From statista
"It is expected that 2020 will set a new record in terms of the number of scheduled passengers with over 4.72 billion, around 137 percent higher than in 2004."

Wanna bet?

I can't find how many different passengers fly each year.
In other words, how many repeats are there.
I'm guessing that way fewer than 1 billion, maybe even only 100 million make up all the individuals.

In other words again:
Is the total one guy flying 4.3 billion times or 4.3 billion people flying once?
The answer obviously is somewhere where in between. But where?

Two factoids I found (citations on request.)
"Maybe six percent of the world’s population flew in a single year."
“Less than 20 percent of the world's population has ever taken a single flight."

So of those 4 billion or so flights last year were taken by 420 million individuals.
And a little over one billion have ever flown

Intuitively, those seem too high. Corrections welcome.

I saw an unsubstantiated piece last night claiming less than 5% of the world population had never flown. I found that to be preposterous.

Never or ever?
I saw that mixed up in many of the sites I found.

I think it might be ever. I.E. 350 million people have done all the flying.

This confusion is why I asked the question in the first place.:)

No, it was definitely Never, and I just couldn't believe that. :headshake

Something to ponder...

Some more here...

LINK

Holy shit!
That is a whole multi-billion (trillion?) world I never heard of.
With climate change, pandemics and over-population, what a short-sighted way to waste resources.
Swords into plowshares? Nope, deadly toys.

War hero, no little war, the big one, WW II...

Somewhere up thread I mentioned the ability of the landing gear on the C5 Galaxy and the B-52 to align itself with the runway centre line as the aircraft 'crabs' down the approach for a cross wind landing.

It's a useful capability during a cross wind takeoff as well.



For those possessed of an enquiring mind, try carrying a large sheet of plywood in a high wind. ;)

I didn't know they could do that. Makes sense to have the wings into the wind for max lift.

I had a look at the Haynes Manual for the B-52 on Amazon.

It's extremely expensive, so I won't be shelling out, but I was interested to see a description of the landing gear offset mechanism in one of the images of the book.

Click here, go to image number six and embiggen.

I was surprised to see that it is a manually selected system. I expected it to be somehow connected to the Instrument Landing System (ILS) extended centre line beam, the localiser.

Admittedly, that might not be at the top of the list of available facilities when the aircraft is operated in a wartime environment, so perhaps it shouldn't come as too much of a surprise after all.

With 5 of the 6 crew up front, someone ought to be able to do the manual thing.
Amazing planes, too bad what they do.

From Wikipedia:
"Because of the B-52's mission parameters, only modest maneuvers would be required with no need for spin recovery.[96] The aircraft has a relatively small, narrow chord rudder, giving it limited yaw control authority. Originally an all-moving vertical stabilizer was to be used, but was abandoned because of doubts about hydraulic actuator reliability.[96] Because the aircraft has eight engines, asymmetrical thrust due to the loss of an engine in flight would be minimal and correctable with the narrow rudder. To assist with crosswind takeoffs and landings the main landing gear can be pivoted 20 degrees to either side from neutral.[97] This yaw adjustable crosswind landing gear would be preset by the crew according to wind observations made on the ground."

so they line up the wheels with the windsock and then land, eh?