Schiphol is crazy. Thought it was novel when you crossed 1 motorway, but now for one of the runways you cross 2 of them!

Have had bus to plane from one end of terminals at Frankfurt all the way up to the very last parking slot at the other end. And then taxied the entire length of the airport back the other way to take off. Thought we were going to drive to BHX.

Now I know some German autobahns have been designed to be usable as impromptu runways for F15s (have seen photos), but I don’t think the M4 has been designed for 737’s and A320’s.

LHS is right on the electric nosewheel concept. Also its alot of dead weight – and therefore extra fuel, to carry around for the vast majority of its time – when the aircraft is flying. Also it is only of use when taxiing back after landing, as you neeed time for the enigne’s to warm up before taking off, so you can’t taxi out to the runway, fire up the engines and go. Airlines are looking and experimenting with shutting down one engine after landing and taxiing on one enigne, which saves a good chunk of the fuel which sort of destroys the case for the nosewheel motor thing.

Is there a strip at Chilbolton? There was RAF Chilbolton, but no longer active, shirley? Or is he going from Popham? My local riding area, so always interested!

There’s a small private strip in the field at the back of what I guess was RAF Chilbolton (there’s a small industrial park of what look like large 2nd world war bomb shelters). No public access though and certainly wouldn’t get your transatlantic flights in there! I think there’s about half a dozen light aircraft / microlights in the club, and the control tower / terminal / clubhouse is an old damp and rather green caravan.

Its a lot cheaper than Popham!

Airlines are looking and experimenting with shutting down one engine after landing and taxiing on one enigne, which saves a good chunk of the fuel which sort of destroys the case for the nosewheel motor thing.

This use to be pretty normal on the 2-engine prop flights I use to go on.

you neeed time for the enigne’s to warm up before taking off, so you can’t taxi out to the runway, fire up the engines and go.

IIRC Airbus a31Xs have an approved improved economy taxiing procedure for single engine taxiing in places such as Schiphol & Heathrow when you have to depart from the wrong end of the field. You can tell when they’re doing it as they have a valve which shifts hydraulic fluid from the green circuit to the red circuit (or vice versa) when one engine is down. The valve makes a funny noise in the cabin as it does so – like somebody punching a baboon: “EE-ee. EE-ee. Ee-ee-ee-ee-ee-ee. EE-EE…” IGMC

<where’s flaperon?>

edit: my brain is full of mindless drivel, some of which is correct.

Dash 8 turboprops taxi on one engine.

A320 is somewhere between 750 and 1250 kg / hour. You could probably reach 70 with little more than idle power, or a decent wedge of thrust on a single engine.

1000 / .8 = 1250 litres = 275 gallons.

So 70 / 275 = .25 miles per gallon.

APU should be running if single engine but not strictly necessary. Since trundling down the M6 probably counts as not following SOPs I daresay you could get away with it.

Dash 8 turboprops taxi on one engine.

Is that because the other one is dragging its belly along the tarmac following yet another main gear lock failure?

“EE-ee. EE-ee. Ee-ee-ee-ee-ee-ee. EE-EE…”

I’ve often wondered what that was. Thanks!

So 70 / 275 = .25 miles per gallon.

But there are what, 250 passengers on board, so that makes it around 60mpg per passenger. Not bad. IIRC that’s comparable to a bus?

Boeing 777 with GE90 engines will accelerate to 40 Kts (46mph) on idle power alone….thats with an empty aircraft and 40 tons of fuel.

Best cornering speed is < 10 kts

A320 has in region of 170 Pax, not 250

My Luscombe burns 20 litres an hour , cruises at 88kts , but is only 2 seater.
Based a airstrip not to dissimilar to Chilbolton

sierrakilo – Member

Boeing 777 with GE90 engines will accelerate to 40 Kts (46mph) on idle power alone….

That’s pretty badass. Well, OK, you can do the same with a mondeo but not while carrying 450 people.

Molgrips. A bus does around 6mpg in town, and 9.1-9.3mpg at motorway speeds, with 65 passengers on board. I cant do the maths, im too tired.

Large turbofan engines generate way too much thrust at idle. When taxiing the pilots main challenge on busy taxi ways when queueing, is managing brake temperatures as they’re always dragging their brakes. I think a large turbofan engine, like a 777 engine, generates around 6 to 8k lbs of thrust each at idle. The majority of an engines thrust, around 90%, comes from the fan, the glorified propeller at the front of the engine. So you can’t really slow that down too much – the larger the fan the slower the rpm (limited by tip speed which can’t exceed the speed of sound at take off), so you have a very narrow operating speed range as the turbine driving it wants to spin quickly and you can’t run it slowly enough when at idle, so the result is a lot of excess power at idle.

I concur with Flaperon’s figures. Although SE taxi at 70 would be quite ‘exciting’ I think. I’d prefer both on, but the kgs/hour would be very similar for 70mph.

Now I know some German autobahns have been designed to be usable as impromptu runways for F15s

BAC once landed a Jaguar on the M55 back in the 1970’s:

Shortly before the M55 was due for completion, arrangements were made in conjunction with the Ministry of Defence, and the British Aircraft Corporation, for a Jaguar G R Mark 1(XX109) aircraft, from the Warton (Lancashire) Aerodrome, to land on the afternoon of Saturday, 26 April, 1975, on the road base of a section of carriageway near Weeton. After fitting four of the RAF’s latest cluster bombs on the plane, it then took off from the motorway. The purpose was to demonstrate the Jaguar’s ability to land and take off in short distances.