OT Don't quite see how this'll work???

[dennis]

Do you think the solar plane followed the same routes as the airliners?

[Dave Plowman (News)]

It's going to need an excess of 'power' over what it needs for itself to tow. Especially up hills. Hybrids tend to provide the extra power for hill climbing etc via the electric motor. On a ordinary vehicle you can just use a lower gear, and do it more slowly. With a hybrid, when the battery is exhausted, no additional power.

Not to say you couldn't make a tow vehicle using the technology.

[dennis]

The rav4 hybrid can tow quite a bit.

[whisky-dave]

No, but do you actually know why aircraft tend to follow the same 'path' ?

[dennis]

Some crashes in the '50s. Why do you think they do?

[Vir Campestris]

A reliable Landrover???

AIUI it's based on restarting on a 1 in 3 hill. With 4WD and low ratio they can produce a ridiculously large force. Just not at any speed.

I didn't realise until after we'd bought it that my wife's new car won't allow a towbar. I only need to tow 200Kg FFS...

Andy

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Really? No hills round your way?

[whisky-dave]

y run on batteries.

I don;t think I kknow.

There was a program on it a week or so ago.

The reason is radar. ONly 10% of teh earth has radar coverage and it;s risk y lettign a plane go off radar as yuo don;t know where it will be and can't predict it's exact course, so planes were told to follow routes. Now with more planes havign GPS and with the increased number of GPS satell ites it has now become possible to use just GPS and not rely on radar, so n ow planes can travel across the centre of oceans and still be tracked. The london city airport is rolling out it;s new system, so you can be in th e controll tower anywhere in the world as it's just a roon with lots of lar ge 4K screesn that take teh place of windows, yuo can zoon right in on the plane even more so than prevuious using binoculars to see the planes coming in. This will or so they think will enable them to fly more planes as theere ca n be more routes.

[Roger Hayter]

And there is never a need to change speed promptly (up or down)?

[dennis]

Well if drone can fly by battery power why can't planes eventually run on batteries.

They were allocated routes after some crashes as they didn't follow routes and flew by eye. That meant that more than one plane could be travelling in the area at the same altitude and different directions. They then assigned routes to keep them apart.

Radar had nothing to do with it.

Totally wrong.

[whisky-dave]

So they didnlt know where the planes were at a specific time because they weren't on radar.

So why was that a problem ?

exactly.

It had everything to do with it.

Not according to those that know about such things.

[The Natural Philosopher]

Wrong. Pre war and pre radar aircraft were limited to flight corridors for safety.

[dennis]

They still didn't have radar coverage after they introduced the routes. Radar had nothing to do with it. routes were a safety thing they could do without radar so they did. They still have defined routes now even with radar and gps.

Stop reading wiki and look for some facts.

[bert]

In article , "Dave Plowman (News)" writes

You are pathetic. The gravitational force down the hill forms part of the total rolling resistance.

[bert]

As I said in the part snipped there is more to max towing weight than simply pulling the load.

[tabbypurr]

Of course. A big engined car that weighs half as much as your loaded trailer is a recipe for disaster. DAMHIKT. Then there's brakes... and stability...

NT

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Ah - right. All the hills round your way only go downhill.

Tell me something bert. Have you never pulled/pushed something yourself? Obviously not a wheelbarrow, because that would be DIY. But perhaps a pram? But then perhaps not. Too dangerous.

[whisky-dave]

So are commercial aircraft.

[whisky-dave]

I didn't use wiki there was a program on TV about the new systems coming in and the first in the UK was at london city airport they have one in brussles IIRC.

[dennis]

Light aircraft aren't generally limited to corridors only commercial aircraft.

Light aircraft still fly by sight most of the time.