The NJK will build its own
aircrafts
and operate a national
airline
- Dove Air. Domestic
airports
will be located on the four corners of the HC ports. Currently, it is being estimated that there will be
return trips per person per year. With a total population of
and taking into consideration planned stopover stays, (which will require additional departures) this comes out to about
total passenger departures.
As air traffic is increasingly said to be congested mainly by major airports reaching their service capacities, the NJK Airlines, due to its more unified and "chartered-style" air travel
(see here for more details),
will (1) make use of secondary airports, and that during non-peak times. (2) make use of almost entirely of large-body/capacity aircrafts having passenger capacities in the range of the current industry peak of 840
(Airbus 380 Navigator
(cf.)
[555|840 pass.]) and most likely, its potential stretch version:
A380-900
[656|990 pass.]1; although larger capacity aircrafts
(e.g., a
1,537 passenger aircraft)
which are said to be feasible are more than likely to be pursued.
WIGE Flight
Since most of an NJK Aircraft's flight will take place over water, an extremely fuel efficient method of flight called
Wing in Ground Effect (WIGE)
would preferably be used. This flight method involves an aircraft flying close to the ground and thus basically riding the cushion of compressed air that comes to exist between its wings and the ground. As WIGE greatly increases an aircrafts lift, much more "payload" can be carried by the plane (e.g. 1.4 million kg | 2.8 million lbs) and that at speeds in the 480 km/h (~300 mph) (cf. this Boeing (Pelican) project). WIGE aircrafts can also designed to fly at high altitudes (e.g. 6,096+ m | 20,000+ ft
cf. ibid.)
to be able to also reach inland airfields. (Comparative calculations between the A380-900 and the "Pelican" show that the Pelican is about
times
more efficient than the A380-900 in terms of passenger-miles per hour [= Total Passengers X range X full range time]).
System Efficiency
As a comparison, Year 2003 statistics (source:
Air Transport Association)
for the current highest capacity air travel country, the United States, show that on average passenger flights fly at about 73% capacity and have about 10.840 million departures for 655.9 million passengers. Thereby they average only 60 passengers per departure. The NJK air travel on the other hand will fly at a normative 100% of a 990 passenger capacity, thus needing relatively only
thousand departures.
So while the NJK air network will have about
more air passenger than the US network, it will have more importantly
less departures.
Supersonic Transport
In order to help keep the
globally located HC’s relatively within quick reach in case of emergencies, each HC will have a
-passenger
supersonic transport aircraft
(cruise speed: 2,173 km/h (1,350 mph)). These special aircrafts will be reserved for urgent necessities for either administrative or personal reasons.
1
Jane's All The World's Aircraft 2003-2004, p. 212.
(jawa.janes.com)
May 28, 2008