$1 billion BMS Ooops...

On Sunday, 7 March 2021 at 22:04:16 UTC, Moshe Braner wrote:
On 3/7/2021 8:31 AM, Martin Gregorie wrote:
On Sun, 07 Mar 2021 04:44:36 -0800, Mark Mocho wrote:

It suggests one way to make mass electric-powered air transport work:
Put the pax and cargo in nice accommodation on a large airship and tow
it cross country behind an electric locomotive running on repurposed
AmTrak tracks.

And just what happens when the train goes under a bridge?

Another unicorn inspired idea. Keep 'em coming. I need the laughs.

The author is a bit more than a unicorn, methinks. He's well-regarded in
technical circles.

Anyhow, if such a system was set up it could obviously only work on lines
that have no tunnels and that don't run in deep valleys (so not on the
Glendale-Denver line obviously), and that have been 'adjusted' so that
the line is always at the top of the crossing stack.

It would also be faster than the old Goon Show concept of horse-drawn
zeppelins.

Or you can use the newfangled idea of making that airship very narrow
and fly it very low to the ground so it can go under the bridges and
through tunnels. Oh wait...

While the rest of the world has double-tracked and electrified their
long-range railroads (e.g., the trans-Siberia), here in the US we sit on
our heels while a few loonies play with "pods" and other nonsense.

But I'm getting further off topic. Gliders are nice. They don't need
no steenkin' engines.

I have yet to see a glider take off (bungee launches excepted) or return from a field without an engine.

I have yet to see a glider take off (bungee launches excepted) or return from a field without an engine.

Does the one in the tow vehicle count?

I have yet to see a glider take off (bungee launches excepted) or return from a field without an engine.

See and believe:
https://youtu.be/_JNg9zwvDkI?list=PLC40EB4949AD5395B

Been there, done that. With a favorable wind one circle was enough to get high over the heads of the observers at the gravity launch site, and hours long ridge/wave soaring was possible.

BTW, Bezmiechowa is the place where Wanda Modlibowska set a new women's duration record of 24 hours 14 minutes in May 1937. When I was there for the first time, other pilots from our group did night ridge soaring in a 'Bocian' glider (by design equipped with position lights). The ridge line was marked with a series of campfires.

In 1993-95 night flights were still part of the training for licensed glider pilots in some places in Poland. Happy to have that exotic (and extinct?) endorsement in my logbook.

Just keen memories in a thread about dreams about self-launching gliders (in expectation of a new soaring season).