OK, so as my thoughts meandered about I wondered about how many empty planes were flying. I thought... naaah. there are virtually none, becuase everything has shutdown, right?
No way! Except what strikes me is how it matches up so closely with the spread.
The Mumbai to Atlanta Hartsfield flight has got to totally SUCK.
16h 41m total flight time. And they're only half-way through.
Total delays today: 118 Total delays within, into, or out of the United States today: 57 Total cancellations today: 8,631 Total cancellations within, into, or out of the United States today: 7,416
I subscribe to flightradar24.com The transatlantic route is almost empty. I used to enjoy trying to pick out which eastbound flight was making the most of the jetstream. It was entertaining to see some eastbounds zipping along at >>600 knots - occasionally topping 700 kts - while westbound aircraft were plodding at
Pimpom wrote in news:qFFiG.14089$ snipped-for-privacy@fx28.ams:
Those are ground speeds, boosted or reduced by the jetstream. The true air speed would be the normal cruising speed of the aircraft.
The same effect occurs to a somewhat less extent over my state at the eastern edge of India. Right now, there's a Boeing 737 from Kolkata headed for Hong Kong at 543 knots and a UPS 747 doing
580. Westbound flights usually go at ~450 kts but there's none now.Pimpom wrote in news:u1IiG.134458$PZ5.18170 @fx21.ams1:
Oh yeah... duh.
So, if one is in space, which direction is best for re-insertion?
Straight down will be most fuel efficient - if you survive it :-)
Pimpom wrote in news:3PIiG.34793$pD1.28787 @fx19.ams1:
aircraft.
insertion?
(big spring noise...) BOING!!!
"Too sharp and burn up... too flat and bounce off..." Definietly not straight down, though I am sure there is a slight pitch downward right as it 'dives in'. Pretty sure there is a preferred 'lead up' direction too. But up that high there is no atmosphereic 'breeze', a bit below that though... woosh! "Where the hell is that splashdown point and why were they so far off at Houston?" Naah... nobody said that. Ship commanders know about wind.
It was a wind-fall for us all... :-)
Here's a very recent example: A moment ago, an eastbound aircraft going at 588 knots at 37000 ft over Bangladesh flew directly above a westbound flight doing 402 knots at 34000 ft. The difference in ground speeds was nearly 350 km/h.
No, but the density/height of the upper atmosphere is very uneven and rather unpredictable. So the drag at a given altitude is hard to predict.
That's why they had the ARIA planes in the air, to get the earliest fix on the actual descent trajectory.
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