Boeing 787 Dreamliner: dreams of turbulence damping

October 15, 2007

I’m in a Southwest Airlines 737-300 flying to Baltimore from Manchester, N.H. Seating in exit row 12E, I’m in rough air or what I would classify as moderate turbulence (or chop in pilot parlance). It’s the kind where’s it’s hard to place my mouse pointer on the desired command. Do-able, but shaky (I have not been drinking either – the noon cocktail hour is still two hours away).

I’m at 34,000 feet, well above the storm lies below over New York and Boston (game one of the ALCS series is tonight between the Red Sox and Cleveland at Boston’s Fenway Park)

I am wondering about how the 787 would be damping the effects of this turbulence. We did a story on sensors capable of damping turbulence in our original coverage in May which has been much expanded since then. Of course, 787s are unlikely to be flying such short routes and we’ll have to wait a little longer given the six month delay in the first deliveries announced last week.

Posted by John Dodge on October 15, 2007 | Comments (0)

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