both.
The flight surfaces of the glider would give added control over the plane, something like a tail on a kite only with more options and precision.
When landing, the glider’s flight surfaces would add drag to the plane to slow it down and use less runway. The glider might even have emergency measures built in such as extra drag panels or a parachute that would deploy during a hairy landing. The plane that went off the runway in Brazil recently might have been saved if it had had a glider such as this in tow.
Some recent passenger plane crashes have been caused by tail and rudder malfunctions. With extra flight surface controls on a glider in tow, such situations could be overcome by a trained pilot and people’s lives would be saved.
Keeping the luggage out of the plane makes room for “safe” cargo, more fuel or more passengers.
These changes in functions could be put into future plane designs. I can think of some pretty wild new designs, but that’s another story.
If this idea works, some changes would happen at the airport. The baggage carousels would be removed to make room for the gliders to be brought right into the building to be unloaded and loaded up for the next flight. It would save running around if the ticket counter was right in front of the glider used for the flight.
Imagine your bags controlled by you, not slung around, damaged, pilfered or lost by baggage personnel. Too good to be possible?
Unions and makers of all that airport security hardware won’t like this plan, but small plane manufacturers who would get the contracts to build gliders will. Pilots may not like “towing a trailer” behind their sleek jet planes but the airlines will like the added advertising space available on the gliders. And all of us would appreciate more convenience and less frustration at the airport.
Money saved by machinery and staff no longer needed could be used for other forms of security on passenger planes.
