Virgin Atlantic sponsored plane..
Discussion
..is about to run out of fuel!
Anyone know the number for the British Airways ticket office?
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/4312059.stm
Anyone know the number for the British Airways ticket office?
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/4312059.stm
Unless the prevailing wind/weather conditions were far worse than expected this is shear idiocy of the 1st order.
If you knew that there were two different ways of measuring the fuel required surely you would opt for the one which suggested the greater fuel load. At least you could dump some if it was clear you had put more in than you needed.
If you knew that there were two different ways of measuring the fuel required surely you would opt for the one which suggested the greater fuel load. At least you could dump some if it was clear you had put more in than you needed.
srebbe64 said:
KITT said:
bbc said:
There are two ways of measuring the fuel load on GlobalFlyer and these show a discrepancy of 1,200kg (2,600lbs).
That seems like a pretty big discrepancy to me!
Has he looked behind the sofa?
They should have bought a diesel engine!
Its a jet so strictly speaking its not so far from a diesel engine as it runs on Kerocene
FourWheelDrift said:
Didn't the Virgin balloon burst at one point!
Pacific Flyer twice I think, Virgin Atlantic Challenger I sank and I think the Virgin Atlantic Ballon had problems too.
Of course, a more cynical man than myself may notice that the huge amount of publicity such failures get inevitably leads to a lot more when the mission is eventually accomplished than would otherwise have been the case
This is a Rutan project (like Spaceship One). Virgin are just spnsors (like Spaceship One). Before tou all jump up and down having a laugh at this - do you realise what a difficult and dangerous flight this is?
The plane is a flying bomb, in effect.
It appears that fuel consumption has been higher than predicted. I guess that the climb to the initial cruise height of 37,000 feet used up more fuel than anticipated. The reason why this might have happened is because the plane took off at its absolute max weight - something it had never done on any of its test flights, simply because it is just too dangerous.
When Rutan's piston powered Voyager took off for the first non-stop flight around the world in 1986, they nearly had a disaster on take off that time too because the fully fuelled wings sagged much more than planned and dragged along the entire length of the runway. The flight was seconds from becoming a fireball.
The plane is a flying bomb, in effect.
It appears that fuel consumption has been higher than predicted. I guess that the climb to the initial cruise height of 37,000 feet used up more fuel than anticipated. The reason why this might have happened is because the plane took off at its absolute max weight - something it had never done on any of its test flights, simply because it is just too dangerous.
When Rutan's piston powered Voyager took off for the first non-stop flight around the world in 1986, they nearly had a disaster on take off that time too because the fully fuelled wings sagged much more than planned and dragged along the entire length of the runway. The flight was seconds from becoming a fireball.
Eric Mc said:
This is a Rutan project (like Spaceship One). Virgin are just spnsors (like Spaceship One). Before tou all jump up and down having a laugh at this - do you realise what a difficult and dangerous flight this is?
The plane is a flying bomb, in effect.
It appears that fuel consumption has been higher than predicted. I guess that the climb to the initial cruise height of 37,000 feet used up more fuel than anticipated. The reason why this might have happened is because the plane took off at its absolute max weight - something it had never done on any of its test flights, simply because it is just too dangerous.
When Rutan's piston powered Voyager took off for the first non-stop flight around the world in 1986, they nearly had a disaster on take off that time too because the fully fuelled wings sagged much more than planned and dragged along the entire length of the runway. The flight was seconds from becoming a fireball.
Yeh, but it's still funny!
Anyone hear about the BA 747 last week on the LA - LHR run.
Engine went bang at about 100 feet, then followed by a 20 foot sheet of flame
The pilot decided to fly LA- Heathrow on 3 engines (which is aparently standard operating procedure) only to find the extra fuel burn by flying lower meant it had to divert to Manchester and declare a Mayday due to low fuel.
For anyone who wants to waste an hour or so try this.
www.pprune.com/forums/showthread.php?threadid=164208
Engine went bang at about 100 feet, then followed by a 20 foot sheet of flame
The pilot decided to fly LA- Heathrow on 3 engines (which is aparently standard operating procedure) only to find the extra fuel burn by flying lower meant it had to divert to Manchester and declare a Mayday due to low fuel.
For anyone who wants to waste an hour or so try this.
www.pprune.com/forums/showthread.php?threadid=164208
Ananova said:
Virgin GlobalFlyer Arrests
As Steve Fossett struggles to complete his round the world record bid 4 Travellers have been arrested in Kansas after being caught in possession of over 1000Kg of Kerosene in one of their caravans. The men are currently being held under 500K dollar bond.
One of them said to one of our undercover reporters posing as a fellow traveller 'We 'eard dare wus a plane wi' a 'uge fuel load so we tot roight lets get ter de airport tonoight wi' a bunch av jerrycans. We den punted sum on ter sum bloke in a boozer down de road, de rest we kept in wan av our caravans. Dat branson geezer's minted anyway so we figured yer man wud jist top 'er up in de mornin', not dat we wud 'av given a toss anyway'
It's not known yet what charges the men are likely to face. Also found in the caravans was a veritable Aladdin's cave of car stereos, DVD players, laptops and garden equipment.
Man those pikeys sure get around
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