A bit of bad luck on the timing of the re-opening of the lounge.
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Did the SUV roll out its ass?
Given that the Avro Business Jet is apparently a modified BAE 146 (not sure if it’s a -100, -200, or -300); it looks very much like the visionary design team is just reusing a feature from the freight variants. Position and size look right, the deck is new but the hatch overhead matches. I suspect that this has kept their plans from succumbing to the worst of designers-without-engineers syndrome. (Image from vendor brochure)
That said, call me…pessimistic…about the number of airstrips suitable for landing a BAe146-200 or 146-300(the 100 apparently doesn’t have the cargo door option) that are also remotely scenic enough to want to be hanging out on the deck on.
For the 200 they give the below specs:
The 300 is a little heavier and needs a bit more room:
Apparently the 146 is a better option than some its size for tepid airstrips; but those aren’t the numbers I’d exactly be comfortable plunking down on a random stretch of savanna without so much as mussing the grass, as in the renderings; and once you have enough airstrip that you might well end up seeing, hearing, and smelling other aircraft puttering about the luxury option starts to look like just having a driver waiting to get you out of there when you arrive(which, in the renders, they apparently did anyway, no provision for transporting and deploying the safari-mobile shown is made, so you aren’t going far without some sort of ground support).
Doesn’t look like one of the blatant contrafactuals that sometimes emerge from the design concept process; but doesn’t really seem like a terribly desirable feature.
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Summing up the thread so far: this is why I’d like to have an aircraft carrier for my yacht.
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A lot of Billionaires wouldn’t flinch at constructing a runway in the middle of an African savanna. Can totally see Bezos and Sanchez doing this…
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Isn’t dust and rocks dangerous for planes jet engines ?
I remember reading propellers are safer for that kind of places.
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They also have a submarine with a screen door
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Sometimes they are passenger aircraft. Until this year KLM operated the 747 Combi:
I flew on one last year between JFK and Amsterdam. The cargo hold in the back is pressurised- in fact, on my flight I noticed a horse being loaded in there! There’s a door between the passenger and cargo areas to allow crew to go into the back and check on any animals being carried.
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For me it triggers memories of being twenty years old and indestructible, working on the flight deck and thinking how cool it all was - because accidents and other bad things won’t happen to me.
As far as this being ludicrous, the admission that it’s just a concept and not a real thing really underscores that this is aimed at billionaires who will be encouraged to look further. Then they are told that while this is not really available, we have these other jets that are just as cool, why don’t we send one down to you and let you check it out?
It just kills me when I see $50,000 advertisements in magazines that are clearly aimed at a select few people - maybe a hundred people in the 1,000,000 circulation can afford it, and if just one of those makes a call or decides to even check it out, the ad worked.
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KAVX?
Runway’s pretty marginal for a BAe146 , but it does have some pleasant mountain-overlooking-ocean views.
(Also a bit of a trick runway - bends up in the middle sufficiently that you can’t see the far end of the runway when you’re on final. Pilots sometimes panic, thinking they’re about to hurtle off the mountainside when, actually, they still have plenty of room)
But that’s about the best I’ve got, offhand.
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