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1500 questions
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Why do airliners park with the nose facing the terminal?
A few other questions have touched on why we don't board airliners from the front and back at the same time. My question is why is it that we choose to board at the front, rather than park the aircraft facing away from the terminal? This question…
Stuck
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What is this aircraft with a crew member in an exposed nose compartment?
Possibly from around 1935, possibly involving one of the two airplane-supplying-powers in the Spanish Civil war.
(Seen in a documentary about the 20th century inter-war era...it's only onscreen for a few frames.)
(It looks like one of the…
Fattie
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24
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5 answers
Why do cargo airlines frequently choose passenger aircraft rather than aircraft designed specifically for cargo?
Cargo airlines are known to regularly use planes designed primarily for passenger travel.
Why don't they almost exclusively use aircraft designed specifically for cargo?
Ritesh Singh
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Why don't combat aircraft have rear-facing *laser* weapons?
This question is similar, but only talks about guns. I don't mean a laser that is going to destroy the plane, but why aren't rear-mounted, rear-firing lasers that can blind a pilot a thing? Most of the concerns about weight and relative velocities…
Bob Watts
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Are there any real life instances of aircraft aborting a takeoff or landing to avoid a vehicle?
I came across a fake video of an A380 closely avoiding a fuel truck. More details at Snopes including a link to the YouTube video.
While this video is not real, I'm interested in finding out if it's a realistic situation and if there are any real…
user871199
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How does gas turbine efficiency compare with supercharged piston engines?
If an aircraft mounted the exact same propeller on a supercharged piston engine and a turbine, and flew under identical conditions at the same pitch and rpm, how much more fuel would the turbine use (possibly including weight savings benefits for…
Robert DiGiovanni
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What is more environmentally friendly? An A320 or a car?
Presuming the A320 is at least 80% full (of passengers) and comparing it to a typical road car with 2 people inside, which one is more environmentally friendly, per passenger mile?
I have attempted to do some rudimentary calculations, but then was…
Cloud
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Why was Pan Am Flight 103 flying over Lockerbie?
Pan Am Flight 103 was a flight from Frankfurt to Detroit with stops in London and New York.
Why after taking off in London did it fly all the way to Lockerbie instead of going directly to New York? Take a look at these pictures.
stackzebra
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Placement of positioning lights on A320 winglets
I was flying with an A320-214 that had big winglets (I think they were called Sharklets). I noticed that the positioning lights were facing forward on the leading edge of the winglet (the "notch" in the picture).
I was wondering why the light is…
Jens
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What happens if you do emergency landing on a US base in middle of the ocean?
A theoretical situation.
I fly from Honolulu International to the Bejing but my private jet gets fuel starvation and then I land on the Wake Island airstrip.
What happens next? Would the military give me fuel or they would give me shelter and tell…
Delta Oscar Uniform
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Would jet fuel for an F-16 or F-35 be producible during WW2?
I understand that different types of engines use different types of fuel, and as the description of the [jet] tag says, turboprops and jet engines use different types of fuel.
So if – like in the works of fiction The Final Countdown and 1632 –…
JoSSte
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Do crew rest seats count towards the maximum allowed number of seats per flight attendant?
We work as flight attendants on a 737-400. We were taught that we must have one FA per 50 seats. Normally our planes have 150 seats and with three FAs we have no issues.
Recently the seat configuration was 152 seats. We called our company and told…
Celeste Thorne
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When and why was runway 07/25 at Kai Tak removed?
Wikipedia states that Kai Tak Airport in Hong Kong originally had two runways, both built under Japanese occupation during World War II:
... In 1942, the Japanese army expanded Kai Tak, using many Allied prisoner-of-war (POW) labourers,[9] building…
Vikki
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24
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5 answers
Why can't airline pilots listen to music while flying?
In an interview I read, a 747 captain (Mark Vanhoenacker, an American British Airways pilot) says he doesn't understand why he cannot listen to music inflight, when for example surgeons – who literally hold peoples' lives in their hands – can:
Can…
user36324
24
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6 answers
Why then don't aircraft fly even higher, for even greater efficiency?
After reading various superb QA on here I now see that (basically) aircraft are more efficient per passenger-mile, at higher altitudes.
Why don't we go even higher, than current typical airliner cruising altitudes?
What's the deal?
If there's an…
Fattie
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