Half a croissant, on a plate, with a sign in front of it saying '50c'
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BungeeAir

Bunjie jump from airplane.
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(+5, -8)
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Attach a super long bunjie cord to commercial airliners. For a fee, passengers can strap into a harness during the flight and jump from the cargo hold. This would be especially fun at night. After a few minutes of free flight, they would then be reeled in and the next in line would have their turn to jump next. This would give passengers something interesting to do and raise much needed revenue for the airline industry.
Zillon, Sep 19 2008

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       I don't know about commercial airliners, but this would be a wild ride. Plus you could go over and over instead of skydiving, where you go once. Very long cords would be possible. You might still want a parachute, just in case.
bungston, Sep 20 2008
  

       Commercial airliners don't have the right sort of airframes for this sort of thing, but a C-130 certainly would.   

       An additional frisson could be added by carefully calculating the lowest point of the jumper's trajectory and flying just a little bit higer, so they almost, but not quite, hit the ground, while travelling horizontally at up to 300 MPH, suspended from a fragile elastic strand.   

       The idea is ludicrously dangerous, inadvisable, a misuse of expensive technology and precious fossil fuels, and likely to result in the serious injury or death of the participants. It should be done IMMEDIATELY. [+]
8th of 7, Sep 20 2008
  

       Cruising altitude is about -50C. Maybe as an extreme sport from a plane employed for the purpose, but not from a commercial airliner.
david_scothern, Sep 20 2008
  

       So strap me in and anchor me
Tell me that youll wait for me
Tell me that it'll never let me go
'cause I'm bungieing from a jet plane
Dont know when I'll be back again
Oh babe, I hate to go
  

       Boned because of deleted anno
Voice, Sep 22 2008
  

       flying is scary enough. sitting in a weak metal tube hurtling through the air at 800klm/h, 10klm from the earth surface, with no real safety alternative. yes, lets jump out of it.
williamsmatt, Sep 22 2008
  

       mAIdAI! MaYDaY! wEindshHIeer! Plane pitchin down! Cuttin bunjie rope to regain control!
rotary, Sep 22 2008
  

       Vicarious liability. These are not just words, they are a sentence, longer than any (sp: bungee) you could produce.
4whom, Sep 22 2008
  

       Almost as good as the helicopter ejector seat
hippo, Sep 22 2008
  

       I was ready to bun - but you're deleting annos? Bone.
normzone, Sep 22 2008
  

       non-abusive-anno deletion [-]
FlyingToaster, Sep 22 2008
  

       Bubba's getting cranky. Must be time for his nap.   

       BTW - original post deleted due to unprovoked offensive content.
Zillon, Sep 22 2008
  

       Vicarious liability. These are not just words, they are a sentence, longer than any (sp: bungee) you could produce. 4whom, Sep 22 2008   

       "Vicarious liability" is not a sentence.
Zillon, Sep 22 2008
  

       Well, based on some back of an envelope calcs - I get the following.   

       Terminal velocity of a skydiver = 60m/s.   

       Wind resistance = friction constant * velocity squared   

       Therefore,for a 100kg subject, friction constant = 0.28   

       767 cruising speed = 240m/s   

       Doing a quick balance of forces, and ignoring the wind resistance of the rope, we get:   

       wind force on bungee dude at equilibrium - 16kN (1.6 tons) -so even the best harness in the world is going to cut into you as if you're doing 16g's, essentially.   

       Angle of rope to horizontal ~ 3.5 degrees   

       Length of rope, if you're 100m above the ground and plante altitude = 30,000 ft (9000m) ~ 145km   

       Power used in dragging you along (=force*velocity) = 4 megawatts (5,300 horsepower)   

       I think it's safe to say my ignoring the rope wind resistance was an invalid assumption - but trust me, it only makes the above numbers more extreme, making the rope even more horizontal. I'm curious about frictional heating of your clothes at those speeds - 4 megawatts is a lot of heat. Perhaps the wind friction is not a constant factor as my assumption ... assumes, but for back of an envelope stuff, normally wind resistance is a roe-v-squared thing. If anyone has any corrections, please chime in - I'm feeling very fallible today, and despite having gone through the above twice, I can't spot the error.   

       Oh, by the way, [marked-for-deletion] bad science.
Custardguts, Sep 22 2008
  
      
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