Got any good April fools aircraft stories?

Question

This is a fair dinkum story:

A few years back, Qantas placed a full-placed ad in the major newspapers. In it they described a fantastic new breakthrough in aircraft paint technology - a paint which they described as a very strong air / water vapour repellant. When applied to the fuselage of a 747, it had the effect of creating a small layer of vacuum thru which the fuselage could cruise free of the burden of friction/ drag, and therefore wipe about 25% of travel time.

So may people were sucked in by it (including me) - it created a great deal of interest.

Thinking about it now - if such a thing was possible, I guess the wings would have been ripped off?

Answer 1

One basic thought.  If there were no drag on any part of the aircraft, no wings would ever be needed.  Vectored thrust and gyro stability is all that would be needed.  Just a quick thought.

Answer 2

OK, I've got one (maybe not much of one, but I'll let you be the judge).

In 1993, I was working line service at a small-town FBO and flight school in Oklahoma.  It was April 1st, and we'd had the usual round of lame 'April Fools' jokes that day.

It was about 4 in the afternoon, and a couple of guys had rented one of our Cherokees to shoot some touch-and-goes (bumps and circuits to you guys, right?).  

A friend of mine, Ken Nash, who was one of our instructors, was standing in front of the big picture window that looked out towards the runways.  He turned around to me and said, 'Hey, that airplane's on fire."  Just like that, no real excitement in his voice.

I replied, "Yeah, right, Ken, April Fools."

He said, "No, really, it's on fire."

"OK, Ken, whatever . . . April Fools," I responded.

"No, man, it's really on fire and I think it's one of our Cherokees," he said, waving me over to the window.

So, OK, fine, I decided I'd play along with it.  I go over to the window, and sure enough, one of our Cherokees is sitting stopped on the taxiway, the cabin door open, smoke and flames coming out from under the cowling, and the two guys standing around in front of the airplane, with their hands in their pockets and looking at each other like they were saying, "I thought you were going to bring the marshmellows."

So, I grab a fire extinguisher off the wall in the hangar, jump on the three-wheeler we used for running around on the ramp, and headed out to the airplane to do what I could do with a 20-lb fire extinguisher.

I got the fire out, and went back and got a tug and pulled the airplane down to the shop hangar.  The two guys asked for the keys to another of our Cherokees, and seemingly unfazed by the earlier excitement, spent an hour or so doing some pattern work.

Answer 3

Just on the technical aspect, if there is no drag, then there is no lift either. Lift in an airplane is due to the force exerted by the air on the wings surface. No contact with air (vacuum), no lift, the Jumbo is on ground!

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Edit: Ooops, my mistakes. As a matter of fact *IF* they could invent such a paint, it should work. The wings neednot be ripped off because the B747's wings are designed to haul fuselage with drag.

Answer 4

hope u don't mind me asking but what does 'fair dinkum' mean? And couldn't you sue the airline for misrepresentation? Surely an airline couldn't pull a trick on its passengers...even on April Fools!

Edit: Ahh, i see...thanks for that!