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?
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
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?
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.
Tow-plane pilot for gliders is a dangerous profession. A simple mistake by the glider pilot can kill the tow plane pilot, with not enough time to react. I saw this happen in person once (https://data.ntsb.gov/carol-repgen/api/Aviation/ReportMain/G...). Gliders and towing them is neither easy nor safe.
Instead, can we implement autonomous formation flying? Each aircraft can still have its own engines and control, but can make a V shape allowing the following planes to run more efficiently.
This concept raises more questions than the site answers:
* what's the point of landing in tow? The safety aspects and the failure modes are enormous
* it's unclear where the 65% fuel saving comes from. Riding the wingtip vortex on the inside produces downward momentum. In order to generate positive lift from the wingtip vortex, the follower has to be outside of it (e.g., gaggles of geese in wedge formation)
* taking advantage of wake flows, while possible (although 65% is highly improbable), would always be less efficient than optimizing a single airframe so that it minimizes the wake generation in the first place
* the site is missing footage of real flights. The 3 clips 10-seconds long are not showing what they claim to be showing. Also, does the "see flight tests" link work for anybody?
This product is for towing behind another aircraft, but what about winch towing?
A winched glider implements flight with renewable electricity and it does so efficiently because the power and motor never leave the ground!
A glider can climb up to 5000 feet and travel 50x that before making a landing. Wouldn’t it be glorious to see cargo being autonomously slung from site to site across the world, powered entirely by green electricity?
The physical linkage aspect of this just seems so dangerous. As other commenters have pointed out glider tow accidents are a real thing. Luckily gliders are light and typically operating at low speed. Adding a 10,000 lb aircraft to this situation seems wild.
Airbus concepts like fello'fly[1] and GEESE seem significantly safer. I could see using something like a lead aircraft with several drones following in formation and breaking off for takeoff and landing operations. Reliable Robotics is already working on autonomous small cargo aircraft for these types of regional cargo operations.
"When towing Aerocarts, planes instantly double or triple their payload capacity. This is because their capacity is limited by the takeoff / landing weight – not what they can safely pull through the air."
But later, on "How it works" section it is apparent that the main plane still has to tow the cart behind it when taking off. What's the trick that makes this work? Extra set of wings?
There's no way to make these safe - it's almost comical and this could be an April 1st joke.
Case 1) how are you handling potential rapid TCAS climbs/decent? You're making the targets a lot larger and less responsive. If TCAS commands a decent and slow down, you will be overtaken by the tow.
Case 2) landings thay require rapid braking, such as short runways for emergencies or engine fires (rapid brakes used so emergency vehicles don't have to chase 2km to get to you)
Case 3) aborted take offs. Brakes will need to be more performant and reactive than the ones we have on the main aircraft
Case 4) taxiing across active runways now has reduced margins.
Case 5) go-around performance is diminished. Already sometimes tight margins on that, what happens if you need to do a go around but the landing gear on the glider collapsed and is now a ground anchor?
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[ 1.8 ms ] story [ 59.2 ms ] threadIt mentions it has a form of automated control in the tow with "Aerolane's patented Pilot Positioning Assist systems"
“Oh sh1t!” at 35K feet.
How are they planning to handle aborted takeoffs of towing plane, for example?
How does it integrate with ATC? During towing? During landing of glider?
This video claims that trailer is landing separately and autonomously. Obscure of details. https://www.aerolane.com/news/florida-2025-q1-tests
This means the consist is capable of taking off on the same runways and with similar climb profiles as the primary tow plane is alone."
This is just denying basic physics. Ask any glider pilot how the climb out on aerotow varies based on the weight of the glider being towed.
* what's the point of landing in tow? The safety aspects and the failure modes are enormous
* it's unclear where the 65% fuel saving comes from. Riding the wingtip vortex on the inside produces downward momentum. In order to generate positive lift from the wingtip vortex, the follower has to be outside of it (e.g., gaggles of geese in wedge formation)
* taking advantage of wake flows, while possible (although 65% is highly improbable), would always be less efficient than optimizing a single airframe so that it minimizes the wake generation in the first place
* the site is missing footage of real flights. The 3 clips 10-seconds long are not showing what they claim to be showing. Also, does the "see flight tests" link work for anybody?
A winched glider implements flight with renewable electricity and it does so efficiently because the power and motor never leave the ground!
A glider can climb up to 5000 feet and travel 50x that before making a landing. Wouldn’t it be glorious to see cargo being autonomously slung from site to site across the world, powered entirely by green electricity?
(Now that I mention it, why don’t carriers combine both catapult and ski jump?)
Airbus concepts like fello'fly[1] and GEESE seem significantly safer. I could see using something like a lead aircraft with several drones following in formation and breaking off for takeoff and landing operations. Reliable Robotics is already working on autonomous small cargo aircraft for these types of regional cargo operations.
[1] https://www.airbus.com/en/innovation/future-aircraft-operati...
"When towing Aerocarts, planes instantly double or triple their payload capacity. This is because their capacity is limited by the takeoff / landing weight – not what they can safely pull through the air."
But later, on "How it works" section it is apparent that the main plane still has to tow the cart behind it when taking off. What's the trick that makes this work? Extra set of wings?
Case 1) how are you handling potential rapid TCAS climbs/decent? You're making the targets a lot larger and less responsive. If TCAS commands a decent and slow down, you will be overtaken by the tow.
Case 2) landings thay require rapid braking, such as short runways for emergencies or engine fires (rapid brakes used so emergency vehicles don't have to chase 2km to get to you)
Case 3) aborted take offs. Brakes will need to be more performant and reactive than the ones we have on the main aircraft
Case 4) taxiing across active runways now has reduced margins.
Case 5) go-around performance is diminished. Already sometimes tight margins on that, what happens if you need to do a go around but the landing gear on the glider collapsed and is now a ground anchor?