Fun facts and things that just hit me, so I'm posting them.
First - they tell us that the MH370 was a 777-200ER.
According to Boeing, that has a maximum range of 7,725 nautical miles (14,305 km) or about 8890 statute (regular) miles. The rated cruise speed of .84 Mach = 640 mph or 556 knots but this was reported to be flying at around 542 mph or 471 knots (and
you can verify that makes sense for time from Kuala Lampur to Beijing with this handy calculator and the flight schedule) - probably for fuel efficiency.
Here's the timeline according to Wikipedia and if the graph doesn't show for you, it says 8.5 hours fuel limit -
If you do the math, the maximum flying time of a 777-200ER is 13 to 16 hours.
We going by the common sense and common experience knowledge that airliners don't fly with max fuel if they can help it due to weight - because more weight is more cost.
We're going on maximum range of about 3000 miles of fuel left to get the maximum flying time.
And - that came courtesy of Malaysian officials and the press.
Given the track record of either, I don't think we know that.
We think we know that and I suppose it's probably true - but we do not know that.
I know I basically accepted some version of this (I can't find the one I last saw, so here's a similar one) -
But - thanks to that headwind/tailwind thing I mentioned in my last long post -
I doubt that a circle is true.
After all - Kuala Lampur to Beijing is about 3,000 miles in the first place.
So, I've only accepted that as an approximation, not adjusted for
windage and based on an
assumption that the fuel on board was close to right because the press said so.
I think we can have reasonable theories of different maximum flying times without going in to anything exotic or fancy.
Unless our own NTSB officials, or the similar UK officials, have specified in an approved, on-the-record confirmation from a named source, and I missed it, the max flight time is only probably and generally correct imo.
I won't accept 16 hours flying time as reasonable because it's common knowledge that flights don't go off too heavy and with too much fuel - it costs to much to fly that way.
Two and a half extra hours of fuel is reasonable -
I guess.
But how much fuel vs. how far the plane could actually get, minus any data for winds, and flight attitude - we do not know that.
And several early reports claimed that that plane could glide, no power or engines, for up to a hundred miles while descending from 35,000 feet - or it could drop like a rock.
So even the last satellite pings might leave a bigger area than we can guess.
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Differential power, differential this or that.
I don't want to put anyone off with words. The root there is the word different, and in engineering it generally means two things are there. Two engines that can power differently, two wings that can lift differently.
If you've ever rowed your basic, standard, everyday
rowboat - you've applied differential power. Your course will depend on wind, currents and how fast and hard you move one oar compared to the other.
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Hope this helps.
