Monday, 20 November 2017

Week 4 [20-26.11.17] Clip-Air: How pod planes could change travel forever



I would like to introduce to you a new concept in transport industry. Researchers from Switzerland offer a solution of combining few means of transport during one journey.

1 Do you think this idea will interest transport industry?
2 How long can last the realization of this idea?
3 Would you take advantage of such a means of transport?



 

21 comments:

  1. 1 Do you think this idea will interest transport industry?

    Well some airplane companies already offers double deckers. So it seems like making plane wider instead of higher. I understand that they want to offer the same flight for a higher amount of passengers, but is there really need for that? It is rare to see full plane as it is right now, so having 3 times more places does not make much sense in my opinion.

    2 How long can last the realisation of this idea?

    I am not an expert but I don’t think that this will take a lot of time. Maybe few years, but probably testing and obtaining formal consent to use will be the biggest challenge. It is not easy to quickly introduce new planes to use, without many tests and absolute safety assurance.

    3 Would you take advantage of such a means of transport?

    I think that mostly shipping, now I know that some delivery companies like DHL have their own planes just for shipping purposes. Maybe thanks to such solution other smaller companies will offer such services. Also many manufacturers nowadays can use only ships for transportation of their products (even clothes and not so heavy items) and this would be much faster and less problematic. I know that during winter there is a lot of problems with ships because of the weather conditions and ice. Sometimes ships are stuck and can’t move.

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    Replies
    1. Thank you for sharing your opinion. From manufactures point of view they can choose ship or train. When we turn on aviation transport in this network it should be a bit more covenient to prepare shipping plan.

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  2. To be honest, I don't buy the idea. I mean totally.

    1. Do you think this idea will interest transport industry?

    So far CNN was interested enough to make an article.
    What about the transport industry? I don't expect any emotions from them. This Addison Schonland guy, founder of some consultancy company for the aviation industry, is not impressed if I understood him correctly. Also, I agree with him that it may be exciting from the engineering perspective, but not from others. There is a long way from dreams to the commercial reality. I don't see any airport preparing for testing this.

    I'd say Hyperloop has much much bigger chances to become the reality than that.

    2. How long can last the realization of this idea?

    I don't see any company investing in that. I don't expect any funding raised for prototypes.
    And, even with the funding, I don't expect prototypes in 5 years.
    And what about the real realization, commercially available Clip-Airs? Never, from my point of view.

    3. Would you take advantage of such a means of transport?

    As I wrote, I don't see much advantages here.
    From the new transportation ideas my vote is on Hyperloop. In Hyperloop we have a mix between train-like comfort and plane-like speed. What do we have with Clip-Air? Yet another flying, maybe a little faster when it comes to the boarding time...

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    1. Thank you for sharing your opinion. I also think Hyperloop is more possible project.

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  3. 1 Do you think this idea will interest transport industry?
    I don't know that, but I think they should. I think that this is very good idea you can combine cargo plane with passenger plane. So if there the number of passangers is quite small you can attach cargo capsule otherwise you can resign from this and attach only one passanger capsule. Also I think that engineers can combine freight rail transportation with container ship and this plane using only one cargo holder in this case capsule.

    2 How long can last the realization of this idea?
    I don't know, they also don't know. I think that this will be only a concept. If creators don't believe in their idea so why should I :-).

    3 Would you take advantage of such a means of transport?
    Hmmm, I am very careful with planes so I think after some time when this solution will be old enough to be safe then I can use it :D.

    I see that nowadays we want to put everything in capsule. Capsule networks, capsule planes :D

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    1. Thank you for sharing your opinion. As I know there are planes with combined cargo and passengers. You are absolutely right with idea of joining aviation to global container network.

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  4. 1 Do you think this idea will interest transport industry?

    Probably yes but it is hard to predict for me as I am not an expert in this field. I think they should think about using this idea or maybe adapt to teir current needs.

    2 How long can last the realization of this idea?
    I do not know. Maybe until they managed to realise this idea there will be another, better one :)

    3 Would you take advantage of such a means of transport?

    I can agree with Cezary that shipping may be an advantage here. I connot find any other advantage at the moment.

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  5. From shiping point of view it has two advantages. Loading is much faster and in result cost are lower. I think costs and time are two the most important factors in transportation industry. Thank you for your opinion.

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  6. Hello,
    thank you for that article.

    1. Do you think this idea will interest transport industry?
    I think that there is a reason why different transportation methods are not being made in the same way. From my opinion, there is a strong variation of transportation modules from the reason of material strength (especially in cargo), aerodynamics, costs of production, et cetera, that come from economical optimisation and it's purpose. Even in public transportation, I don't see it's universalism (for example: how often group of 150 people would travel the same train, then fly at the same flight and approach to the final destination by the same bus?).

    2. How long can last the realization of this idea?
    The article said: "In the meantime, Leonardi's crew is preparing to build a small-scale Clip-Air prototype: a 10-meter drone [...]." so I would see that this is rather a startup at the pre-seed stage, that doesn't even have a working prototype. So, at this stage, it would take years to prepare airports, on-land infrastructure and procedures that would cover that new aviation approach.

    3. Would you take advantage of such a means of transport?
    If the project would pass all safety tests and would be approved as public transportation method then sure, I would.

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  7. 1. The idea seems reasonable enough to be interesting for the transport industry. It can solve the problem of growing number of passengers and also reduce costs in many scenarios.

    2. Probably it could take many years, especially considering that it's only a concept. I think that only tests required for a new aircraft to transport passengers could take a few years.

    3. If it was cheaper I would definitely use it.

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  8. 1 Do you think this idea will interest transport industry?
    I think this idea can have many followers. It seems to me that this is a better idea for the cargo industry. not passenger.
    2 How long can the realization of this idea last?
    10-20 years of first use :) giving date is always a lottery. If we talk about future solutions.
    3 Would you take advantage of such a means of transport?
    No. As I wrote above, I think the idea is more suited to the CARGO industry.

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  9. Thank you for an interesting article. To be honest, I'm not sure if the idea has more advantages or disadvantages. One thing I am certain of is that definitely it's an interesting concept and a great challenge and learning opportunity for the engineers. But I guess such a solution makes more sense for cargo planes and not passenger ones. If researchers find right investor, I guess realisation of the idea might take up to 5 years. When I see such a plane, I will consider taking advantage of such means of transport.

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  10. 1 Do you think this idea will interest transport industry?
    In order to introduce such a concept the whole planet should introduce new rules in aviation and agree on them, new operation instruction would have to be written for airports and a lot of pilots would have to be trained for such air crafts. I don't believe this concept is solving anything significant to make whole industry introduce this idea.

    2 How long can last the realization of this idea?
    In the air industry decades is quick so if they will force that to happened it will take more than 20 years to have it certified, tested, new regulations will be released globally etc.
    3 Would you take advantage of such a means of transport?
    No, I don't think it's solving anything significant.

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  11. 1 Do you think this idea will interest transport industry?

    It might. It looks like a step to the unification in the transport industry, so it means that the expenses will decrease and the time could be saved. But probably as with every new idea it will take some time to become popular in the industry.

    2 How long can last the realization of this idea?

    20 years maybe? The technology needs to be refined and tested. The transport companies will also need some time to adjust their stategies and budget to the changes.

    3 Would you take advantage of such a means of transport?

    If it will be testesd and occures to be safe, than yes :)

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  12. 1. Freight transport is a very interesting solution and it will surely improve the transport of goods. An important advantage is the possibility of early loading. It will also reduce the downtime between flights. Replacing capsules will take less time. There are still service issues. In my opinion, this solution will not be used in passenger transport. Increasing the number of single-seat flights is associated with a reduction in the number of flights. As a result, waiting time for a flight will lengthen. When I think of combined transports, there will be a problem of uniform loading of the capsule at full loading with differentiated goods.
    2. In my opinion infrastructure will be the biggest problem. I do not know how much it can take to adjust to it.
    3. I have no resistance to new types of public transport.

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  13. 1. I think all ideas of this kind should interest transport industry. Looking at today’s problem with traffic and taking into account our needs to move faster, better and cheaper, we have to work on solutions corresponding to those problems and needs. This one mentioned in the article seems to be interesting, but logistically difficult to apply, because there is many aspects to consider. It also seems to be expensive, although in the end of the day it can turn out to be cheapest because of its multitasking features. However, in my opinion the idea is worth of exploring.
    2. The solution is sophisticated, so I guess it could take about ten years to realize such project. But during this time many unexpected difficulties shall appear, so it would last longer. Hard to predict ;-)
    3. The main advantage is meeting many needs at once and solving several problems with one solution. Definitely. As I mentioned above, it may also bring financial savings, but this is only my speculation based on intuition, without deep research.

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  14. 1 Do you think this idea will interest transport industry?
    I'm afraid not. It's far from being production ready. It's creative, but I think it will end as an idea.
    2 How long can last the realization of this idea?
    Depends on the funds. In this particular case, too long.
    3 Would you take advantage of such a means of transport?
    I would like to, but they won't make it production ready any time soon.

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  15. 1 Do you think this idea will interest transport industry?
    I think that eventually it will. It seems to be a good idea to combine these two approaches depending on the current needs. It is a quite promising idea to deployed in the whole transport industry.
    2 How long can last the realization of this idea?
    It depends on the resources involved in the process. If it is promising and may bring many benefits in the nearest future.
    3 Would you take advantage of such a means of transport?
    If the technology is verified and eventually safe then I will travel with it. However, the industry will benefit the most from this solution.

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  16. I think that the idea is just brilliant!
    However, it will take decades for this solution to be implemented, because it needs a lot of infrastructure to be build or reorganized. During this time new technologies, such as new energy sources for transportation, could emerge. So it may be pretty hard for clip-air engineers to introduce their concept and start earning money on it.
    Anyway, returning to the world of fantasy, I would love to see it working. I would definitely take advantage of such technology.

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  17. 1. Do you think this idea will interest transport industry?
    I’m not sure but it doesn’t look so surprising. In my opinion it’s just an extension of an usual plane. I may be wrong but I think that it won’t be a breakthrough in the transport industry.

    2. How long can last the realization of this idea?
    I agree with the statement from the article: “Although it may be brilliant from an engineering point of view, it is going to be very tough to make it work commercially”. I may repeat myself but in my opinion the transport industry expects another revolution. However it’s hard for me to point it out.

    3. Would you take advantage of such a means of transport?
    I suppose so but I am not convinced that it would be a shocking experience for me. First of all it should be well tested and in common use because I trust only proven technology.

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  18. Hello,
    1 Do you think this idea will interest transport industry?
    The answer is - yes of course. The question is - is it a better solution. Transportation costs hve a big impact into final price, so each solution that can leads to this factor decrease - can be course of competitive advantage. The only think that I am not sure is: in my opinion this kind of solution was not implemented (or better developed) earlier due to some kind of predicted faults.

    2 How long can last the realization of this idea?
    Maybe time needed to implement (or test) this idea was too long and that is the reason why it was not developed earlier.

    3 Would you take advantage of such a means of transport?
    Financial savings and competitive advantage are the first points that cross my mind.

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