Wednesday, January 14, 1981
daily nebraskan
page 5
Floating airport could send Moonies to space
If you're one of those people who hates
airports-the congestion, the crowding, the
pushing and shoving, the long waits-then
get ready.
If you thought O'hare and La Guardia
were bad, the government is studying a
plan that will make them seem like peace
ful bus depots in one-spotlight country
towns.
bob greene
The National Aeronautics and Space
Administration is pondering a proposal
five years in development and officially
called the "Aerial Relay System" that
would create a permanent, floating air
port that would constantly cruise over
the continental United States.
Gopher . . .
Continued from Page 4
Watt's past activities enhance a common
stereotype of oil and natural gas compan
ies. The stereotype being that the compan
ies are going to rob the nation and its peo
ple of every valuable resource, in the name
of profit, before alternative resources are
fully developed.
It's amazing that Watt told the l-nergy
and Natural Resources Committee during
his confirmation hearing that he was worri
ed government programs would ruin the
environment while developing the nation's
energy supply.
It could be that Watt would much
rather see free enterprise destroy the
environment instead of government.
How can anyone that docs not cherish
or even appreciate the beauty and the very
existence of the nation's wilderness
become the Secretary of the Department
of Interior? Perhaps the answer to that
question is found in the man that named
Watt to the position. Evidently, both men
have the same philosophies about the
environment.
It would be a massive airport-in-the-sky
-a moving airport that continuously travel
ed a steady course over America. You, as a
passenger, would arrive at it via feeder
flights from small airports in you own
hometown. You would ride on it, and
then depart via other feeder flights which
would drop you at your destination.
NASA funded the development of the
floating airport plan because the capaci
ties of many large American airports are
being stretched to the breaking point, and
because the continuing energy crisis calls
for a plan that would dramatically cut
down the amount of fuel needed for air
transportation.
Some senior NASA officials denigrate
the plan and consider it to be merely a
flight of fancy. But a proposal is being
studied by the agency, and an official
NASA spokesman said, "it is, indeed, one
of the future concepts we are considering.
Frightening aspects of Watt taking over
the Department of Interior can be seen in
two promises be has made. The first is that
he will change drastically federal land
management. And his second promise
probably is an indication of what types of
land mangement he plans. Watt's second
promise is that he wants to do an inventory
of all western public land. In his inventory.
Watt plans to look for black gold.
Despite Watt's promises and the possible
dismal future of this nation's environment,
there may be one hope Congress. Watt
will not be able to do his fancy footwork
withou partial approval from Congress.
That's not to say that Congress will save
everyone from having oil rigs in their yards,
but hopefully Congress will be able to de
crease the number of rigs on wilderness
lands.
Of course, there is one person that
everyone can thank if a rig in every yard
becomes comparable to a car in every
garage-the next president of the United
States, Ronald Reagan.
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We're going to take a look at it and see
what it has to offer, and what problems we
could solve with it."
The first floating airport would probab
lybe big enough to serve 5,000 passengers,
and would travel on a continuous route be
tween the Hast and West Coasts. Feeder
flights from all over the country would
drop off and pick up passengers from it. If
it was a success, NASA would develop
dozens of other giant flying airports, so
that you could expect one to pass over
your area of the country virtually every
hour.
The NASA engineer who worked most
intimately on the project was Albert C.
Kyser, 49, who was assigned to NASA's
Langlcy Research Center in Virginia. He
left the agency last summer, but not before
his report was submitted to his superiors in
Washington. I talked to Kyser about how
the giant airport would work.
"The basic idea is that passengers would
be shuttled like batons in a relay race,"
Kyser said. "The floating airport would
pass over the United States on a definite
schedule, and the passengers would be
delivered to it and then picked up. You
could go from any point in the United
States to any other point without making
any stops on the ground."
Kysei said that the technology exists for
the floating airport to stay aloft for up to a
year at a time without landing. Flight
crews and fuel would be delivered via feed
er llights.
"Our engineering people say that it
would be a piece of cake to make an engine
that could run continuously for a year," he
said.
The floating airport would be roomy.
Kyser said that it would be big enough to
provide all the amenities of a traditional
airport -restaurants, bars, perhaps even gift
shops.
But because of the precise logistics
needed to get passengers on and off the
feeder nights, Kyser has recommended that
passengers do not simply walk on and off
the floating airport.
"I recommended that we put the
passengers in ski-lift chairs," he said. "The
chairs would be propelled along a track,
and would be moved into position deter
mined by a computer."
Kyser said that, once aboard the float
ing airport, the passengers would be free to
move about, but that the initial transfers
would have to be done in the ski-lift chairs
because "it relieves the passengers of the
responsibility of finding the right way to
go in a bewildering maze of passageways."
He said that the floating airport would
not have to slow down when it picked up
passengers from the feeder flights. The
feeder airplanes would lly nose-first into an
opening in the rear of the floating airport;
the passengers would be transferred
through the nose; and then the floating air
port would continue on its way, leaving the
feeder plane behind.
"The best thing about this is the ease it
will provide in getting from one part of the
country to another part of the country,"
Kyser said. "It will be just as easy to ny
from a small town in Texas to a small town
in Maine as it is to fly from bis Angeles to
New York."
Very little research has been done on
how humans are going to react to the idea
of using the floating airport . Kyser said this
is because people are always skeptical of
new ideas.
"Attitudes evolve," he said. "My own
colleagues five years ago were absolutely
appalled that anyone would conceive of
this. But it catches on. Kven at NASA, the
older guys always said, 'You'll never get me
on that S.O.B.,' but younger fellows were
very enthusiastic about it."
So, if NASA approves, it may be just a
matter of time before you have an airport
zipping 40,000 feet above your house,
setting down for maintenance only once
each year.
The Hare Krishnas had better pack a
big lunch.
(c) 1981 Field Enterprises, inc.
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