Operation Volcano

[tigercat]

With the current issue with the Volcano and the ash cloud. I wondered how vehicles would be forced to adapt if the problem got more severe and persisted over a long period of time. How would aircraft change. Would there be a move away from jet engines.

[The Rat]

Amphibious Ekranoplans! They fly well below any ash cloud. 

[Mossie]

A 150ft long airliner Tornado, the terrain following radar will come in handy!

[lenny100]

super sized Sea cats running over the north atlantic
http%3a//www.flickr.com/photos/39643223@N05/3680949896/

[proditor]

Supercavitating bullet-subs?  From NY to London in 5 hours. 

[Ed S]

Sub-orbital ballistic transports.  Rocket powered with no jet engines to eat the ash.  And faster too.

Ed

[JayBee]

Sorry guys,

the UK CAA has decreed that you can NOT fly under any High Density Ash Clouds, anywhere.
Although, they do not seem to have any problem with flying boats alighting short of the ash areas, taxying on the surface until they are clear of the ash area, and then getting airbourne again.

JimB

[jcf]

Would there be a move away from jet engines.

Any internal combustion engines is susceptible to ash ingestion problems, as they all need air.
If the fall is heavy it can quickly clog filters and cause engine stalls, it also has insidious long
term effects.

Following the Mt. Saint Helens eruption in 1980 most of the local and state police and emergency vehicles
were fitted with large externally mounted filtration systems. The cops had big canister filters mounted on
brackets attached to the front bumper with large corrugated hoses leading back along the fenders and into
the engine compartment. It all looked very Mad Max.  

Several people I knew had their engines destroyed by ash ingestion, it got into the engines, scored the cylinder
walls and destroyed bearings.
A couple of Eastern Washington acquaintances had their vehicles stalled by the ash fall on May 18.

[Mossie]

Filters are quite plausible for piston engined aircraft & helicopters, they can be realitvely small & don't degrade performance too much.  In the 1991 Gulf War, many helicopters were fitted with fitlers in a rush & were continued to be seen in further conflicts in Iraq & Afghanistan

I guess it's more of a problem for modern turbofans.  The large frontal area & air requirements would need a large filter & one that didn't degrade performance heavily. Possible, maybe, but I guess it's not doable in the short term.  It's not just engines of course, the ash gets in the tiniest little nooks & cranies, getting into control surfaces, seals & joins & rubs away at them.  If it carries for years for a prolonged period, engine & airframe manufacturers are going to have to find engineering soloutions such as more durable components.  Trouble is, this'll probably drive up the cost of travel.

An approach that's being used is to use weather radar & satelites to work out where the higher densities are & steer aircraft round them.

[jcf]

Filters are quite plausible for piston engined aircraft & helicopters, they can be realitvely small & don't degrade performance too much.  In the 1991 Gulf War, many helicopters were fitted with fitlers in a rush & were continued to be seen in further conflicts in Iraq & Afghanistan

Volcanic ash is a unique material with much of it being microscopic glass shards, and effectively filtering it is not quite the
same as with 'normal' sand and earth dust.
When I worked on the Sikorsky S-61s one of the guys I worked with was a former USMC CH-53E Crew Chief,
and he was not quite so sanguine about the effectiveness of the filter systems that were used during the Gulf
War of 1991. Basically they worked semi-OK if you changed them constantly, which increased the maintenance
load and increased downtime. Also CJ stated that they definitely had a negative impact on performance with the
Cobras, already on the edge of the performance envelope due to the heat, being the most effected.
He was pretty blunt about the realities of what the crews experienced in the Gulf not matching up with the positive
spin originating from the Pentagon.

[Fulcrum]

1 simple solution: Use Ocean-going boats, i.e. Ocean Liners & Frieghters!!!

[Radish]

Hot Air Balloons.....ie, tie any politician (or modeller??) under the balloon and it'll stay airborne for decades.

Boats are good.
How about "Titanic 2"??

[beowulf]

airships................with solar powered electric engines