I’ve got one of those questions too… Flying from Gatwick to Lesvos on the 22nd september with first choice… what am I flying on?

Thanks for anyone who helps!

I think it’s a good idea. Although, I think it would work better if the RAF had missiles with more range.

Good luck to everyone doing GCSE’s! I’ve got my last educational exams soon!

I did A-level Stats… nice and easy! 🙂

The huge dihedral was the first thing I noticed, I cant imagine a civil airliner needing that much to be honest. The second thing I noticed was the high aspect ratio wing. I guess that’s doable, the trend is for high aspect ratio wings these days… all the boeing ones have around 8 to 8.5 so far, airbus alsop have around 8 to 8.5 for their early aircraft but the A330/340 have an aspect ratio of around 10. As materials technology progresses, aspect ratios are allowed to go up.

As for the “boring airliners” issue… airliner manufacturers stick with tried and tested concepts… its less risky… and costs less money.

I agree with the “if it was a risk before… why is it not a risk now?” statement. Although, it was always possible to hijack an aircraft… glass bottles have been onboard which can produce very nasty wounds (unless they’re made from that glass that shatters on impact into many tiny bits).

I also say that a terrorist with a bit of martial arts experience could hijack an aircraft. I’ve been taught the quickest ways to kill people at Jiu Jitsu, and I’m a nice law abiding citizen. It’s amazing what people will do when you threaten to kill someone. All you’d really need is someone in a head lock. Make your victim scream, people would bend over backwards to keep your victim alive.

Or Harpoons… or how about flying over the top and dropping 2000lb LGB’s onto the enemy ships!

I don’t think Airbus should be given any special treatment. Although, this aircraft at the moment will be carrying around 550 people. If this many people can get off in 90 seconds, in the dark, with the slides undeployed using half the exits then it should fly. However, future short range high density versions would probably need extra exits in. I figure you can get around 75-80 people off from each exit in 90 seconds. around 1 per second, with 10 seconds to get the door open and slide deployed. The A380 should be able to manage this, with 80 people from each of the 7 exits.

The high density version will need 122 people per exit in 90 seconds… which is a mad rush! Alternatively, 11 exits will be needed on each side!

Modern centrifugal compressors can get pressure ratios of 8:1 across one stage. This is far better than an axial stage. However, Centrifugal compressors are hard to multistage as the air starts at a low radius before the first stage, then it exits the first stage at a high radius, but then the air needs to be ducted to a low radius again for the second compressor stage. So for larger engines requiring high pressure ratios, axial designs are used, but for smaller engine, centrifugal HP compressors are quite common. Centrifugal LP compressors are not seen much in aviation as the air for the core would have to be ducted down to a low radius, which means losses.

Industrial Gas turbines use centrifugal compressors quite often. This is because they are robust, and the engine can be made shorter as there are fewer stages.