Artist re-imagines flight with amphibious planes
Artist and engineer Natalie Jermijenko wants to bring you into her world and tell you how she re-imagines flight.
It might seem counter-intuitive, but Jermijenko thinks the landing infrastructure really needs a redesign.
The plane landing in the Hudson River demonstrated we have an infrastructure of water resources available for amphibious planes.
Why not take advantage of the water?
The concept of the amphibious plane is demonstrated with a zip-line with a wing. Superman-style.
Imagine a day when planes can land in waterways.
Jermijanko does.
She presented her idea to the SmartPlanet video crew.
The exhibit is called xAirports. In the design, urban wetlands, marshes and swamps serve as both a biodiversity hot spot and a wet landing strip.
According to Environmental Health Clinic:
The wet infrastructure required for amphibious planes is where there are huge environmental performance gains. Collectively we have drained and degraded well over ½ the wetlands in the US. It is less than ½ the cost to construct a wetland, and foster a biodiversity hotspot than to build a traditional dry landing facility (and less than 1/10th the cost of the vehicle).
Do you think commercial space flight will take off before amphibious planes do?
This post was originally published on Smartplanet.com