What the US needs is to fix its rail system. eminent domain the whole thing, pay off the robber barons and just run it like it matters to get shit from here to there.
The cargo a plane can carry isn't limited only by the volume of the interior, but also by the amount of weight that can be carried safely in the plane. Airlines try to balance the amount of dense and non-dense (a.k.a. volumetric) cargo to solve for the joint constraint by charging different prices for cargo depending on the greater of its weight cost vs. its volume cost.<p>Even if it turned out to be practical to double the volume of cargo you could carry, it seems unlikely that it would allow you to double the weight of the cargo, since the engines and the airframe have all been designed around the same set of engineering requirements. The best case scenario would be a decrease in the cost of volumetric cargo, with dense cargo staying the same.
IANAAE (...not an aerospace engineer), but I smell a metric boatload of utterly delusional thinking here.<p>> ...remarkably simple way to slash air cargo costs as much as 65% – by having planes tow autonomous, cargo-carrying gliders behind them, big enough to double, or potentially triple their payload capacity.<p>A 65% cost reduction via tripling the payload would require that <i>costs</i> not increase, no? Are these huge cargo gliders <i>free</i> to purchase/operate/maintain? And hauling them around puts zero additional load on the engines of the air freighter that's towing them, to increase maintenance or fuel costs?<p>> ...payload-carrying gliders were towed toward combat zones in World War 2, full of troops and/or equipment, then released to attempt unpowered landings in the thick of things – with widely variable results, particularly where stone-walled farms were a factor.<p>True, but glider losses due to mishaps (starting with broken tow ropes) were damned high even before they got to the target area. What % of cargo being lost in transit do these folks figure is acceptable, in the modern air freight business?<p>> These "Aerocarts" will be pulled down the runway by the lead plane just like a recreational glider. They'll lift off more or less together...<p>Ask anyone with a pilot's license about this. Especially if he has experience with taxiways at large & busy airports, or with taking off in anything less than picture-perfect weather, or with airplanes that lack "sporty" thrust/weight ratios.<p>> With no propulsion systems, you save all the weight of engines, motors, fuel, ...<p>Even if your towing airplane magically does not need larger engines or more fuel to haul 2x or 3x the weight around - what happens when you land, and the tow plane engages its thrust reversers?
It sounds interesting…<p>But it’s one thing to try and win an existential war by any means necessary including downgrading safety, but I think it’s another thing when you intend to use this for civilian freight transportation.<p>What’s the contingency for a snapped tow rope? Or electro/hydromechanical failure on either aircraft during take off or landing? One plane involved is plenty to handle; how do you handle two?<p>Light glider planes with one passenger or two is one thing, but an unpiloted freight aircraft, I’d think has greater risk. I get they might have remote operators for the glider, but some situations need proximate feedback.
If you're happy for your gliders to travel at 100 mph instead of 500 mph, you can glide almost fuel free, making use of thermals and winds most of the way.<p>However, the finances for such a business are hard to make work since, while you save on fuel, your very expensive aircraft does fewer flights per year.<p>The only way to make it work would be very cheap airframes, probably without humans aboard (meaning factors of safety and maintenance costs can be dropped).<p>But developing new airframes is awfully hard.
Reminds me of the Me 321 [0]<p>[0] <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Messerschmitt_Me_321_Gigant" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Messerschmitt_Me_321_Gigant</a>
Couldn't you also just get fuel saving benefits from multiple aircraft flying in formation? <a href="https://ntrs.nasa.gov/api/citations/20205006743/downloads/AIAA20124802.pdf" rel="nofollow">https://ntrs.nasa.gov/api/citations/20205006743/downloads/AI...</a><p>I'm surprised that companies like fedex don't do this.