Monorail made from wingless airplanes

you might find these are too large for the job. Look at these hulls. They seat7 across with narrow aisles.

They are also too strong for the task = wasteful.

Better sole high speed monorail tech aspects and they build cabins for the task. They may be like current light rail cars, but made of aluminum and fiberglass. Well streamlined.

Too strong for the task = wastefull? What have you been smoking? These are made from recycled aircraft parts. It is far more wastefull to just trash them. Too large for existing rail systems but as I read the article they are not proposed for use on existing rail lines. This is an example of a corporation doing an engineering study to find uses for a product which has reached end of life, an exercise. They wouldn't ever really build a system which competes with their primary product... airplanes.

well, I doubt they will fly at 40,000 feet and 600 MPH, which is what they are made for.

As for using scrap parts, again I do not think this will be a good idea.

Well said. Exactly right.

A better use for the fuselages would be in areas like southwestern Indiana, where I live. They would provide luxurious, sanitary housing for us while offering an entirely new architechtural elan. Gone are the boxy trailers of the past; now we'd represent the Jet Set in the most direct sense possible.

Tell me where I can get one?

andyhorning wrote: "A better use for the fuselages would be in areas like southwestern Indiana, where I live. They would provide luxurious, sanitary housing for us while offering an entirely new architechtural elan. Gone are the boxy trailers of the past; now we'd represent the Jet Set in the most direct sense possible.

Tell me where I can get one?"

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Your post is definately a keeper. Not only that, but you've just raised the bar for what universally qualifies as Tornado Bait.

-e

Thanks!

The only problem I see with my plan is that, once you fix up your place with yard furniture, old appliances and car parts, the homestead will look like something the FAA needs to investigate. And we don't like them feds sniffin' around our compounds.

Yep! And as certain folks in Waco, TX used to say: We Ain't Comin' Out!

-e

Presumably the fuselages could be converted to light rail vehicles as well?

Most existing LRT(light rail transit) will not allow cars of that size. New ones could, but the number of cars needed for LRT is far larger than the avaiable number of plane shells. Although it could be done if the shells are avaiable at scrap value, I think it is not really viable.

The U.S. Department of Transportation has (antiquated) standards on passenger rail cars, and would never allow plane fuselages to be used as rail cars. The standards are such that not even any foreign passenger cars meet them without substantial modifications to increase their "strength" if they can even meet them at all. Meanwhile, all the other countries seem to do fine with their (supposedly substandard) passenger cars.

However, I can't be certain this applies to monorail or light rail, but I believe it does at least to the extent of preventing aircraft fuselages with their monocoque construction from being used.

Since we no longer make passenger rail cars, whenever a railroad has to buy some, they must be essentially custom built by a foreign company.

I agree with aurizon. The materials used to build these aircraft are far too valuable to be used as a rail car. It would be best suited to recycle and reuse the materials for the new Boeing 777, upcoming 787, and the new 797 thats being designed. The USAF has been doing this process at the Boneyard in Arizona. AMARC (Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Center)