I’ll admit that even though my line of work is creating words and images and occasionally videos to place on the internet in the hopes that other humans will choose to read those words, look at those images, or watch those videos (really, those are just a combination of spoken words and a bunch of images every second), I still can’t always understand just why some things get all crazy popular while other things don’t. Today I happened to come across one of these sorts of things, an extremely well-executed but baffling video about a fictional nuclear fusion-powered “sky hotel.” Why have so many outlets written about this thing that very much does not, and, likely can not, at least in the nearish future, exist? Why am I writing about it? What the hell is going on?
I better show you the video in question, so you know what I’m going on about:
The video, done by Hashem Al-Ghaili, was based on this illustrated concept for a flying hotel:
It’s like something a kid might draw. A very talented, imaginative kid, but still. And I don’t want that taken as a slight, as there’s always a place for this sort of thing, but the fairly straight coverage this is getting, with headlines like:
Inside giant flying luxury hotel that can stay in the air for years
… is just silly.
Essentially, this is just the modern version of those Popular Mechanics or Popular Science or Science and Mechanics and probably Popular Popular covers that would show wild, futuristic techno-fantasies, sometimes even of essentially the same sort of colossal, atomic-powered aircraft:
Really, we’ve been here before. Many times, even. Gigantic aircraft, flying hotels, atomic/nuclear-powered aircraft, this is well-trod ground. Hell, back in 1945, Martin Aircraft proposed a flying hotel based on their Martin Mars cargo aircraft:
So why did this recent animation capture so much attention now?
I mean, it’s not even remotely plausible: the crucial technology that’s mentioned to run all of the electric engines that keep this massive Love Boat in the sky rely on nuclear fusion, which, while a lot of interesting progress has been made recently, has yet to reliably demonstrate it can produce more energy than is required to sustain the fusion reaction. It just doesn’t exist yet.
I’m not saying this thing isn’t fun, but it’s basically just a very well-executed fantasy drawing, no different than those old magazine covers, just someone taking a “wouldn’t it be cool if” train of thought and making it visual. Clearly, there’s some sort of latent desire for a large flying hotel type vehicle, at least among some segment of the population. Back in 2006, the concept was for a massive lighter-than-air dirigible-type aircraft to do the job:
And there were other blimp/airship flying hotel concepts. some with dramatically unexpected shapes, like Seymour Powell’s AirCruise concept:
Sure, it looks different, but it’s basically the same rich-dude masturbatory sky-vacation shit: float in the air in incredible luxury, look out at clouds in post-coital bliss, then eat lots of shrimp or something. And that one is from 2010.
That concept was a bit more plausible at least because it didn’t rely on still sci-fi technologies like sustainable, compact nuclear fusion reactors. And, even if we just somehow accept that the technology is possible to make something like this work (hopefully, they’ll make it so the landing gear actually retracts, which the video does not show) there’s still so many logistical issues: how is maintenance to be done while in flight? What about resupplying water and food and all the merchandise that will be sold in the flying Sunglass Huts and Gucci stores and Hot Topics? Can passengers fly to it and board while it’s in the air? Is there a way to evacuate in an emergency? The video suggests this is the case, but, come on – pilots are going to be cool with maneuvers like this?
Just look at that up above there, with what looks to be Air Force One docked to the Sky Hotel. You’d have to be an absurdly good pilot to make this work, dealing with wake turbulence behind the massive hotel to just approach it, then positioning the 747 exactly above that elevator thing, which would also need to be able to support the weight of that 747 and deal with any motion that either plane may impart, being able to detach readily, before damaging either aircraft, there’s just so many issues here, so little room for error before distaster. Why?
If it crashes, what happens to the torus of star-hot plasma that powers the fusion reactor? Do we just let it burn a hole down to the core of the Earth and just put some orange cones around the rim?
I’m all for imagination and fun and absurd ideas – I think my life’s body of work should prove this – but there’s just something about this whole thing that rubs me the wrong way. Is it the lavish, absurd, needless decadent luxury of it all? The complete ignoring of physics and engineering? The dumb look? My own small-minded bitterness? Is it just me, being a dick?
I’m not sure, to be honest. Let’s ask Mercedes; she’s actually had flying lessons, after all.
Mercedes’ Take
When I watched the video I had to check and see if it wasn’t an April Fools joke that everyone had collectively missed. This thing is what, twenty times the size of a Boeing 747? Yet it appears to have just 26 wheels. That’s six fewer wheels than the recently destroyed Antonov An-225. Sure, each wheel appears to be the size of a semi truck, but I somehow doubt there’s enough wheel to support the weight of what’s supposed to be a flying cruise ship. And since saving weight isn’t a design goal, this thing would be comically heavy.
The animation also doesn’t seem to match up with the narration. If this is supposed to be suspended above the clouds and offering passengers breathtaking views of wildlife, it’s going to need some sort of VTOL capability, which isn’t shown. I mean, the animation shows it taking off like a plane in a short take off and landing (STOL) competition.
Instead, the animation shows the aircraft flying like a commercial airliner, but the thing is moving at such a slow speed. And unless its a VTOL or STOL-capable, I also have to think that the runway length necessary for this thing to take off has to be crazy. Maybe they’re going to use the absurdly-long runway that the plane in Fast & Furious 6 used.This is to say that this whole thing is all kinds of unrealistic and absurd. But I am amused at the visual of this thing flying everywhere with its landing gear down.
Old news.
https://www.tomswift.info/homepage/flylab.html
Next week – All about the Atomic Earth Blaster.
To me it looks more like it was drawn by Bruce McCall
SS Tyrannic meets Wing Dining.
The one thing that ruined it entirely for me was the mention of a pool. Water is heavy enough to warrant some serious engineering in more mundane things like glass bottom pools and the like.
Can you imagine what take off and landing would be like with a pool on board?? But hey, they probably found a way to gimbal mount the entire thing so its always level.
on another note, I love flying, practically grew up on a plane (navy brat overseas), but one look at those external elevators and NOPE!.
This would be more believable if it was presented as an orbital hotel.
Frankly, I’ve gotten bored of trying to follow what Elon Musk is doing with his money.
To be honest I’m disappointed they didn’t take this design to it’s natural conclusion.
Where is the swirly waterslide sticking out of the side of the fuselage? Why is there no open-air rooftop pool? What about the rollercoaster that rides down the front of the stabilizer, and the go-kart track across the wings?
Seriously, people have no imagination anymore.
I found my self agreeing with most of those!
Don’t worry about the open-air rooftop pool, ladies and gentlemen! There is a force field to keep the turbulence (and your untimely death) out!
I mean, if it works for Star Wars/Trek…
“nuclear fusion, which, while a lot of interesting progress has been made recently, has yet to reliably demonstrate it can produce more energy than is required to sustain the fusion reaction. It just doesn’t exist yet.”
Lol, not only have they NOT even reached thermal breakeven, no one is really quite sure where the commercial breakeven point for fusion is, because no one has ever tried recovering energy from fusion. Even the most generous estimates I’ve seen are that commercial breakeven couldn’t occur below Q=100
Oh, and maybe someone else could explain, but why would a plane powered by electricity be using turbofan engines?
I didnt think about the engines till you mentioned them.Was so overwhelmed by the rest of it!
Maybe they’re adapted from turbofan designs because thats what everyone understands?Especially the noise reduction benefits compared to props.
Throw a motor in where the turbine was and optimize from there.
“Oh, and maybe someone else could explain, but why would a plane powered by electricity be using turbofan engines?”
Two possibilities.
1) Those aren’t turbofans but simpler electrically driven ducted fans.
2) They ARE turbofans driven by reactor heat via a heat exchanger in the place of the combustion chamber:
http://www.aviation-history.com/articles/nuke-american.htm
Back in 1927 when Charles Lindbergh crossed the Atlantic in Spirit of St. Louis, it took him a day and a half. So it made some sort of sense when Bel Geddes put forth his idea of a superplane with the thinking “if it still takes a day and a half to get there, why not make it the BEST day and a half possible?”
This monstrosity, though, makes the opposite of sense. While there were luxury sleeper aircraft from about the middle Thirties till well into the Fifties, jet power made the whole notion seem quaint and obsolete.
And whoever did this had absolutely no understanding of pressure cabins, why airliners have them, or why airliners don’t have panoramic windows.
Just wait until GM decides it is a good idea and green lights it. The engineers in the finance department are going to ensure that this is the safest thing going, right?
This thing reminds me of the space city/ship in Wall-e.
Beat me to it.
So much to unpack here. I have 2 favorites. The movie theater and the MRI machine. “I was going to get this tumor looked at, but who has the time. Now I don’t have to waste a day at the imagining center, I can get the cancerous tumor looked at while I’m on my way to my vacation.”
Also, all repairs and maintenance is done while in flight? Uh, that’s a hard pass.
And now you know how I feel so very fucking often, Jason. So very painfully fucking often.
NO, JUST THROWING RANDOM SHIT YOU DOWNLOADED OFF THE INTERNET AND THEN SET UP FOLLOWING A ‘HELLO WORLD’ STYLE HOWTO INTO PRODUCTION IS NOT A FUCKING GOOD IDEA. NOT ANY MORE THAN BASING PRODUCTION ON WHATEVER SHINY FUCKING OBJECT GOT DANGLED IN FRONT OF YOU! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRGH!
And a good afternoon to you too, fellow sysadmin.
One thing I know is, its relatively easy to float a boat. We’ve been doing it for thousands of years. Still, cruise ship disasters happen & luckily they are usually in shallow water when they do. This monstrosity amplifies the risk of disaster by an exponential (and completely unnecessary) factor. So, no you’re not being a dick, its just that preposterous.
I’m ready to jump in my Ford Nucleon and head for the airport!
All my bags are packed, I’m ready to go…. Just wish I could post the album cover of Jefferson Airplane’s After Bathing at Baxter’s.
I normally follow the Golden Rule and don’t read the YouTube comments, but in this case they’re worth a look. There’s some real gold in there.
This reminds me of 70s high-concept disaster movies where something always goes horribly wrong, like “The Big Bus.”
That said, the US military was working on a nuclear plane at one point in the 70s or 80s. Note that they don’t have one yet. That should tell you all you need to know about this idea.
I immediately thought of The Big Bus as well.
I didn’t think I’d ever heard of this film before but after looking it up I’d be astonished if my father hadn’t seen it and told me about it but I wasn’t listening. I’ll have to ask him, if he hasn’t it sounds right up his alley.
There was also that terrible TV series Supertrain, which was, “what if Love Boat, except on a fictional scifi nuclear powered transcontinental train?”
And everything old is new again.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snowpiercer_(TV_series)
While at first, I was like WTF? I thought back to my Apocalypse novel days and there were a few that had something similar as the last flying fortress/bunker.
Would be it awesome, sure. Practical, nah. When has that stopped the human race before.
“I’m Billy I drawed a airplane it’s called Billy’s Plane and it’s AWESOME.”
That’s great, Billy! But this is math class.
… and you’re 19.
It’s called “The Homer”, right?
I think there probably would be a market for an ultra-luxurious flying yacht-style cruise ship, but it would be in the form of a pretty conventional semi-rigid airship, not whatever video game cut scene that is. Basically, a somewhat larger Zeppelin NT-Series crossed with a Regent Seven Seas cruise ship. Do itineraries flying over the Grand Canyon or Rocky Mountains or across the Alaskan interior, or along the Great Wall of China, I think enough rich people would pay for that to fill every cabin, it’s just whether the thing would actually be profitable with every cabin filled that’s the open question
I didn’t see the fake Air Force one perched atop this monstrosity before I made my comment. Help, I think my brain is bleeding. Why is the nose gear retracted but the mains down? How is that elevator perch thing supposed to work?
And now I’m thinking about the incredible wake turbulence caused by something roughly the size of Sears Tower flying through the air.
…and why the heck would you want wheels down when you’re hooked onto a glass elevator, hovering over a flying Sears Tower?
Looks like something out of a disaster movie.
Turbulence canceling anti-vibrations?
It looks like the start of an episode of Thunderbirds, and we all know how they tend to pan out…
But on plus side, that means Lady Penelope will likely be on board.
I saw this a few days ago and my first thought was they were stealing from Miyazaki. Looks a lot like the aircraft from Naussica. It’s an insane idea but at the same time, science fiction precedes science fact so who knows what will happen when technology catches up with this ridiculous idea.
I think, like that weird flying saucer not-train video from a few days ago, all the technology in the world can’t overcome the sheer physics nightmare being presented.
No. Just, no. The technical stupidity if the concept on every fucking level would be too long for me to describe (shit aerodynamics, stupid structural design, idiotic propulsion) I’d barely have time to brush on the idiocy of the business model (“hey! Want to stay in a hotel you can’t leave and barely see out of?”).
It fucking grinds my gears to see any publication give this sort of horseshit any modicum of consideration. It’s about as bad as that stupid plane using “wind turbine mounted on the fuselage”. We have enough real problem to fix in the world not to waste time explaining why that 8 years old doodle deserves to be shat on.
Yours truly,
A former aerodynamics and propulsion engineer
That was my first thought as well, Hayao Miyazaki approves.
Seems like a good thing for a trip to Infinity (and beyond!), but otherwise most flights aren’t long enough to warrant a Sunglass Hut.
Also, “Ask Mercedes” seems like a great recurring column idea…
I dig it. It’d be like Autopian version of Dear Abby or AITA!