On that long transatlantic flight trying to kill time? Interested in turbulence? Why not read a Ph.D. dissertation on the subject? Free download at the link below.
The response of aircraft to stochastic atmospheric turbulence plays an important role in, for example, aircraft design (load calculations) and flight simulation (handling qualities research and pilot training).
While Turbulence Forecast has been helping fliers predict turbulence on flights, an exciting new development is underway that could make flights smoother.
Airplane passengers could soon experience much less in-flight turbulence if testing goes well for a new detection system designed to end stomach-lurching bumpy rides and reduce delays.
The air turbulence detection system , designed by the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), has already successfully alerted some pilots steering United Airlines commercial flights to patches of rough air as they flew through clouds.
The weather and jet stream activity of today makes for very interesting analysis of airlines and their willingness to avoid turbulence. A previous blog post from December 13th, 2006 showed that Northwest Airlines did the best job in avoiding turbulence. A look today shows much of the same. Only Northwest seems willing to avoid turbulence the most, as compared to other airlines. You can always investigate this yourself by visiting FlightAware and seeing the routes that planes take. Just type in two city pairs and have a look.
What’s worse than flying through moderate-severe turbulence? Not flying at all, being stuck on a plane for 8 hours with only these chips to eat. Many JetBlue customers were stranded waiting for an elusive takeoff that never came, and were subdued with terra blue chips and overflowing bathrooms.
Several planes became frozen to the ground and people were unable to leave the planes.
There’s a good chance that if you are flying, you may be taking a cruise as well. What turbulence forecast has done for flyers, we are doing for cruisers as well. Please visit the main Turbulence Forecast site and look for your cruise wave forecast! Rough seas? A cabin toward the middle of the ship moves the least (just like a seat on the plane over the wing is best).
A new airline, Virgin America is having difficulties getting approved to fly in the US due to regulations. A website www.letvafly.com has been set up, which explains further. Virgin America would be good competition for the airline industry, and their very advanced in flight entertainment system may take your mind off the bumps. Watch this video to learn more.
A common concern of this site’s visitors is damage to the aircraft in severe turbulence.
This video shows stress testing of the Boeing 777 aircraft wings. The wing ultimately fails at 154% of design load, forces that probably will never be encountered in flight.
Turbulenceforecast.com has always worked on most mobile devices, but now you can visit a light version of the site on your mobile device. Navigate to m.turbulenceforecast.com on your Blackberry, cellular phone, or any other mobile device. Let us know what you think by filling out the comment form. Note that the mobile service is in beta, and will be changing and improving. Also, it may not be available right away as the DNS name was just entered.
Edit 1: On 1/24/2007, I modified the mobile website to make the maps clickable, so you should be able to view the full sized maps.
I recently read a copy of Patrick Smith’s well written book, Ask the Pilot: Everything You Need to Know About Air Travel. As soon as I was a few pages in to it, I knew that I had to finish the book because it was both informative and entertaining, a rare combination especially considering that aviation can be considered by some to be a boring subject.
At the start, Smith goes in to the hows and whys of flight. He explains how the airplane stays in the air, and why you hear that distinctive ‘buzzsaw’ sound on takeoff from the engines. He paints a wonderful picture of how the wing works, and what the flaps and slats are used for. He also speaks to how all of the major important systems of an aircraft are doubly or triply redundant. Nearly the first half of the book is spent reassuring the reader on many questions they would ask an airline pilot. Patrick Smith hits upon many of the most popular questions, including questions about safety, the age of an airplane, ‘propeller planes’, turbulence, dumping fuel, speed, lightning, and many more questions are answered with clear, concise explanations and a great sense of humor.
About halfway through, the book departs from the safety and concerns of the passenger for a while and tells about the life of an airline pilot, which disappointingly enough, isn’t all that glamorous, although he does have some good stories to tell.
After this short diversion, Smith again launches into a discussion of safety and discusses many famous aviation accidents, and why they are so rare. Toward the end of the book, he discusses his opinion on airline livery designs and other issues that are interesting to the flying public.
At 269 pages, the book is a quick read and over much too soon, as you learn a lot and are entertained at the same time, a rare combination.
You can purchase an autographed copy from the author at his website.
Patrick Smith writes an excellent column on Salon.com, and recently, two excellent columns were written on Turbulence.? See this column on turbulence and another on wake turbulence.
