European Airline to Weigh Passengers Before Flight
The Finnish national carrier, Finnair, plans to conduct passenger weighing before boarding the aircraft. This measure will be carried out only for those who voluntarily agree to it, and the information obtained will be used for internal calculations regarding the maximum payload of the aircraft, reports Yle.
Weighing will take place at Helsinki-Vantaa Airport near several boarding gates during February, April, and May. This will allow determining the average weight of passengers boarding the flight. According to Finnair representatives, each aircraft has a maximum payload capacity that must be adhered to. The company has sufficient information about the factors influencing this weight, except for the total weight of passengers and baggage they carry - for this, an approximate estimate is used, which is not always accurate.
"We will record the total weight of the passenger and baggage and some other information, but we will not fix the name and seat number. Only airport staff will see the figure on the scales, so you can participate in voluntary weighing without fear of curious glances," said Finnair representative Satu Munnukka. The company has already conducted similar procedures in 2017-2018, and the data obtained then were also used for internal calculations. According to European legislation, such calculations need to be updated every five years.
Recall, The Gaze reported that NASA and Lockheed Martin officially presented the experimental supersonic aircraft X-59. The key feature of this aircraft is the absence of a sonic boom during supersonic flight. The companies plan to use this experimental aircraft to determine the direction of development of a new generation of commercial supersonic aircraft.
According to plans, the speed of the X-59 will exceed the speed of sound by 1.4 times, reaching 1488 km/h. The design, shape, and technologies of the aircraft will allow it to achieve such a speed while generating less noticeable sonic waves. In particular, the thin and tapered nose, which constitutes almost a third of the length of the aircraft, will reduce the loudness of shock waves typically created by supersonic aircraft when exceeding the speed of sound.