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Vehicle: Airplane: Airport
Robberfly Airport   (+1)  [vote for, against]
Until you get up close and notice the "cars" have wings, it looks like a parking lot. Okay, it really doesn't, but it could on a cloudy day, from a distance. Anyways...

Made - at least initially - for small aircraft, the airport's main service is to provide takeoff and landing assist via electric drones : those with enough power and energy to pick up an aircraft and take it up to a decent altitude and speed before releasing ; likewise catching an incoming aircraft and landing it, vertically. No need for a runway.

Once a network of these airports can be established, small aircraft can be designed without flaps or landing gear, engine/motor and aerodynamic surfaces optimized for cruising speed.

Of course, you'd still need a hardpoint on top for the drone to hook onto, and one beneath as a pedestal mount.
-- FlyingToaster, Jul 18 2019

Parasite aircraft https://en.wikipedi...site_aircraft#1950s
Existing technology [8th of 7, Jul 18 2019]

Semi-Airborne Airport Mentioned in my anno. My idea that's vaguely related to this [notexactly, Jul 20 2019]

I have considered this too. I think the lower top speed of a rotorcraft vs. a fixed wing is the main problem. You might have to do some clever geometry-shifting (like a V-22, but with the rotors part of the "drone" instead of attached to the plane proper) or drop them nose first... which would also mean catching the plane from a dive to land.
-- neutrinos_shadow, Jul 18 2019


We just need to make indefinitely suspended airports but this is good too.
-- 2 fries shy of a happy meal, Jul 18 2019


In the 1920's and '30's there were experiments with "parasite" fighters deployed from airships; and post-WW2, a similar scheme was devised to launch and recover a fighter from a jet bomber. So mid-air capture and launch can be done, but required immense skill.

// without flaps or landing gear //

If something goes wrong mid-flight, you still need the hardware to let you land on a convenient bit of flat ground, at low speed.
-- 8th of 7, Jul 18 2019


what [shadow] said
-- pertinax, Jul 18 2019


Common sense says a BRS, probably attached to the top hardpoint, given the CG requirement. Also - perhaps - an internal belly skid, like modern cars with the bumper inside plastic fascia.

The hex/quad/whatever-copters would have their own BRS.
-- FlyingToaster, Jul 19 2019


// which would also mean catching the plane from a dive to land. //

From a climb.

// indefinitely suspended airports //

I don't know what those are—are they like my [linked] idea?

// If something goes wrong mid-flight, you still need the hardware to let you land on a convenient bit of flat ground, at low speed. //

Whole-airplane parachutes are available. Is that what "BRS" refers to?
-- notexactly, Jul 20 2019


BRS = Ballistic Recovery System.

Useful, but not particularly steerable.
-- 8th of 7, Jul 20 2019


That's exactly what I was guessing it stood for. Probably a guess based on a vague memory, not just being that smart (not that I'm not, of course :P).

But I only know of such systems for small GA planes, not airliners, yet.
-- notexactly, Jul 21 2019


That's because the big civil stuff doesn't have the margin of strength in the airframe to take a BRS; they would come apart, in a spectacular and deeply unpleasant way.
-- 8th of 7, Jul 21 2019


What about that plane whose roof came off but still landed safely in Hawaii?

Couldn't the harness distribute the forces, too?
-- notexactly, Jul 21 2019


Ah yes, Aloha Airlines famous "Verandah" service ...

The problems with a BRS for a civil jet are numerous, but amongst them are:

1. Ideally, the chute should be coupled through to the mainspar, which runs across the centre of the cabin floor in most designs; a pylon at that point, colocated with the overwing exits, might be a little inconvenient.

2. The speed at which the chute needs to deploy; in fact, a staged system is needed to get the airspeed down to 150kt or less, which takes time (= altitude ) on a big jet.

3. The extra mass & bulk of the chute & harness.

4. The psychological factor of "expecting failure". On a single -engine puddle jumper, failure is always an option - on a scheduled service, maybe not so much.
-- 8th of 7, Jul 21 2019


[notexactly]: from a climb
That makes much more sense.
-- neutrinos_shadow, Jul 21 2019



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