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Old 12-02-2019, 11:40 AM   #1
Daigoro
 
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Join Date: Dec 2006
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Default [Cyberpunk Engineering Challenge] #1 Hurricane Hopper

What would an aircraft capable of flying through a hurricane look like at a realistic to semi-rubbery cyberpunk TL?

The main vehicle I'm considering is a light passenger vehicle, similar to a small passenger helicopter, that can land on a helipad in the middle of a Cat-5 storm.

I'm also thinking that a larger vehicle, like a Blackhawk, could be considered with similar design characteristics and with rescue functionality, like being able to hover over a target rescue zone, but that's a secondary design aim.

Would the aircraft look more like a helicopter, an Osprey, a Harrier, or like the Batwing from Dark Knight Rises?

I've got a few ideas on the engineering that could be used, but I'll see what other ideas people have first.
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Old 12-02-2019, 11:53 AM   #2
AlexanderHowl
 
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Default Re: [Cyberpunk Engineering Challenge] #1 Hurricane Hopper

Nothing with active rotors could survive, though prop planes called Hurricane Hunters do it all of the time. A higher tech version would probably be a drone carrier that deploys secondary prop drones to get a more accurate image of the hurricane without risking the crew. As for landing, any aircraft can land during a Cat-5, it is being ever able to fly again that would be the impossibility.
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Old 12-02-2019, 12:11 PM   #3
Fred Brackin
 
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Default Re: [Cyberpunk Engineering Challenge] #1 Hurricane Hopper

Quote:
Originally Posted by AlexanderHowl View Post
Nothing with active rotors could survive, though prop planes called Hurricane Hunters do it all of the time. .
They've (NOAA I think)used things as common place as Lear Jets too. At high altitude it's no real problem.

As for landing in a Cat 5 hurricane, nothing realistic of this Earth could do it. Even if it could people could walk down the boarding ramp. Even crazy people employed by The Weather Channel with rocks in their pockets and lead weights on thier anbkleswould go flying sideways in a Cat 5.

If you want to finesse a description for pure effect you would describe a perfectly symmetical and ultra-streamlined "flying saucer" with God's own vectored thrust engines and a precognitively fast fly-by-wire control system dropping into an underground bunker with an armored lid sliding sideways into place over it.

No, it wouldn't look like the flying _thing_ from the third Nolan Batman movie. Cat 5 winds would grab that and turn it into a Rubik's Cube.
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Old 12-02-2019, 01:24 PM   #4
AlexanderHowl
 
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Default Re: [Cyberpunk Engineering Challenge] #1 Hurricane Hopper

I have been in a Cat 4, and I would never leave shelter unless the shelter was on fire in such a situation. In a Cat 5, I might risk the fire, as death by smoke inhalation might be more merciful than being beaten the death by debris.
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Old 12-02-2019, 02:31 PM   #5
Anthony
 
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Default Re: [Cyberpunk Engineering Challenge] #1 Hurricane Hopper

Incidentally, even if you can handle the wind gusts, being hit by large chunks of debris is a real risk for low level flight in a strong hurricane.
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Old 12-02-2019, 09:22 PM   #6
Ulzgoroth
 
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Default Re: [Cyberpunk Engineering Challenge] #1 Hurricane Hopper

So while I agree with those arguing that this is a totally absurd specification, I'd like to take a stab at what might be able to actually get somewhere near it.

So. You can't 'land' on a helipad, or any other reasonably constrained landing area, because the wind isn't going to let you be at rest either in the air or on the ground. Unreasonable solution: a deeply-seated mooring with very strong cables.

The 'landing' device would probably resemble a ground-penetrating bomb, and be filled with mechanisms (behind the armored tip) to extend braces laterally through the ground from where it comes to rest to get it really set in there. Maybe don't drop this on a helipad!

Drop that from high enough that you're not going to be slammed into anything by turbulence while you wait for the mooring to finish installing itself. It's probably not going to be very precise! Then you can winch yourself down the cable while using your propulsion to generate lots of lift so that you may be swinging about a bit on the end of your string but you're not getting flung into the ground prematurely.

You probably want as few exterior aerodynamic surfaces as possible, because those are going to be liabilities in the storm. A sturdy streamlined box (or disk as Fred Brackin suggested) with powerful vectored thrust jets would be my design concept, which is pretty common in cyberpunk and soft near-future SF anyway. You might need to be clever about the intake design to make sure they won't flame out if you get the wrong angle relative to the wind.

How you get anybody in or out of this thing once you've gotten it on the ground is Not My Problem.
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Old 12-02-2019, 12:06 PM   #7
Anthony
 
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Default Re: [Cyberpunk Engineering Challenge] #1 Hurricane Hopper

Raw wind speed isn't that big an issue, plenty of planes fly faster than any hurricane winds, the problem is turbulence. A downward jet with a high velocity exhaust should be less vulnerable to a sudden downdraft, so a Harrier might be better than a helicopter or Osprey, but I don't think anything is a really good choice, just somewhat less bad.
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