This is such a bizarre thing to have such a blow up over. I don’t use public transport, so I’ve never heard these announcements, are they really that bad?
I’m pretty sceptical about ground effect planes, there’s a very good reason why they’ve never really taken off, despite so many countries and organisations giving them a try over the years, but I’d love to know what everyone else thinks.
Kinda, although an aircraft that operates exclusively in ground effect is explicitly not an aircraft as far as CAA is concerned, so they’re outside their rules.
As far as recharge time is concerned, I assume they would be able to fast charge in half an hour or so, like any other electric vehicle.
They’re operating from the CBD, so getting power to a charging station is relatively straightforward, and there are technologies available to recharge a vehicle quite fast, there is a standard being developed for trucks that will be over a megawatt of charging capacity. The east by West electric boat uses two chargers, from my understanding.
Sea water is a nightmare for anything mechanical, in my experience, but electronics can at least be sealed effectively. Usually.
The biggest reason I’m so sceptical about this, is every other use case I’ve seen for electric vehicles or vessels has been something that’s already a proven concept. Cars, trucks, planes, harbour ferries, they are all a proven concept, we’re just moving to a different fuel.
Ground effect planes, on the other hand, have never been proven with any fuel type.
I don’t know if they split the pack, or just have multiple chargers working side by side. I know Tesla have done similar when testing the Semi, just use multiple chargers at once.
The vehicle being charged already tells the charger what to do anyway.
There’s been a handful of small passenger ones built in a number of countries, including some aircraft converted into ground effect planes. Germany has built a few, and Iran apparently uses them to some degree.
Rebuke issued in stoush over volume of on-bus announcements for blind passengers (www.rnz.co.nz)
This is such a bizarre thing to have such a blow up over. I don’t use public transport, so I’ve never heard these announcements, are they really that bad?
Seagliders' 35-minute trips to Auckland closer with $145m deal (www.nzherald.co.nz)
I’m pretty sceptical about ground effect planes, there’s a very good reason why they’ve never really taken off, despite so many countries and organisations giving them a try over the years, but I’d love to know what everyone else thinks.
Chance of Aurora tonight? (cdn.softservenews.com)
With much of Europe glowing pink will we get to see a good display here in NZ?
Transpower warns of possible power shortages on Friday (www.rnz.co.nz)
The national electricity grid operator is warning of possible insufficient power generation to meet households’ demand on Friday....
MP's comments 'bang on' despite negative response from other parties - Te Pāti Māori (www.rnz.co.nz)
In Parliament last Wednesday, Te Tai Tokerau MP Mariameno Kapa-Kingi said the government “will not waver in its mission to exterminate Māori”....
Can the Green Party’s holy mission survive its fallible disciples? (thespinoff.co.nz)