To Increase Passenger Jet Fuel Efficiency, Airlines Look to Nature's Flying Formations

Makes more sense to design an aircraft that is shaped similar to a group of aircraft in a V pattern so it may benefit from its own upwash.

I am appalled that anyone would suggest this ridiculous idea. Apparently you do not understand how the flying v helps to increase efficiency.

Craig1243

Obviously, you have no grasp of the dynamics taking place to suggest designers make a plane that is similar to a V to make use of its own upwash. You would have to stack up many layers of wings, and each has to trail the other at the wingtip in order to utilize the natural phenomenon of upwash to do that. How many wings do you propose a plane should have on each side and how long should they plane be? Not only that, but the extra weight would probably negate any efficiency with the wing design anyways.

The only thing that would be of concern for civilian planes would be proximity to the other planes. Should a plane experience problems/malfunctions that causes it to deviate from the flight path, anyone behind it would have to react very quickly. How many flight attendants would be turned upside down when pilots bank hard to avoid the plane in front of it should it have engine problems or whatnot. I highly doubt passenger planes experience that many engine flame outs, but there are many other reasons that would cause one to slow down, bank, go to a higher elevation, etc.

Also, how would one coordinate changing flight paths due to weather or other airborne obstacles such as migrating geese and what not? Obviously, these pilots would have to be trained in close formation flying, otherwise they're liable to collide mid-air.

When I was in the USAF and stationed *somewhere* in North Texas, it seemed as if every year (the 4 years I was there), there were mid-air collisions resulting in fatalities. And these were tiny little single engine or dual occupancy training jets. Not passenger liners. Imagine the devastation of two, three or four A380s/747s going down all in one horrible accident.

anyone want to volenter to be the first to fly in the commercial airliners that take off in a v formation?

No way. One single mistake and BOOM!!! There goes the whole fleet of planes. Anyways, I don't think they would do it with gigantic aircrafts, too dangerous. And I doubt that they would all head in the same direction since you would need to continue the formation to work.