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A Non-stop Flight To The Future

June 07, 2002

Since people have appreciated the advantages of air transport, the need for it has constantly been growing. It is mostly true for long distance flights. Experts believe that in the following twenty years the demand for air-transportation will grow more than two times. Airlines have to increase their flying stock. In the result, airports can no longer manage the increased flow of passengers and freight. There is simply no room for planes both on land and in air.
        
An aircraft, which would carry lots passengers and at the same time make non-stop flights, could solve the problem. Flying without intermediate landing will save place and money.

The idea itself is not new. Aircraft designers have for years been trying to realize it. Each time, however, the planes they constructed were too big and needed a very long take-off and landing strip - no less than three kilometers. It meant that only high-class airports could accept them. That is why aircraft designers at Moscow State Aviation Institute (http://www.mai.ru/english/) decided that the new aircraft should fit in with the already existing infrastructure of airports. The basis of the project is the so-called "flying wing" scheme with the integrally joined degenerated fuselage, i.e. when the cabin of the aircraft is well integrated into the wing.
        
Why does an aircraft without a fuselage attract designers? First, if there is no fuselage, then it causes no resistance, when frontier air layers meet. Second, the whole surface of such an aircraft creates the carrying capacity more effectively. Aero dynamical load is evenly distributed on the wing surface and favorably influences the work of the aircraft power elements.
        In the result, an aircraft, which meets all the mentioned demands, has been designed. It can fly over one third of the globe at a speed of 900 km/h and with the maximum load of 90 tons without making an intermediate landing. It can carry 614 passengers at one time (if it is a three-class variant) or even 800 people (if it is an economic variant). It is not big (its length is 65 m, the height is 23 m and the wing-spread is 80 m) and does not need a long landing strip, so it can easily fit in with the existing infrastructure. It means that such an aircraft can base even in A-class airports, i.e. the majority of airports are able to accept it.
        
Maybe, if someone tries to realize the idea of Moscow aircraft designers, then in the near future straight non-stop flights to Australia or America won`t take much time and money.

Informnauka (Informscience) Agency