Virgin Launches Glass-Bottomed Plane 91
Em Adespoton writes "Virgin has recently created the technology required to produce the world's first glass-bottomed plane. This technological innovation coincides with the start of Virgin Atlantic Airways' first ever domestic service to Scotland. They hope to trial the glass bottom technology with other Virgin airlines in time and have asked other Virgin companies to support this innovative trial and launch their new domestic Scottish route."
Comment prediction (Score:4, Insightful)
"OMG, /. is so useless today (like it is every April 1), what am I doing here?!"
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Why ask me? Ask yourself.
Every single day, please...
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Ha ha, April 1 is really Slashdot appreciation day. There's no real news for nerds here the entire day, so maybe you end up going to http://arstechnica.com/ [arstechnica.com] or http://theregister.co.uk/ [theregister.co.uk] or even http://fark.com/ [fark.com] . But inevitably you find that professional reporting is to dry and constrained or too british and sarcastic or the comments are just too much snark, and tomorrow you will inevitably return here, to your usual comfort zone for nerd-upism and troll abuse.
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Seriously. I hate April Fools day because a large portion of the internet seems to become a barf bag filled with lame, obvious, and painfully stupid "fooled you!" articles that don't fool anybody. And especially don't fool anybody when EVERY post is lame nonsense. Google does this properly, everybody else should quit trying and let us read actual news.
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Making people angry IS the joke. For some. (Score:1)
Making people angry IS the joke.
This has been going on since the start, and people keep falling for it. Essentially the entire purpose of Slashdot is to set people up for April Fools, then see how many angry/butthurt/crazy people can't help but spew "OMG, I'm so ANGRYYEEEEEE!!!!(!@#$*^@($*&)*&" on that day. Taco said at much in the first few years.
A significant number of people are sociopathic cowards, passively aggressively feeding of the anger/drama they can create and observe.
And people keep fall
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I'm here for the ponies!
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I'm here for the ponies!
You're a few years too late.
like when the teacher is not in class... (Score:5, Interesting)
Being on Slashdot on April 1st is like being in class when the teacher doesn't show up. Lots of random undirected conversations spring up, and everyone says that they are justified to leave since there's no teacher, but people kind of mill about for awhile nonetheless.
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Yeah, but nobody whines like a newborn puppy when the teacher doesn't show up.
You must have attended a school with far fewer nerds than mine. Or perhaps just a much less expensive one.
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Look on the bright side.
You can get more work done today.
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Ah, but you didn't predict "it's already 2 April here in Australia!"
WANT (Score:4, Funny)
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Clue: Nope.
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How is that different to every other day?
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On any other day, they can't pretend that you're in on the joke.
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It's a joke, put your telescope away you pervert...
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Kid, it's called a B-17. All you've got to do is be ready to shoot back at Messerschmitts if you want to fly in one.
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Yea, it really would be cool. I'd pay extra for a seat.
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This particular implementation isn't real - where would they put the luggage?
But with planes being built with more composite materials these days, I wonder if any of them can be made transparent, or at least translucent? Full side-windows and a skylight, maybe?
Then again, there's insulation to consider. It is very cold at 40,000ft (near space).
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You put the luggage where no one likes to sit - the middle seat, and the middle aisle. Those passengers could sit below or above the luggage compartment, which sits i
Re:WANT (Score:4, Informative)
Most airliners fly higher - 50-60,000 feet isn't unusual.
Not unusual for Concorde, which would float up during transatlantic cruise starting around 45,000 feet up to its service ceiling of 60,000 feet. But most other civilian airliners top out in the low 40,000s; I think a few bizjets may get a bit higher:
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And a way to stop the wings snapping off. there's nothing to connect the two together. Either the glass would need to be a major structural part of the plane, in which case it would be pretty heavy because glass isn't light, or the plane would rip its belly open.
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Speaking as someone with a phobia of flying, your reaction could not be more different from mine... First April Fools' prank that has actually made me sigh with relief upon looking at the calendar :-P
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Lame (Score:2)
One article was funny. Doing this to all of them, all day, is lame. Give us a break.
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Not least because noon passed in every timezone some hours ago.
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Tha hell has noon got to do with anything?
And stop bitching already people! Get a fucking sense of humor already.
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Traditionally, you only have until noon to play an April fool prank. After that, the prankster is the fool.
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Well then. TIL
may I suggest science daily (Score:5, Insightful)
may I suggest
http://www.sciencedaily.com/ [sciencedaily.com]
during today's slashdot news shutdown
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Thank you....
I think this site will be replacing /. as my main nerd new site. The site's quality has declined precipitously lately, and this horrid April fools "prank" has pushed me over the edge.
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Thank you....
I think this site will be replacing /. as my main nerd new site. The site's quality has declined precipitously lately, and this horrid April fools "prank" has pushed me over the edge.
This was badly thought out, degrading your content is f'kn stupid. There is a reason google doesn't mess with their search functionality.
Watch unique hits take a hit.
Virgin Creates Planes? (Score:2)
Re:I would actually like to try that (Score:4, Interesting)
A few years ago, I was flying back to the U.S. from Germany (via Paris). We flew over the UK, then Scotland, then the flight attendants dutifully asked us to pull down the shades so that people could watch the in flight movie. I, like the rest of the sheeple, pulled down my shade. A while latter, I broke the rules and lifted my shade only to see that we were just starting to come in over the ice flows of Greenland. Seeing the ice as it traced its way from the glacier fields into the water where it broke into small icebergs was an incredible experience. Not long later, the scene was entirely white as far as you can see like when you are flying just over the clouds -- only there were no clouds and it was entirely snow and ice. I managed to go to the back of the plane and watch it all through the back window for the next hour or so. For both myself and the flight attendant, it was one of the most awe inspiring experiences of our lives. They said that it always made them sad when they watched people missing out on this for a movie whenever she flew over Greenland.
A few hours later, we flew in over Labrador and it was just hundreds of miles of networks of rivers flowing over ice and gravel fields. I couldn't help but wonder if the plane went down how long it would take to walk out. There was an occasional road but no settlements, mines, or clear places where a dirt road would go out there. It too was one of my greatest life experiences. Way way better than watching Beverly Hills Cop 26 on the overhead.
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I've seen the view over Greenland once, it is indeed incredible. It only a year ago, so everyone had their own screen in the seat in front and the light from windows didn't really matter. Annoyingly, it was the first flight I've taken in the last five or so years when I've put my camera in my checked luggage.
The other 9 or so times it's been cloudy. I think you're lucky to see the mountains and glaciers.
South East England in the winter just after dusk is also amazing, on a clear day. There's so many tra
Hmm... (Score:1)
That'd actually be kinda interesting. Maybe do it "transparent via cameras and screens" style. Takeoffs and landings would be far more interesting.
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You know, that would actually be pretty cool. Make the walls and ceilings transparent, too, while you were at it. People would totally buy that.
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They could use some of the really cool transparent aluminum stuff they are coming out with.
--
Star Trek was a documentary.
Argh (Score:2)
I keep coming back every few hours, hoping for the insanity to stop. And it hasn't. Time to go read Reddit.
The real joke... (Score:2)
The only thing you can see when flying over Scotland is the top of the rainclouds.
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... for those of you who have never been to Scotland, is that you might enjoy its landscape when flying over it.
The only thing you can see when flying over Scotland is the top of the rainclouds.
I can only comment on the west coast, as that's the only part I've ever flown over, but I think the cloud tends to form at least a little inland.
I had nice views: http://i.imgur.com/cj5qwuT.jpg [imgur.com] (not very well photographed). It's very nice, lots of lochs, rivers and mountains.
...Slashdot? (Score:2)
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It doesn't matter that their articles are completely illegible because none of them are real. This is the one day a year where Slashdot readers will be the very last to know about any real "news for nerds, stuff that matters". Slashdot is the only major geek news site that goes so overboard with it.
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Note to self: (Score:4, Insightful)
Slashdot is useless on April 1, Any Given Year.
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Actually, there was one year where the joke was that there was no joke, so on that April 1st, Slashdot was no more useless than normal.
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Wonder Woman (Score:2)
Good luck getting it past her patent attorneys!
Delta has the Glass Bottom Jet already (Score:1)
So we can see Luggage? (Score:2)
The bottom of every airliner is luggage, mail, and fuel tanks. So what are you looking down onto?
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Editors Munged my submission... (Score:1)
Come on... I submitted this ROT-13'd, and the editors went and converted it :P It was supposed to come out on the main page in plaintext, and only be ROT-13'd in the "decoded" version. Way to spoil a good joke, editors.
At least they had to ROT-13 it before reading and releasing :D
Stupid fucking slashdot janitors (Score:2)
The ROT13 thing was funny once. It is now just irritating.
Please stop being such stupid unfunny fuckwits. Allowed HTML
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Agreed.
Kindergarten.
So, what's this mean for all the real Scotsmen? (Score:2)
Alternatives for April 1st (Score:3)
XKCD [xkcd.com] is running a fascinating comic today which is (among other things) encouraging people to prank Wikipedia as well as hosting a crypto-hash contest [xkcd.com].
Fresh, interesting, and a bit insightful. Not at all transparent, childish, silly, or obvious.
One smart creative person outdoing a gaggle of Slashdot editors.
Better use (Score:2)
Today is the lamest day experienced on /. ever (Score:2)
Totally useless.
Anyone here thinks registered users should have a say
in how much non-humor can be tolerated?