Wheeze of the century

[bizzard]

There doesn't seem to be a forum on here to cover this invention, but still here goes. During all these boisterous gale force winds and all I've been noticing all the trouble that airlines have been having trying to land there planes safely, aborted landings, doodling about hoping for a lull in the gusts, having to be diverted to an airport with a runway that faces the wind better and all the rest of it.

Aircraft carriers of course don't have this problem as the just turn the ship into the wind to despatch and land their aeroplanes, but static airports on land are stuck with whatever runway direction they have which are often far from ideal in strong blustery gale force cross winds which can cause huge delays, diversions, angsiety to the pilot, crew and passengers alike putting lives at risk and aircraft all out of position, wasting fuel and goodness knows what else.

So my invention which would eliminate a lot of this into the wind for takeoff and landing problems in powerful cross winds is this.

Dig out a large perfectly circular lagoon, say about 2 miles in diameter and fill it with water. Next build an airport on an enormous great perfectly circular board that fits absolutely perfectly in the circular lagoon. This floating circular platform that the entire airport is built upon can have say thousands of 40 gallon old oil drums lashed beneath it.

Now this is big, 2 miles or so in diameter so everything on it would need to be as light as possible. Ok the aircraft runways, taxiways and all that will need to be really tough and strongly made but structures like the control tower, terminal buildings, cargo sheds ect ect could easily be knocked up out of say balsa wood, cardboard and glue ect or even tents.

Now to control and adjust this massive rotatable floating airport in times of strong, gusty and contrary winds can be quite simple. A massive floating airport island like this wouldn't need much power to turn it it being all afloat like, so I suggest a great cog of teeth all around the circumference of the circular floating airport just like the starter ring gear on an engines flywheel. Don't forget that despite its huge size this circular airport is an exact and perfect fit in the circular lagoon with only perhaps a half inch free clearance all around so that it can rotate freely with no snags.

The driving power to gently turn the airport into favourable positions for planes to always take oft and land into the wind could be achieved by probably not too big a vehicle type starter motor, a big lorry one might do the trick which at the touch of a pair of jumper leads would actuate the starter motor and engage it with the ring gear all around the airport and so set it in motion.

At the position of this rotating floating airport control electric motor can be stationed a little bloke in a little sentry box ''to protect him from bad weather'' complete with a stove, kettle and teapot for tea making, a big windsock on a stick to indicate to him the wind direction, a battery and a pair of jumper leads to work the starter motor and either a torch at night or a semaphore signal device to signal to and warn the controllers in the tower that the wind has changed and that an airport adjustment is imminent and about to take place.

There might of course be some little incidental problems with this idea but nothing that cannot easily be solved.

 

 

[billS]

I don't think the 45 gallon drum idea is so good - they will rust and the whole thing will sink at some point.

 

Magnets - float the thing using opposing magnets.

 

Also - I think you can save money by cutting out the operator. If the windsock is big enough and positioned at one end - then the whole thing will turn into the wind automatically.

[Phil Ambrose]

Recycle big plastic milk bottles and stick them all over the bottom, that might work and avoid the rust problem. Other than that it sounds fine Biz.

Phil

[bizzard]

Of course oil drums or empty milk bottles would be just pro-tem, all sorts of ways of achieving it I'm just getting the floatation idea across. It would all be best kept simple, a gigantic windsock on a dirty great pole might well be powerful enough to automatically rotate the complete airport but it would have to be positioned more or less at one end or other of the the runway and might snare and capture unwary aircraft whilst landing.

[mattlad]

Errrrrr.......

 

What happens if the airport floods and the great big floating disc thingy sort of errrrrr...... floats away?

[Lockie Junior]

Then some new town gets the benefit (?) of the airport. I can see it now: "Bizzard's Travelling Airport, coming soon to a floodplain near you!"

 

Regards,

Lockie.

Edited February 18, 2014 by Lockie Junior

[bizzard]

Errrrrr.......

 

What happens if the airport floods and the great big floating disc thingy sort of errrrrr...... floats away?

The floating airports surface would be of a very gentle convex shape slightly more so than the earth's curvature so any flood water would run off it. This feature will also prevent aircrafts wheels from aquaplaning on a flooded runway. Even snow could be flung off it by rotating the whole thing at high speed like a centrifuge, everyone would have to be warned first of course to hang on to something,

[onionbargee]

I can see the plane straining its engines and the whole island spinning round, while the plane stays put.

[bizzard]

I can see the plane straining its engines and the whole island spinning round, while the plane stays put.

Only if the pilot forgot to take the brake off.

[Capt Ahab]

I can see the plane straining its engines and the whole island spinning round, while the plane stays put.

Not if the runway is across the diameter....

[onionbargee]

OK, the wind blows, the island moves while the aircraft is just about to land, ploughing into the plywood terminal building.

[Lockie Junior]

Now we're back to the man in the hut scenario...

[Paul's Nulife4-2]

It might be a more viable solution to advance the idea of a passenger carrying V,T,O,L (vertical take off & landing) type aircraft,

It would require less space.

[Lockie Junior]

Where would be the fun in that? Think of the fuel bills...

[bizzard]

It might be a more viable solution to advance the idea of a passenger carrying V,T,O,L (vertical take off & landing) type aircraft,

It would require less space.

Mmmm The huge amount of fuel used in vertical take off and landing would severely reduce the aircrafts range. Ryanair certainly wouldn't entertain it.

[Paul's Nulife4-2]

Think of the nector points though.

[bizzard]

Now we're back to the man in the hut scenario...

Indeed all the responsibility is on this little poorly paid chaps head. As long as he doesn't nod off or get taken short and nip round the back of his box to relieve himself at a crucial moment and liases with the control and them with the pilots all will be hunky dory. I Porta-pottie cassette bog would be installed in his box to sit on.

Think of the nector points though.

Good point, but they don't run on Gales honey?

[Paul's Nulife4-2]

Then a fleet of Chinook type helicopters landing in football stadium type heliports.

, I would guess cheaper on fuel than jets, arguably coping much better than planes in bad weathet. Just look at some of the Air Sea Rescue , or helicopters landing on pitching & rolling ship decks footage that's about. Ok range is an issue. But extra tanks ect!.

Mind you a bit noisy for the passengers.

Got to be cheaper & produce less pollution than building umpteen international 2mile round floating airports !.

[bizzard]

Then a fleet of Chinook type helicopters landing in football stadium type heliports.

, I would guess cheaper on fuel than jets, arguably coping much better than planes in bad weathet. Just look at some of the Air Sea Rescue , or helicopters landing on pitching & rolling ship decks footage that's about. Ok range is an issue. But extra tanks ect!.

Mind you a bit noisy for the passengers.

Got to be cheaper & produce less pollution than building umpteen international 2mile round floating airports !.

Still vertical take off using loads of fuel, pretty short range and far too slow. Big long haul jets like the Boeing 777 have a range of up to something like 10,000 miles.

[nbfiresprite]

Why not just stay above the bad weather instead.