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Comment by drpixie | Hacker News Reader

Really? Those who have had anything to do with gliders know there is plenty that can and will go wrong. Landing on-tow !?!? And what's the benefit - they might save a little in cruise, but they've got to get there (safely) first?

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I'm sure airports will really appreciate half-mile tethers, or whatever length you need for full-sized cargo planes, flopping about the runways (I assume they're aiming for full size because their little graphics doesn't show a little GA thing)

Even assuming a full size one doesn't fatigue off the tail of the lead plane, presumably any time a plane towing one gets into difficulty, the first thing they'll do is cut the towed thing free.

Also the website sounds like it was written by an over-caffeinated estate agent.

I agree, I don’t see this working on existing commercial cargo planes without significant engineering challenges. I also don’t see this working for existing air control systems. I do see it working for private airfields designed for it and tow planes designed for it but that is out of scope. I wonder if they get their own adsb signal?

I imagine these would have to be flown out of specialized cargo airports. It would be a disaster coming out of Commercial airports.

Farther down they talk about it being made for the regional cargo market, largely turboprop planes (e.g., Cessna Caravan). That's certainly what the brief video clips show.

Yes, this was one of the first things that came to my mind: landing a towed glider right behind a motorized machine is just a bit too adventurous... Especially when winds a not 100 percent in optimum for a safe landing approach. Gliders should always eject mid air an land on their own.. Minimizing risks for any machine or even individuals

Landing with a towed plane behind you sounds terrifying. So much could go wrong. Also the glider is going to have very different flight characteristics from the tow plane.

Not to mention, what happens in the event of damage to the towed aircraft rendering flight operations impaired such that it affects the towing aircraft?

“Oh sh1t!” at 35K feet.

Better there than at 200 feet.

Unless "affecting the towing aircraft" means "ripping its tail off", in which case you're screwed no matter what height you're at. GA aircraft are probably a bit sturdier, but large cargo aircraft (based on large passenger aircraft) were simply not designed to pull anything, so I imagine you would need to add some kind of (pretty sturdy) reinforcement to the attachment point, which would mean extra costs and reduce the MTOW of the towing aircraft.

and what happens in the event of a disconnect?

It mentions it has a form of automated control in the tow with "Aerolane's patented Pilot Positioning Assist systems"

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