Been a Minute.

I'd like to get back into this habit. Here I go!

Okay, so I'd been all ready to talk about the new FAA regulations regarding the 747-800 and the 787. Briefly, they (the FAA) wanted to mandate a 10 mile follow behind distance during landing, as well as increased follow behind distances during takeoff and at certain other flight times. I had wondered at the time whether there was a solution to the problem of the massive wake turbulence created by these monsters.

My thinking was influenced by the NOAA and their cloud seeding efforts. Would it be possible to try a similar thing with wingtip vorticies? Would it be desirable? I'm thinking here of a tool that would add energy to the wake, causing it to condense and "rain out" of the path of the airplane. What might the after effects be? And so on.

Of course, now the FAA claim that the guide was a plain old mistake, and that the follow behind distances would most likely not be so severe as had been thought. Apparently, the disruption that these new regulations would have caused would have been a very big problem for airlines and airports. The net result is that my idea's gone nowhere.

I still wonder if it's possible to essentially precipitate out wake turbulence. Thoughts?

Cheers,

-- Zach